PEN/Jean Stein Grants for Literary Oral History

About this program

PEN America offers the PEN/Jean Stein Grants for Literary Oral History, providing two $15,000 awards to support the completion of literary nonfiction works that utilize oral history to explore significant events, individuals, places, or movements. The grants honor the legacy of Jean Stein, whose contributions popularized literary oral history. Eligibility is limited to individual authors with unpublished works-in-progress written in English, excluding scholarly or academic writing, and the project must not be published before April 1, 2026. Applicants must submit a detailed proposal, including a project description, oral history methodology, CV, outline, interview transcripts, and a writing sample.