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The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) announces that WarnerMedia funded scholarships for the Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing (MFACW) students. The total amount of the funding granted to IAIA is $20,000. In addition to scholarships, WarnerMedia will also be providing mentor services to the scholarship recipients.

“IAIA has done so much impressive work to support this community. We’re incredibly proud to be able to support this program and the students that benefit from these efforts.”
—Karen Horne, Senior Vice President, Equity and Inclusion, WarnerMedia

To qualify, applicants must be second-year MFACW students in good academic standing and must be in the Screenwriting cohort. All applicants must be of Native American heritage.

As part of the program, IAIA will award two scholarships:

• One award of $12,000 which will be distributed evenly over two semesters
• One award of $8,000 which will also be distributed evenly over two semesters

To apply, students must submit the following:

• Résumé
• Biography
• Sample of a TV script for a 30-minute or 60-minute television show (comedy or drama), including a logline of one–two sentences
• A 500-word essay addressing each of the two questions:
  • How will the scholarship benefit you? (Feel free to express your financial needs.)
  • What are your career aspirations and how will you uplift Native American voices in your work?

Scholarships will be awarded prior to June 30, 2021.

Jessica Holiday (Navajo Nation) ’21 during the 2021 Spring MFACW Thesis Residency | Watch the Thesis Residency Videos

About the Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program

The Institute of American Indian Arts’ Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing (MFACW) program provides a professional degree in creative writing while allowing students to live at home and continue participating in work, family, and community.

The program is unique among low-residency MFA programs in Creative Writing because it prioritizes the importance of Native writers who offer a voice to the Native experience. The program and the literature in the curriculum focus on a distinct Native American and First Nations emphasis.

Students and faculty mentors gather twice a year on the IAIA campus for an intensive week of workshops, lectures, and readings. At the end of the week, each student is matched with a faculty mentor, who then works one-on-one with the student for the 16-week online semester, developing the student’s creative work in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, or screenwriting.

The important difference in the IAIA program arises from IAIA’s mission “to empower creativity and leadership in Native arts and cultures through higher education, lifelong learning, and outreach.” The program is open to everyone, but the focus is aligned with IAIA’s unique mission. Since its founding in 2013, the program has graduated over 135 students with their MFA degrees—up to 45 students are currently enrolled in four tracks which include poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and screenwriting.

MFACW Mentors are a dynamic group of Native and non-Native writers who have won, among many other awards, Lannan Literary Awards, Whiting Awards, a National Book Award, a PEN Open Book Award, a United States Artist Fellowship, and a Donald Hall Prize from the Associated Writing Programs. Over three-quarters of the faculty mentors are established Native American or First Nations authors.

About WarnerMedia

WarnerMedia is a leading media and entertainment company that creates and distributes premium and popular content from a diverse array of talented storytellers and journalists to global audiences through its consumer brands including HBO, HBO Max, Warner Bros., TNT, TBS, truTV, CNN, DC, New Line, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Turner Classic Movies, and others. The organization also includes Xandr’s suite of advanced advertising solutions designed to help to improve advertising for brands, publishers, and consumers. WarnerMedia is part of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T).

Contact

For more information, please contact IAIA Associate Director of Marketing and Communications Jason S. Ordaz at jason.ordaz@iaia.edu.

About the Institute of American Indian Arts

Offering undergraduate degrees in Studio Arts, Creative Writing, Cinematic Arts and Technology, Indigenous Liberal Studies, Museum Studies, and Performing Arts, MFAs in Creative Writing and Studio Arts, along with certificates in Broadcast Journalism, Business and Entrepreneurship, Museum Studies, and Native American Art History. The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is the only college in the nation dedicated to the study of contemporary Native arts. The school serves approximately 500 full time equivalent (FTE) Native and non-Native American college students from across the globe. IAIA is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.