Congrats to Writer Yvonne Liu on Winning a HUGE Grant!
A veteran of several Narratively Academy classes, Yvonne was chosen for a new initiative that is giving 12 writers up to $50,000 each to go finish their books.
The best part about running Narratively Academy these past two years has been getting to know so many writers and then watching as their publishing careers blossom. I had the great pleasure of working with Yvonne Liu in my May Memoir Mentorship class last spring, and she’s been a regular Narratively Academy presence, joining us for live talks and taking several other classes, including Abeer Hoque’s Guide to Writing Personal Statements and Applying for Grants & Residencies.
Yvonne has also joined us over in the Narratively Academy chat each week where we share our #WeeklyWins, celebrating writing wins large and small. As much as I love the smaller wins, I have to say I gasped when I saw Yvonne’s recent weekly win, announcing that she is one of the recipients of James Patterson’s new “Go Finish Your Book!” grants, an initiative that is giving 12 writers up to $50,000 each to…well, to go finish their books!
Yvonne’s agented memoir-in-progress, Left To Be Found, traces her journey from abandonment as a newborn in Hong Kong to her adoption by an abusive Chinese American couple and her reckoning with the past.
“This grant feels deeply affirming as someone who has struggled with imposter syndrome,” Yvonne says. “I’ve wanted to be an author since I was a child, but my immigrant parents wouldn’t let me study English or journalism in college. However, I never abandoned that dream. I’ve been fortunate to improve my craft by taking terrific classes through Narrative Academy and elsewhere.”
More than three million people read Yvonne’s viral HuffPost essay about keeping her adoption secret for decades. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She was featured on The New York Times Modern Love podcast and is a Sewanee Writers’ Conference Tennessee Williams Scholar in Nonfiction. For more from Yvonne, follow her on social media at @yvonneliuwriter or head to www.yvonneliuwriter.com.
And don’t forget to hop over to the Narratively Academy chat on Fridays to share your own #WeeklyWin. It doesn’t have to be as big as this one! If you wrote a new page of your memoir or just put yourself out there and applied to something, that counts too.
PS: Speaking of applying to things, the next section of Abeer Hoque’s class, The Insider’s Guide to Writing Personal Statements and Applying for Grants & Residencies, starts this Saturday and there are just two seats left. If you want to learn how to put your best foot forward in your own grant applications, go ahead and grab one of those last spots!
And join us tomorrow for Abeer’s live chat with artist and writer Nupu Press about how to blend art into your writing practice. (This live event is free and open to all.)
This video will take place on Substack Live. Simply go to NarrativelyAcademy.com at 12pm ET on Friday, October 3, or click this link to join.
Congrats, Yvonne!
Huge congratulation!!!! When can I pre-order!!!!???