W-G Foundation Application Guide

Hunt Fellowship in Public Writing

Applicant Profile

We will ask you to tell us about yourself.

  1. Applicant Background. We are currently only accepting applications from scholars who hold a doctorate in anthropology or from scholars with doctorates in related fields who hold an appointment in an anthropology department or program, or its equivalent in countries where the subfields are named differently. Applicants should be no more than 15 years beyond receipt of the Ph.D., with allowances made for periods of caregiving. We will also confirm that you plan to publish your book with a trade press or an academic press that will market it to broad audiences.

  2. Applicant Contact Information. This includes your full or chosen name (first, middle, and surname), email address, and other contact details. Please do know that, should you be funded, the mailing address you provide will be reported to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and made publicly available, so we advise you to use your department, business, or P.O. box address. Additionally, U.S. law requires us to collect information about your citizenship, place of birth, and birth date. This information is not provided to reviewers.

  3. Academic Background. This includes your highest academic degree, the discipline of your degree, the year it was awarded, the institution where you received it, and your current academic appointment (if you hold one). We will also ask whether English is your and/or your institution’s primary scholarly language. Applications must be submitted in English.

  4. Personal Information (Optional). In an effort to promote greater equity in funding, at the close of the application, we ask whether you are willing to share some confidential demographic information about yourself. We will remove any identifiers and analyze this data in the aggregate. This section of the application is entirely optional. Your answers to these questions will have no bearing on the success of your application. Our questions concern citizenship, gender identity, pronouns, sexual identity, disability, caregiving responsibilities, your parents’ highest level of education, income insecurity, race and ethnicity, Indigenous affiliation, and how you decided to apply for this program.

Project Information

  1. Proposed Project Title. This should be 25 words or fewer and contain enough information to tell us what your project is about. Please do know that, should you be funded, the title you provide will be reported on the Foundation’s annual tax return filed with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. This tax return is a publicly available document.

  2. Project Abstract. This should be a general description of your proposal in language that an interested layperson could understand. If your application is successful, we will post this abstract on the Foundation’s website. By submitting your application, you grant the Foundation permission to publish the project abstract on the Foundation’s website and/or use it for other purposes related to the Foundation’s activities. Please keep response to 200 words.

  3. Identify the country or countries where you will be writing.

  4. Funding and Grants. We will ask you a series of questions about any secured or potential funding for this project, as well as your history of funding with the Wenner-Gren Foundation. Include any support you have received or applied for that relates to this fellowship application. Here, we have in mind grants you might receive from other agencies and/or any compensation that might come with a sabbatical or other academic leave. We award this fellowship for a nine-month period of focused writing after June 1 of the year following the application deadline.

  5. Research Areas. We will ask you to identify the subfields of anthropology this project is most directly related to, and an additional question about previous funding. If you are resubmitting your Letter of Interest, you will be provided 250 words to describe what has changed since your previous application.

  6. Generative AI. At the end of the application, you will be asked whether you used generative AI in producing this application. If you answer “yes,” you’ll then be asked to describe the tools you used, the prompts you entered, the tasks you accomplished, and how you checked your work for accuracy.

    The Foundation’s Generative AI Policy stresses transparency, pedagogy, and safety. Please recognize that your submission will be judged according to criteria that prioritize originality and that a proposal generated entirely with the aid of generative AI is unlikely to meet the standard required for funding. You are responsible for the accuracy and originality of your submission. We have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to plagiarism: if you use others’ words without attribution, even inadvertently, you will lose any chance of receiving an award. What’s more, when you enter your proposal into a generative AI tool, you risk having portions of your prose reproduced without your permission and compromising the confidentiality of your work. At the same time, the Foundation recognizes that there are safe and ethical ways in which scholars can use generative AI to enhance their work, from reviewing relevant literature and analyzing data to editing or translating prose.

    This information will not be provided to reviewers and will not factor into any award decisions. We are collecting this information to better understand how generative AI is shaping the funding landscape. We will analyze responses in aggregate to track trends over time.

Letter of Interest

The Hunt Fellowship in Public Writing has a two-stage application process. Applicants must first submit a Letter of Interest. After review, the Foundation will invite a small number of applicants to submit full proposals.

Your Letter of Interest should make a clear and compelling case for your book project. In language that an interested layperson could understand, tell us what your manuscript is about, why it matters, and why this is the right moment for the book. You should give us a strong sense of the audience you hope to reach and the impact you want the book to have.

The Letter of Interest should answer the following questions:

  • What is your manuscript about?
  • Why is it relevant now?
  • Who is it for, and what impact do you want it to have?
  • At what juncture in the publishing process are you?
  • Why are you the person to write this book and positioned to successfully publish it

The most competitive Letters of Interest will describe a serious nonfiction book grounded in substantial anthropological research and written for a general audience. Eligible projects may be trade books (published by major presses for general readers) or crossover books (published by academic presses but written and marketed for nonacademic readers). Books may be written in any language, provided they are intended for a general audience. [Limit: 1000 words]

Abstract

Your abstract is a very important component of your application. In language accessible to an interested general reader, convey what is at the heart of your book. Begin with the broad question, problem, or theme that gives the project its significance, then focus on the book’s central argument or story. Explain why the subject matters, what the book will reveal, and how you will bring it to life for readers. Give reviewers a clear sense of the book’s scope, approach, and intended audience, as well as what distinguishes it from existing work on the subject. Although the abstract is the shortest part of your proposal, it may be the hardest to write. It requires a clear understanding of the book you intend to produce, so you may find it helpful to write it last. [Limit: 200 words]

Book Proposal Questions

Invited full proposals should mirror a book proposal. Our word limits are strict. To make the best possible case for your work, it’s a good idea to use all the space provided.

Question 1: Introduction to the project. Introduce the book project in detail. What is the book about? What is the central question, problem, story, or argument? Why does this book matter now? How is it grounded in anthropological research, evidence, and insight? What will readers understand differently after reading it? [Limit: 3,000 words]

This section should make the case for the book as a work of serious nonfiction for general audiences. We are interested in projects that bring anthropological knowledge into wider conversations, contribute to urgent debates, and expand the audiences for anthropological work. The strongest proposals will combine intellectual ambition with accessible, engaging writing.

This program is focused on trade books (published by major presses for general readers) or crossover books (published by academic presses but written and marketed for nonacademic readers). The book may be written in any language, provided it is intended for a general audience. The proposal must be submitted in English.

Question 2: Chapter titles and descriptions. Provide the title of each chapter and a description of its contents. Your chapter descriptions should give us a clear picture of the structure, narrative arc, and argument of the manuscript. [Limit: 1,000 words]

Be specific about what each chapter will do. What scenes, cases, stories, histories, concepts, or evidence will it include? How does each chapter move the book forward? What will hold the reader’s attention from one chapter to the next?

Question 3: Author information. Tell us who you are as the author of this book. What expertise, experience, relationships, or perspective do you bring to the project? How has your research prepared you to write this book for general audiences? Why are you the right person to write it? [Limit: 300 words]

This should be a brief biography, written in the third person, outlining your experiences and expertise in research and publishing. Include awards or other previous indications of success and recognition.

Question 4: Target market and publicity strategy. Describe the intended audience for the book. Who do you imagine reading it? What communities, conversations, classrooms, public debates, or broader audiences do you hope the book will reach? [Limit: 500 words]

You should also describe how the book might find those readers. What is your publicity strategy? Are there organizations, publications, events, networks, media outlets, podcasts, newsletters, public programs, or other venues that might help bring the book to its audience? How will you help connect the book to readers beyond the academy?

Question 5: Competing titles. Provide a list of competing or comparable titles. For each title, include the title, publisher, year, and a brief description of how your proposed book compares. [Limit: 300 words]

These titles should help reviewers understand the market for the book and the space it will occupy. You might include books that address similar subjects, reach similar audiences, use comparable narrative strategies, or model the kind of public writing you hope to produce.

Question 6: Writing plan. Describe what you will accomplish during the fellowship period. What is the current state of the manuscript? What work remains to be done? How will 9 months of focused writing allow you to complete the manuscript? [Limit: 500 words]

The research that forms the basis of the book must be completed by the time of application. This fellowship is intended to support writing, not new research. Applicants should be ready to devote a continuous block of time to completing a book manuscript

Sample Chapter

You will be asked to upload one full or partial sample chapter. The sample chapter should demonstrate the style, voice, substance, and accessibility of the book you are proposing. It should show reviewers how you will write for a general audience while remaining grounded in anthropological research and evidence.

The sample chapter may be drawn from any part of the manuscript. You may upload a complete chapter or a substantial portion of a chapter. Please choose the section that best represents the book’s promise as a work of serious nonfiction for nonacademic readers. [Limit: 5,000 words]

Resubmission Statement

If you are resubmitting an application that was unsuccessful in a previous funding cycle, you will need to include a resubmission statement. The Foundation accepts a single resubmission of a Hunt Fellowship in Public Writing application that was unsuccessful in a prior funding cycle. [Limit: 1,000 words]

In your resubmission statement, you’ll have an opportunity to tell us about the progress you’ve made since you last applied. How has your thinking developed? How have you refined your book project? How does this application differ from the previous one?

Optional URL for Access to Figures

You will have a chance to upload charts, maps, images, illustrations, or other figures that you refer to in your book proposal or sample chapter. Please use this option sparingly. Only include figures that are essential for communicating your plans and goals.

Bibliography

You should tailor your bibliography specifically for this proposal. Focus on your central research question and the broader conversations and debates that have inspired you. You’ll want to cite literature related to your approach to your topic, your research context, your methods, and any ethical issues raised by your research.

You’ll have a chance to upload your bibliography to our online application system. Please use a format compatible with Microsoft Word.

  1. Only list the sources that you cite in your resubmission statement or your responses to the project description questions. In-text citations should take the form of the authors’ name{s), year, and, where relevant, page number(s). Please format the citations as shown in these examples: (Baviskar 1995), (Friedner and Osborne 2015), (Nelson et al. 2017), (Zee 2020: 1068), (Baviskar 1995; Friedner and Osborne 2015; Nelson et al. 2017; Zee 2020: 1068).

  2. Your bibliography should not exceed 10 pages, using single-line spacing and 10-point font or larger.

  3. Make sure your bibliographic references are complete, listed in alphabetical order, and presented in one of the bibliographic formats found in major English language anthropological journals (such as Current Anthropology, Ethnos, or the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, among others). Whichever model you choose, be consistent throughout.

References Cited

You should tailor your references cited specifically for this proposal. Focus on your central research question, the broader conversations that have inspired you, and the sources that inform your book project. You’ll want to cite literature related to your approach to your topic, your research context, your methods, and any ethical issues raised by your research.

You’ll have a chance to upload your references cited to our online application system. Please use a format compatible with Microsoft Word.

  1. Only list the sources that you cite in your resubmission statement, book proposal questions, or sample chapter. In-text citations should take the form of the authors’ name(s), year, and, where relevant, page number(s). Please format the citations as shown in these examples: (Baviskar 1995), (Friedner and Osborne 2015), (Nelson et al. 2017), (Zee 2020: 1068), (Baviskar 1995; Friedner and Osborne 2015; Nelson et al. 2017; Zee 2020: 1068).
  2. Your references cited should not exceed two pages, using single-line spacing and 10-point font or larger.
  3. Make sure your references are complete, listed in alphabetical order, and presented in one of the bibliographic formats found in major English language anthropological journals, such as Current Anthropology, Ethnos, or the American Journal of Biological Anthropology, among others. Whichever model you choose, be consistent throughout.

 

Writing Workshop

Please note that the Wenner-Gren Foundation is offering a week-long writing workshop in partnership with the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. The workshop’s goal is to help participants build networks, develop new skills, and gain momentum for the work of writing for different audiences. Participants will close the week with a stronger set of writing tools, new connections with like-minded colleagues, and renewed energy for the work it takes to write well.

We will offer this workshop in the summer of the year following the application deadline. Selected finalists who are invited to the second round and the grant recipient will be invited to attend. We will cover travel costs, and room and board for the week.