In Support of Creative Writing from California High School Teachers
“Did you ever have a high school teacher who opened the door for you to love literature?” asks Joseph Di Prisco, founding board chair of The New Literary Project (NewLit) and a one-time middle school and high school teacher who has published 14 books, including poetry, memoirs, and novels.
“In case that’s true, here’s a secret that’s not so secret,” he continues. “There is a good chance they were writing their own stories, stealing what time they could. Now the Jack Hazard Fellowships can free them to write, because that’s what summer means for creative writers who teach high school. One more essential commitment of the New Literary Project, doing what we can to inspire and equip writers across the generations to write their hearts out.”
The Jack Hazard Fellowships for Creative Writers Teaching High School is an innovative and unique opportunity open for the first time to an underserved, and deserving, community of writers. The fellowships are not limited to English or creative writing teachers – they are available to any qualified high school educator in any subject area who is working directly in a professional capacity with students, including, for instance, guidance counselors.
The New Literary Project is offering nine $5,000 summer fellowships in Spring 2022 to California high school-based writers. In subsequent years, NewLit plans to open the program to applications from writers who teach high school anywhere in the United States.
“So many writers started their careers as high school teachers, like Stephen King, Frank McCourt, Joanne Harris, J.K. Rowling, George Orwell, Dan Brown, and William Golding. The Hazard Fellowships will find and spotlight a new generation of dedicated creative writers who teach in high school,” says Ian Maloney, program coordinator for the Jack Hazard Fellowships.
For 2022 in California, the deadline for high school-based writers to apply is December 31, 2021.
The Criteria:
Jack Hazard Fellows must be writers of fiction, creative nonfiction, or memoir.
They must be full-time, current instructors (in any department, not just English) in an accredited California high school (grades 9-12, teaching in this 2021-22 academic year).
They must be contracted to return to their schools in the Fall 2023.
Applicants must submit a writing sample along with other related support material requested.
The goal of the Jack Hazard Fellowships is to reward and incentivize talented writers who teach in secondary schools. These writers-who-teach inspire their students, high schools, and communities, and provide a professional model of writers working to find meaning and to create art in chaotic times. With these fellowships, the New Literary Project celebrates teachers’ life-changing contributions and gives them public acknowledgement along with much-needed freedom to devote to their own writing.
For more information about New Literary Project and the Jack Hazard Fellowship, visit the website. Contact: Executive Director Diane Del Signore at 510.919.0970 or diane@newliteraryproject.org
For media inquiries, contact Scott Busby at The Busby Group – 310.600.7645 or scottb@thebusbygroup.com
The Jack Hazard Fellowships are sustained by the generosity of System Property, whose offices are in Sherman Oaks, California. One hundred years ago, Mr. Hazard founded the company that has today become System Property. He was a larger-than-life, mostly self-educated, and deeply curious man who admired education and educators, someone who loved to hear and tell a good story. As a charismatic, visionary entrepreneur and generous philanthropist, he had a profound, unforgettable impact that resonates to this day. The New Literary Project is honored and humbled to be associated with his legacy. We love a good story, too, and we believe that scores of good stories will come to life because of the annual Jack Hazard Fellowships.