The McCoy Grant for Bookseller Writers Now Accepting Applications for 2025

Applications are now being accepted for the 2025 McCoy Grant for Bookseller Writers. The grant is offered by SIBA in partnership with  New York Times bestselling author Sarah McCoy, (Mustique Island) for any unpublished southern women or nonbinary booksellers who harbor ambitions to be published writers.

Two grants of $1,500 each will be awarded to be used toward craft development (writing classes, retreats, conferences, travel), work-related materials (notebooks, laptops, software, research, etc.), childcare, bills, or any other financial obstacle.

"It is a great honor to have been chosen...I am truly grateful for this grant and have been inspired to work more diligently as a creative," said 2024 grant recipient Maya Martin from Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi.

"I’ve been holding my writing close for the past year, not quite ready to share it with the world and wondering if there would ever be a right time," said 2024 grant recipient Ally Kirkpatrick, owner of Old Town Books in Alexandria, Virginia. "Winning this award gives me the confidence boost to continue finding my voice and sharing my story about maternal mental health."

Author Sarah McCoy created the grant because of her own experience as a struggling young writer. "I’ve dreamt of being able to do an initiative like this since I was in graduate school teaching young writing students during the day to pay for my own MFA creative writing courses at night. While my weekends went to grading papers, studying, and writing, I also took on a weekend job with flexible hours to navigate the bills that seem to never stop piling up. I swore then that when I could, I would do my best to help other writers in similar financial straits."

Applications are currently open and will close on March 21, 2025. Recipients will be announced in July, 2025. To be eligible, the applicant must be an unpublished southern woman or nonbinary bookseller living in one of the states in SIBA territory: Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and Mississippi, and must have a novel, memoir, essay collection or poetry collection in progress.

Full eligibility criteria and grant application

"If you’re a hoper, a dreamer, a story stoker opening your laptop and a 99¢ can of tuna fish on the coffee table for dinner while you do the work that really lights your fire… then you’re a kindred spirit," says McCoy. "That was me, too. Still is on many nights. You are not alone. $1,500 won’t magically transform everything, but it’s enough to buy a loaf of bread to go with that tuna. I’m grateful to partner with the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA), an organization dedicated to literacy, diversity, and creating a world where all stories are given equal voice and respect. Thank you for being our bookseller champions!"

Read more about the McCoy Grant

SARAH McCOY is the New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling author of the novels Mustique Island,  Marilla of Green Gables, The Mapmaker’s Children, The Baker’s Daughter, a 2012 Goodreads Choice Award Best Historical Fiction nominee, The Time It Snowed in Puerto Rico, the novella “The Branch of Hazel in Grand Central and Le souffle des feuilles et des promesses(Pride and Providence).  Her work has been featured in Newsweek, Lit Hub, Real Simple, The Millions, Your Health Monthly, Huffington Post, Writer Unboxed, and other publications. She hosted the NPR WSNC Radio monthly program “Bookmarked with Sarah McCoy" and previously taught English writing at Old Dominion University and at the University of Texas at El Paso.