Kate Burns Emerging Female Voices in Poetry Self-Publication Scholarship
If you've ever dreamed of holding your own collection of poetry in your hands, this scholarship is for you!
Three 1:1 mentorship sessions with celebrated trauma-healing poet, Kate Burns
Full-package professional book design
Professional author photography
$150 cash
Scholarship recipient will receive:
ISBN & all other self-publishing-related costs
Poetry-specific TikTok marketing guide by renowned self-love poet, Shelby Leigh
Help getting book stocked in local book stores
10-min feature at all-women open mic upon publication
Submission Guidelines
*Submissions are now closed. Please check back next year for updated deadline and requirements*
Applicants must be:
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Female and/or female-identifying
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Between the ages of 13-18 on November 1, 2024
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Living in the LA area between November 1, 2024 and April 1, 2025
Applicants must submit:
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10 completed poems that center around the experience of being a girl/young woman in modern society*
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max 250-word statement responding to the prompt "Why poetry?"
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max 500-word personal statement about your future goals/ambitions that speaks directly to why you aspire to those specific goals/ambitions
*no one poem should be more than 2 pages in length, single-space, 12 pt, Times New Roman
How to submit:
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Format your word document based on the following provided example. Click here for example.
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Save document as "Emerging Female Voices in Poetry Self-Publication Scholarship Application_Your First & Last Name"
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Send completed application to email: scholarship@kateburnspoet.com
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In the subject line put "Emerging Female Voices in Poetry Self-Publication Scholarship + Your First & Last Name"
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In the body of the email, please write a one-paragraph introduction to the unique themes and experiences that your poetry explores."
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DO NOT include any additional information, links to social media/websites, resumes, etc. anywhere in the application (neither in the email nor the application document itself)
*Must submit application by November 1, 2024 at 11:59pm
Still have questions?
Feel free to email scholarship@kateburnspoet.com with any questions you might have!
Congratulations to the
2024 Scholarship Recipient!
Selvi Radia is an eighth grader living in Los Angeles, California. Selvi is an avid reader and she has recently discovered her passion for writing free-verse poetry. In her free time, Selvi loves to write, read, and play volleyball. Since a young age, Selvi has always loved to write fictional stories, and is thrilled to be the recipient of the scholarship. She is so excited to share her work with a larger audience, and hopefully reach people who have gone through similar experiences as her.
Our Story
I didn't go looking for poetry. It came looking for me. Two weeks after my third failed suicide attempt in 2019, I couldn't sleep. I pulled out my phone, opened up my notes app, and wrote. When I was a kid I wanted to be a fiction writer. I loved to read and thought books were a uniquely inescapable form of magic. I didn't understand poetry and I didn't like reading it, so I was as shocked as it is possible to be that what I ended up writing that night wasn't a story, but a poem. And after I wrote it, I felt lighter. All of my problems weren't solved, I wasn't miraculously "better" or even less of a danger to myself, but I was finally able to get to sleep and, in that moment, that's all I really needed.
Since then, poetry has gotten me through every single stage of my healing journey. It has allowed me to work through years of repressed emotion and traumatic experiences. I started off writing for me, but after a few years (and sharing my poems with a few close friends) I realized that what I had written could help other women feel seen, heard, understood, and less alone in their pain. I decided to self-publish because I wanted full control over this piece of my soul that I was choosing to share with the world.
I started this scholarship because I want to both help and encourage young girls to express themselves instead of bottling things up, and to share what they've lived and learned and seen and heard with others, because there's power in sharing your heart and your soul with a world that desperately needs more of both. And that's what poetry is: it's a person's whole heart and pieces of their soul put down on paper in the form of language.
This is a self-publication scholarship because I want the recipient to have full control over the creation of their first book of published poetry and I want them to give every detail of their book the same love and care they put into writing each and every poem.
I'm more excited than I can even express to share the joy of accomplishing something so monumental as publishing a first collection with other young writers, and I look forward to continuing this scholarship for decades to come.
Read Kate's Poetry
a collection about healing from SA trauma
Celebrated trauma-healing poet, Kate Burns', first book of poetry "all my favorite men are dead: a healing book of pain" is available for purchase on Amazon. For updates on her latest collections, events and workshops that she's hosting, and daily poetry inspiration, follow her on Instagram @KateBurnsPoet.
