The War On Words: A New Kind of Funding for Writers and Artists

Today, every Federal Grant for Writers requires at least one published novel, and often five or more published works, sponsored by a well-known, very successful company. This requirement implies that a writer must be accepted by the mainstream, stylistic regime. And that, in order for a writer to gain any success, (s)he must already be successful.

I propose that Writers’ Grants now be offered to NEW writers as well — specifically, writers who have a body of work that demonstrates their capability with the craft, yet having no previous book release, nor enjoying the support of a major publishing company: distribution, promotion, etc. There’ll be no requirement for any, let alone many, published works, or writing that has a, necessarily, top-tier or “reputable” publishing contract. These NEW writers will be considered by economic need, originality, ability, innovative potential and artistic merit. The prevailing tendency leaning toward increased artistic investment, these grant funds should be available to accomplished, yet unpublished, writers. Even the ones that the government readers dislike. To be thorough, the state’s readers will be plucky fucking Lit. B.A.’s, secretly desperate for a hug and a place to stay.

This idea recognizes that NEW, breakout writers play host to a myriad of lost values, pushing the needle of cultural evolution being one. They’re one of the forgotten sectors, of change-makers — representatives of social capital, offering long-term social and economic reward. And now, they’re prevented from applying for grant funds. Thus, the portal to authorship is dominated by an ubiquitous image of a privately wealthy — consistently, and always financially secure. As good writers give up on their passion and stock the grocery store shelves, this idea is written for those not-so-mainstream voices who’re stolen from sight.

Writing, I should say, being the known perspective from which I speak, shouldn’t be special as an art form. If musicians and artists want (or need) to be included in the attendant bill, there will be recourse to their consideration, and application.

The first action taken will be in assessing the merits of a drafted bill, with a comprehensive research study on the economic impact — of both changing and not changing the current system — and highlighting the effects on innovation, the resulting cultural progress, national maturity, social intelligence, long-term vs. short-term Costs & Benefits as well as any other marker recognized by a diverse panel of Sociologists, Research & Clinical Psychologists, Economists, Social Psychologists, and other field experts, as one of appropriate relevance and/or significance.

Some background: Writers’ Grants today value somewhere between $500 and $5,000, with residencies offering even more. Yet they’re only offered to writers with multiple, big-name publishing credits. Writers with this distinction already have their work distributed across the country, possibly internationally. They have books in view of the public eye. It might be that their books could use a substantial, promotional campaign, which the average $1,000 grant couldn’t cover. Or, perhaps the agents at this major publishing company wouldn’t expend the marketing dollars, because the book is a flop. This author has his book published. And it’s not selling. It might not have a significant thought written in black. He might be waiting for his book to get discovered. However, the greater probability is, he hacked the whole thing right up. These mainstream, small-run books are part of a larger issue: the ignorance of any new framework, devised by ruffians and outcasts whose only sanity may lie on the page. Thus, we satisfy the government appetite, and its preference of empty, soulless mediocrity, lengthy descriptions about leaf-color, and characters who can barely talk.

To the point, $1,000 is a small sum; definitely one I shouldn’t be clawing and scraping at other writers in order to get. We writers all peer out from under the Earth, within buried dungeons, in search of one last, living reader. And we’re all struggling not to lose our dungeon — that doubted certainty. Meanwhile, all of us are assured of the day when we will dry out under that cruel star, and dwell in the public solitude of the city’s streets, our pen gripped tightly in hand.

Luckily, merit lies in the innovation of the near-dead, and it ought to be harnessed. A fantastic need for original, crazy storytelling could rock the public crib. And there’s no more crazy language than that sung closest to society’s furthest edge. Published writers, unpublished writers with a skill and a need, those who need more than just rent, those who need only a chance and the deposit on a new life,

The old life, of course, chases more than those of us that write. The old darkness is brutally fought, sabotaged, and harnessed, by all those living at its gates. Therefore, all forms of independent, productive art and craftsmanship should be considered for their inclusion in another, similarly-crafted bill — one that’s also researched and approved for even the slightest potential for positive growth. For it would certainly have a more positive impact than bombs, or any other brutality used to perpetually ‘put out fires’ — play a never-ending game of whack-a-mole — forever refuting anything in existence by the name of “causes”: certainly the concept but arguably the word, itself. Thus, we are reminded of how important words are.