108 Flemish authors receive funding to work on new books
No less than 108 Flemish authors will get funding allowing them to devote more time to their artistic and literary work in 2017. The list of authors who receive a work grant for 2017 is available on the website of Vlaams Fonds voor de Letteren, the parent organisation of Flanders Literature.
The list covers the different literary genres that Flanders Literature promotes abroad: children’s and youth literature, fiction, drama, graphic novels and poetry. Authors of non-fiction can apply for a work grant until 15 May.
Vlaams Fonds voor de Letteren, literally ‘Flemish Literature Fund’, is an autonomous government institution that aims to facilitate a widely accessible literary landscape and to ensure better visibility for literature from Flanders at home and abroad. Quality, professionalism and diversity are the core values of everything it does and everything it stands for.
Supporting the creative process
While under the brand name Flanders Literature it focuses mainly on promotion, Vlaams Fonds voor de Letteren also attaches great importance to creation in its domestic operations. Supporting authors financially in order to enable them to work on their creative projects is therefore one of its core activities. The literary quality of the author’s recently published work is the main criterion in the evaluation of the applications, which is handled by an independent advisory committee whose advices need to be confirmed by the Deciding Committee before they become final.
A work grant consists of one to eight ‘units’. For 2017, one unit corresponds to 2.600 €. The work grant is only effectively paid up to a certain income ceiling. This means that authors do not always receive the total amount that has been awarded. The Flemish Literature Fund takes into account the authors’ tax returns and, if applicable, their shares in partnerships. In this ways, the work grants can be used optimally to allow authors to free time for working on their books.