Sustaining the Writing Life Fellowships

Several years ago, the UH Creative Writing Program devised a community partnership initiative. Recognizing Houston’s long tradition of creativity and innovation, and the CWP’s unique position within that space, we figured what better way to evolve as a program than to leverage the inherent talents of our students and the various opportunities our broader community could provide.  

The initiative, officially dubbed Sustaining the Writing Life, is simple: partner with community organizations to fund student fellowships and place students into roles within those organizations as a means of professional development. In doing so, we train graduate students to enjoy fulfilling careers that support their writing outside of academia and more broadly strengthen the arts.  

As part of the Sustaining the Writing Life initiative, students forego their teaching assistantships in favor SWL fellowships that pay the equivalent of a teaching assistantship (approximately $27,000, which includes the TA stipend amount and the cost of a Graduate Tuition Fellowship). As part of this funding model, the CWP provides half the funding for a graduate student and a paired partner organization covers the other half. The partner organization then gets the student’s work hours (20/week) and benefits from the use of a talented writer. Students who don’t aspire to teach get a chance to acquire professional skills and in the process the CWP is linked more tightly to community organizations in which there are overlapping interests. SWL Fellowships are two-semester appointments with the possibility to extend to four-semester appointments.   

Current partners include: