The Speculative Literature Foundation is delighted to announce Kima Jones as the winner of the inaugural Working Class/Impoverished Writers Grant.
A resident of Los Angeles, Jones has, in her own words, always been drawn to the fantastic, the sublime, the surreal, the mythic—and the downright scary—even as a child. It’s no surprise, then, her writing is intensely personal.
“My stories,” she says, “are an amalgamation of my fears, my beliefs, and all of the things that I cannot forgive myself for. I write horror because monsters exist. If I don’t acknowledge my own private monster, I can’t realize the rest of them in my work.”
Grant Administrator Malon Edwards said of Jones’s entry, “Nine”: “The magic realism and power in this story sneak up on you like the haints within it. The language sets a laid-back tone with down-home folksy talk, but in the best possible way. Next thing you know, young boys aren’t who they seem, and mothers are grieving lost sons. A well-written, entertaining piece.”
Honorable Mentions for the 2013 Working Class/Impoverished Writers Grant were: Jennifer Matarese, Kayla Miller, Yarrow Paisely, Scott Maddix, and Pippa Janssen for their diverse, thought-provoking and entertaining submissions.
The $750 Working Class Grant is intended to support working class, blue-collar, poor, and homeless writers who have been historically underrepresented in speculative fiction due to the financial barriers that have made it much harder for them to have access to the writing world.
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Click here for more information on the Working Class Writers Grant.
Questions about the Working Class Grant process may be directed to our grants administrator at grants@speclit.org
