Elmaz Abinader Founder's Scholarship
The Elmaz Abinader Founder's Scholarship is awarded annually to a returning VONA participant who actively centers social justice, reverses the erasure of historically marginalized voices, and promotes a sense of belonging in their work and actions.
Elmaz Abinader, along with Junot Diaz, Victor Diaz, and Diem Jones, founded VONA in 1999. For over fifty years, her work has centered and uplifted marginalized stories and voices. She was instrumental in developing VONA as a literary change agent. For this reason and more, we offer this scholarship to returning VONA alumni.
Applicant work can focus on any of the genres offered by VONA. Decisions will be based on need and responses to application questions.
Eligibility
A VONA alum/returner who's been accepted into the Summer 2025 program
A proven track record of uplifting other people’s voices, as evidenced in group gatherings, supported by faculty input, and in application questions
Financial need
How to Apply
Once you complete and submit the Summer Workshop application, you'll receive a link to a brief supplementary form. Your responses to these questions will be used to select this year's Elmaz Abinader Founder's Scholar.
Scholarship and application reviews will be separate but concurrent processes. Once applicants have been selected, we will notify the scholarship recipient of their award.
Questions?
Contact us at programming@vonavoices.org.