Each year the Hemingway Society accepts applications for its Lewis-Reynolds-Smith Founders Fellowship grant, and typically makes up to two awards of up to $1,000 each to support the development of a Hemingway-related project. The Hemingway Society may, in exceptional circumstances, make more than two awards or vary the dollar amount of the award to accommodate the applicant’s proposed budget; if no applications meet the rigorous criteria of the call for applications, the committee reserves the right not to make an award. Preference is given to enrolled graduate students, independent scholars, or recent recipients of doctorate degrees. The Founders Fellowship award can cover books and project-related materials, travel to archives, childcare, teaching buyout, and other direct support of research and writing. The Society typically will not make awards to cover the purchase of computer equipment or to cover conference expenses unless a compelling case can be made for that use. In addition to receiving the monetary award, grant recipients will also receive a one-year membership or membership renewal to the Hemingway Society.
EVALUATION PROCESS
Applications are evaluated by no fewer than five members of the Lewis-Reynolds-Smith Founders Fellowship committee, which is made up of active members of the Hemingway Society and reports to the Hemingway Society board of directors. The criteria for judging projects will be the clarity, originality, and feasibility of the project; its value in furthering Hemingway scholarship, criticism, or instruction; and, where appropriate, the likelihood of its publication.
Application requirements include a short (300 words or less) abstract of the larger project, including its working title; a detailed description of the work to be undertaken during the grant period, including a timeline for completion and possible outlets for publication (if applicable); an itemized budget of how grant funds will be applied (awards will typically be $1000, though applicants may request less or more as the project requires); a working bibliography; a CV, and two professional references. Formal letters of recommendation are no longer required. Co-authored projects are eligible--please submit only one application using the online form, but include contact information and references for all participants in the application materials. The deadline for applications for the 2024 award cycle has now passed. The next award cycle will open in January 2025.
Funds will be disbursed in April; recipients are expected to submit a brief progress report at the end of the grant period and to acknowledge the Hemingway Society in any resulting publications.
HISTORY
At its September 1998 Annual Meeting, the Ernest Hemingway Foundation and Society Board of Trustees unanimously passed a resolution authorizing the annual expenditure of $2,000 to fund two $1,000 Paul Smith Founders Fellowships, awarded to two registered graduate students, independent scholars, or recent recipients of doctorate degrees, upon the selection and recommendation of the Paul Smith Memorial Fellowship Committee. Following its summer 2000 meeting in Santa Fe, the Board amended the Fellowship to acknowledge and honor Michael Reynolds by renaming the fellowship as the Smith-Reynolds Founders Fellowship. In 2013, the Board passed a proposal to open up the Smith-Reynolds Founders Fellowship to all scholars and graduate students, with preference given to enrolled graduate students, independent scholars, or recent recipients of doctorate degrees. In 2014, to acknowledge and honor Robert W. Lewis, founding member and multi-term President of the Society, the Board revised the name to the Lewis-Reynolds-Smith Founders Fellowship.