The Elegant Variation: JAFFE GRANT FOR WOMEN WRITERS

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September 30, 2004

JAFFE GRANT FOR WOMEN WRITERS

Rona Jaffe is about to award six $10,000 grants to women at the beginning of their writing careers.

The Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Awards, Jaffe says, are intended to help not-yet-established writers hire baby-sitters, travel, take a break from jobs or do whatever they need to write.

So once again, the controlling gyno-hierarchy squeezes out the poor opressed male and -- (Jeez, people, we are SO kidding. We get a buck from each of you who actually bought in and felt that rising stab of indignation. But, seriously, did you know "gullible" isn't in the dictionary?)

Posted at 12:05 AM | Permalink

Comments

I bet it is in the dictionary, but you can't make me look.

Posted by: John Shannon | September 30, 2004 at 11:20 AM

Dear Ms. Jaffe
I'm interested in the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award. I'm presently a Registered Nurse who started writing poetry in 2004, after my husband was diagnosed with cancer and a very cloae relative died. I got my inspiration spiritually from those tragedies. I would like the opportunity to see if the 13 poems I've written is publishing material. Thankyou for this opportunity to inquire.

Sincerely,

Teresa Graham

Posted by: Teresa Graham | May 17, 2005 at 07:01 AM

Sincerely,

Teresa Graham

Posted by: Teresa Graham | May 17, 2005 at 07:02 AM

Hi Ms. Jaffe,

HELPPPPPPPP PLEASEEEEEEEEEE! I have written a book entitled At Aunt Hattie's House. It's a story about life in foster care. I need help to promote the book and to get it out to the public. Please give me information about how to apply for the Jaffe grant.
Thank you for your time and attention.

Narak

Posted by: Narak | May 30, 2005 at 09:52 AM

Does anyone know how to apply for the Rona Jaffe award?

I read somewhere that there's no application process - but there has to be some "asking" process - SOME MEANS by which one makes their request known - no matter how informal it may be!

I have been working on a novel for some years now called TOROS ON THE HORIZON - its about a broke-on-her-ass forty year old single mom writer who ends up living in Europe with her young son because that's where she has a free place to live - and not because of some guy either -

I've gotta finish the novel - am soooooooo close to doing that - it's like being on the verge of an orgasm but your concentration is constantly interrupted before you're able to reach it!

Help would be appreciated - no pun intended! I just hope it doesn't take me the same amount of years to finish the other two of the trilogy - THE TOMBS OF SUMMER and TOWARDS NIRVANA - I'll be to old to type by then and even to old to have decent a wank!

Posted by: Helena | June 12, 2005 at 07:13 PM

Good Afternoon,

I'm so interested in the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award!

My book of poetry called, "Voices Inside My Head" is finally completed with three additional projects in the works! I have been shopping around, hoping to be financed through grants for quite some time.

Until then, I'll keep writing!

Posted by: Testimone' | June 21, 2005 at 09:12 AM

Dear Ms. Jaffe,

I, too, am interested in the writer's award. I am currently enrolled with LongRidge Writer's Group and learning alot about my writing style. I have notes for 10 manuscripts started but am having to work full time to keep up with the bills and have very limited time to work on my writing and the research needed for it. These funds would go a long way in clearing up some financial obligations and allow me to work more diligently on my dream of being published.

Thank you.
Alice Harris

Posted by: Alice | July 14, 2005 at 06:14 AM

JAFFE GRANT FOR WOMEN WRITERS

Dear Ms. Rona Jaffe,

For the past five years I have been balancing my time between 6 children, a husband, and finally the completion of my first novel Addy Crumpinstump and The Two Kingdoms Quest “Trickery, Truth, and Gifts” a fantasy novel for young adults. I am a member of the East Texas Writers Association. I have remained at home since adopting three of the six related children unable to afford the privilege of working with a professional editor. It is my understanding if one desires to become published prior to submission to a reputable publishing house/agent one must first have a professional edit of their work. This is where the door for me and my pursuit to fulfill my dream of becoming what I know I was born to be, a successful author, closes. We are a middle class family who’s every dollar has to be budgeted. If I had been born into a family of wealth allowing me the riches to afford an editor, I assure you my novel would now be in book stores nation wide. I desperately need this grant to achieve my goals and pursue my dreams, but most importantly I want to prove to my own children through hard work and dedication they to can achieve anything.

Thank You
Sincerely
R.L.Thomas

Posted by: Rhonda Thomas | August 09, 2005 at 09:20 AM

I'm looking or a grant to help me write my books, since I was a young girl in the islands, I work up with a paper and pencil,
when life got hard, I wrote, when I was happy I wrote, I wake up thinking about writing and go to sleep thinking about my writing. I grab a napkin, piece of brown paper bag, and jot quick notes and bring them home, I wrote my sons stories and told them on the way to school, when we lived in minnesota, 5 blocks very cold. It help them forget how cold it was, and begged me to finish when I pick them up. I feel I am meant to be a writer, I just need a little finacial help and I am 100 percent sure my book will make it to the top sellers.
thank you for reading this
AJCobb

Posted by: AJCobb | August 13, 2006 at 03:53 PM

Sorry about my earlier posting,
I speak broken english and it comes out in my writing, but never fear I have a spell check, unfortunatly I hit post instead of preview
sorry
ajcobb

Posted by: AJCobb | August 13, 2006 at 03:55 PM

looking for a little help so I can finish reasearch and write historically correct novel about a bittersweet romance that stated durring ww11 to present,I been a closet novelist since childhood and in my old age I have finally gotten up the nerve to actually let out siders see what I have been so reclusive about,.I have been recently unemployed so I if not now when should I tell this story,which will be written as fiction but actually has true facts,readers will have to guess which ones,please excuse my typing I do not have full use of my L hand ,it does it,s own thing sometimes,. Thank You.

Posted by: pat mcdonald | August 28, 2006 at 04:46 PM

How can I apply for a grant to write a book. I have written and selfpublished one,it is a novel about an ilegal immigrant who grows up in The U.S. and than returns to the third world, my goal was to aware people of the dangers of immigrating ilegally and the sufferings of ilegal immigrants. But I live in an emerging country(Honduras)where I have tried hard to have success although we do not have a reading culture. I have worked as a teacher for twenty years, this leaves me no time for writting and the salary is too low, but in those years I have faced many student's realities of the educational system in Latin America. I have written some testimonies of the sufferings and successes of my students in order to change the mind of teachers and promote new government educational policies in Latin America. Please let me know how to apply for a grant so I can write free of every day stress and responsabilities.

Posted by: Denia Nelson | November 11, 2006 at 01:41 PM

I am a young female writer who is currently finishing a novel. I could use some financial help to complete this project. I was recently laid off and a grant could be just the thing to support me and my writing. Could you please forward information on how to apply? Thank you!

Posted by: Jennifer Paloulian | January 16, 2007 at 12:57 PM

I just found this while searching for grants for writer's. Please forward any information you have on how to apply for this grant. Thank you

Posted by: Tracy D Wood | January 29, 2007 at 12:22 PM

Hi Ms.Rona Jaffe,
I would like to find out what the criterias are in getting Jaffe grant for women. I have completed a novel called" From a Child's Mind to an Adult's Heart." It's about my life as a child and the impact that the adults'in my community had on my life. This novel was written for everyone. It will make you laugh and cry. It teaches us to take care in what we say around little ears because a child can grow up to bless you or curse you. God gave me the ability to keep the events of my life as a child embedded in my mind for such a time as this. This novel will take the baby boomers down memory lane of love and respect; one for another, while teaching the younger generation how to love and respect each other.THIS IS A MUST READ NOVEL. I need the help to put this novel in to print. Thank you in advance and may God continue to bless you to help others.

Sincerely yours;
Toni Hopkins-Brown

Posted by: Toni H. Brown | February 22, 2007 at 06:41 PM

Sincerely yours;
Toni Hopkins-Brown

Posted by: Toni H. Brown | February 22, 2007 at 06:44 PM

I'm working on my very first novel and I'd love to get some information about the grant. My dream(just like every other first time author) is to be able to write full time and maybe even one day get paid for it. This grant would be a great start to realizing that dream. I don't have to tell first time writers how working a 9 to 5 can be very hard on the creative process. Stress over bills is not helpful in any way when you're trying to decide your character's next move.

God Bless the first time writer,
Yours Truly,
Terri Crawford

Posted by: Terri Crawford | February 26, 2007 at 10:09 AM

How can I obtain a grant? I suffer from PTSD, and I am raising my grandbaby. I desperately need the finances to finish my book on depression and PTSD.
This book is dedicated to all walks of life, reguardless of race, nationality,etc.
Please respond.
Sincerely, Pam Rice

Posted by: Pam Rice | March 28, 2007 at 09:20 AM

As a first responder with a city police department on the coast of MS when Hurricane Katrina came ashore there, I was caught out in the East eye wall of this monster storm. I have self published my journal pages documenting the actual event, as well as the fears and frustrations felt during the following year and a half of the recovery process. I need financial help to promote this publication. Does your organization offer funds for this purpose?
Thank you.

Posted by: Denise | April 24, 2007 at 09:30 PM

I am a graduating senior, and am 57 years old. I am asking for grant money, not for myself, but to help fund a struggling campus publication called, "Voices."

It is a student produced journal of writings, "By women, About women, for us all." Most of the students have never written in a public medium and it is very rewarding for them to see their writing in print.

The writing can be creative or nonfiction. We published three years ago, then last spring and hope to print again next April (2008).

We received $500.00 of grant money from the Diveersity Awarness Program at California State University, Fresno. But I let the application date get past me so we have no funds for next year.

It was a wonderful experience to see the students stand up and read their published piece, at an informal reception.

The journal is sponsored by the campus departments; Women's Alliance and the Women's Studies Program.

I would be delighted if you consider us for an award. I can furnish anything you need in the way of authenticity you might want.

We need funds for printing the journals, and money for decorations, equipment rental and food, for the reception; where authors get their first glimpse of the journal with their writing inside. It's a great moment.

Thank-you for this opertunity to appeal to your organization for funding our little, but great, publication. I look forward to hearing from you.

Posted by: Cheryl Johnson | May 11, 2007 at 08:46 PM

To Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award,
This seems very intriguing and almost too good to be true. That being said, I will ask the obvious: "How does one apply?"

I am 57, single and living in Southern California with two grown children and two grandchildren, all living some distance from me. It helps not to have to worry about raising a family, however, working two jobs as well as picking up free lance writing when I can, doesn't always leave me the energy to write on my book, nor the worry from paying bills.
I have completed 2/3's of the first book of a trilogy. It is a fun series about a girl in middle school and all the angst one must go through at that age. Since I teach 6th grade English in the afternoons, I geared my story toward the audience I know. The series will cover 6th, 7th and 8th grade.
I would appreciate any information you can give regarding this grant.
Thank you,
Cheryl Cabot

Posted by: Cheryl Cabot | May 21, 2007 at 11:10 AM

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The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

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*Now in Paperback*

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
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"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

September 30, 2004

JAFFE GRANT FOR WOMEN WRITERS

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

September 30, 2004

JAFFE GRANT FOR WOMEN WRITERS

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism