Category: Writer's Prize/Award
Founder/Editor: Darlene Chandler Bassett
E-mail Address: tracey@aroomofherownfoundation.org
Description:
The biennial $50,000 Gift of Freedom award was created according to Virginia Woolf’s tenet that a woman must have a room of her own if she is to write.” That’s why multiple, smaller awards are not given: “Give her just a little bit, and she’s right back where she was a year from now,” says Darlene Chandler Bassett. AROHO selects award recipients who not only demonstrate their talent, but also their motivation. These women must have solid creative goals and a specific project to accomplish during the two-year term of the grant. They should be able to show a track record of commitment to their art in addition to substantial efforts to be self-sufficient. In determining a recipient, we also consider the potential impact of the artist’s or writer’s proposed work on the broader community. We support women with a social, as well as an artistic vision. Grant winners agree to a “moral” contract requiring them to commit to a specific goal resulting in a finished work. They receive mentorship and support throughout the grant period, and as a result give back to A Room of Her Own Foundation by going on to mentor successive Gift of Freedom recipients.
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