Aid to authors: creation assistance grants, literary mediation residencies and literary creation residencies

• Associations
• Private companies
• Local public enterprises
• EPCI with own taxation
• Public institutions/ State services
• Individuals

The beneficiaries

They are aimed at writers, translators, illustrators, screenwriters and cartoonistsdrawn and others, major natural persons domiciled in the Grand Est region and having a project of publication at the account of publisher and having not benefited from a writing grant in the same calendar year as that of the application. It is necessary to be registered as an artist-author with the URSSAF.

Eligibility criteria for the applicant

The collaboration with a publisher meeting the following criteria is understood as a publisher’s own account:

• production of a regular catalogue composed of at least 50% of works written by authors other than the manager of the structure;
• proposal and signing of a formal contract;
• practice of legal deposit;
• compliance with the rules of the intellectual property code and professional practices in force in the book chain and in particular the assumption of economic risk by the publisher without any financial intervention by the author;

The author must prove that he will be able to make himself available for his literary project, in particular if he carries out another professional activity in parallel.

A two-year waiting period must be observed between two applications.

Project eligibility criteria

Eligible projects are unpublished and unfinished projects in the literary fields supported by the CNL (National Book Centre).

Criteria for non eligibility of the project

Are not eligible: practical guides, maps, school; extracurricular and educational tools; academic; technical and professional, including legal; contemporary art; game books; role-playing; journalistic interviews; catalogues, directories, bibliographies, unsupported chronologies, almanacs, directories, brochures and various leaflets; dictionaries and encyclopedias with no critical dimension: collections of sources and documents without commentary; opera librettos and music scores; apologetic or confessional publication; esoteric work.

The beneficiaries

The device is based on the collaboration between an author (writer, illustrator, translator,...) and a reception structure.

Eligibility criteria for the applicant

The aid is intended for pairs trained by:

1° A supporting structure located in the Grand Est region, public or private, located in the regional territory and wishing to work on a project related to the book:

• reference places in the book industry, publishing houses, bookstores, libraries/media centres, writers' houses, literary museums;
• cultural operators and literary events, social and medico-social centres, local authorities;
• all places of reception for young people outside of school, wanting to initiate a project of discovery of literary creation;
• whose registered office or principal location is in the Great East;
• having more than a year of existence.

2° One or more artists (writer, translator, essayist, screenwriter, illustrator and cartoonist) living and working in the regions and having published at least once (paper or digital) for their own publishers during the last five years.

Project eligibility criteria

To be eligible, proposed projects must meet the following criteria:

• The structure presents an overall project, which includes the programme of cultural actions.
• The overall project must take place over a period of between 2 and 8 months and foster a close relationship between book professionals, audiences and authors in the Greater East.
• The project must include public meetings with the author and his works.
• Particular attention will be paid to the territorial anchorage of the project and the literary scope of the proposed actions.
• The residence of literary mediation may include a component of creation or command of text but this does not constitute an obligation. If this is the case, the overall budget will show a fair remuneration for the author’s creation.
• The draft sets out the agreement between the author and the structure, indicating the remuneration arrangements according to the duration, nature and number of the author’s interventions.

Criteria for non eligibility

The following are not eligible for this scheme:

• Authors published for own account or self-published;
• Authors having a permanent link with the requesting structure;
• Actions falling within the regular activity of a structure.

The beneficiaries

• The supporting structures, public or private, established in the regional territory and working in the sector of the book: library of territorial collectivity, organizing structure of a festival of book or literature, publishing house, independent bookstore, association specialising in books or reading (excluding resource centres), local authority.
  The other structures will be able to contact the training services to verify their eligibility.
• Individual or collective artists (writer, translator, essayist, screenwriter, illustrator and cartoonist) living or not in France and proposing a writing or illustration project to be developed with a structure of the book of the Grand Est. Artists will have published at least once (paper or digital) at the publisher’s expense over the past five years.

Criteria for ineligibility of applicant

Structures already agreed for actions to welcome artists or authors in residence are not eligible.

Project eligibility criteria

Eligible projects will have a vocation of residence of author (residence of literary writing, poetry, translation, illustration) with a co-construction between an author and a supporting structure.

The residence may last between two and four months. Beyond this period, other forms of financing must be sought. The modalities of the presence of the author in the territory of the Grand Est region will be specified in the overall project of the structure.

The structure will ensure that a presence is organized on an ongoing or regular basis. The residence time may be split, provided that the applicant and the host structure justify in writing the need and what is being done to maintain the coherence of the project.

The residence comprises a creative component equal to or greater than 70% of the total time of the residence and a component of cultural actions (including actions with young people especially in school time) representing a maximum of 30% of the time of the residence.

Amount of subsidy

The aid is capped at €5,000 gross, paid in the form of copyright. It is paid only by the Grand Est region.

At the time of payment of the balance of the grant, the author must be in possession of the dated and signed publishing contract relating to the project for which the funding is requested.

Procedures for evaluating cases

Files will be reviewed according to the following criteria:

• the author’s background and previous work;
• the literary and artistic quality of the writing project presented and its literary ambition;
• the conditions for professional publication and dissemination of the project.

Amount of subsidy

The amount of aid depends on the duration of the residence and is capped at €10,000.
The amount of the aid will be paid to the host structure.

Procedures for evaluating cases

The criteria for the selection and analysis of applications by the "Literary Life" Commission are:

• the quality and originality of the cultural action and mediation project;
• the quality of the proposed educational component;
• the number of meetings with the public and the variety of audiences targeted by the project;
• the structuring and place of the residence in the overall project of the host structure;
• mobilizing local partnerships and seeking cross-funding.

Particular attention will be paid to projects involving roaming in a given territory.

Amount of subsidy

The amount of aid depends on the duration of the residence and is capped at €11,200.

The aid consists of two separate amounts:

• A flat rate of €2,400 gross per month of residence paid in the form of copyright to the accepted author. This remuneration may be paid in two different ways:
  - the host structure: in this case, the host structure receives a grant and uses it to remunerate the author, and thereby undertakes to pay the related social contributions, according to the author’s tax system;
  - by the DRAC or Region funders: in this case, the author receives the aid directly in the form of copyright, charging the funders to pay the related social contributions, depending on the tax system of the author.
  The method of payment must be chosen as soon as the application for aid has been submitted.
• A maximum of €400 per month of attendance, paid, if necessary, to the supporting structure for the costs of organization (accommodation, transport and catering, time of conception and coordination of the project, communication, mediation actions). In this context, particular attention will be paid to projects involving roaming in a given territory.

Procedures for evaluating cases

The criteria for the selection and analysis of applications by the "Literary Life" Commission are:

• the quality and originality of the project of creation and cultural action;
• the quality of the proposed educational component;
• the time spent by the author on the Grand Est territory;
• the guarantee given to the author to be able to carry out personal writing work;
• the structuring and place of the residence in the overall project of the host structure;
• mobilizing local partnerships and seeking cross-funding.

SESSION 1 (Scholarships - Creative Writing Residencies)

• Application deadline: 31 March 2023, 23:59 (Paris time). No file may be filed or considered after this date.

SESSION 2 (Scholarships - Creative Writing Residencies - Literary Mediation Residencies)

• Deadline for submission: 30 June 2023, 23:59 (Paris time). No file may be filed or considered after this date.

SESSION 3 (Scholarships - Creative Writing Residencies)

• Deadline for submission: 31 October 2023, 23:59 (Paris time). No file may be filed or considered after this date.

1. Download and complete the form that corresponds to your situation (downloadable below).
2. The files must be sent simultaneously to the two addresses below, exclusively in paperless form (email):

At the following two addresses for creative and mediation residences:

• Grand Est Cultural Affairs Regional Directorate (DRAC)
  Democratization and cultural industries cluster
  Book and Reading Services
  demarches.livre.lecture.drac.grandest@culture.gouv.fr
• Grand Est Regional Council
  Heritage and Memory Culture Directorate
  livre@grandest.fr

At this address for grants for literary creation:

• Grand Est Regional Council
  Heritage and Memory Culture Directorate
  livre@grandest.fr