Eligibility

In order to be eligible for a SASE/Jerome Award:

• You must have been a legal resident of Minnesota 12 months prior to the application deadline.
• You must NOT be a full-time student.
• The work you submit must NOT be for any degree or diploma.
• Your work must fall within the general areas of poetry, fiction or creative nonfiction.
• You must NOT have published more than two full-length books.
• You must be willing to participate in all aspects of the program. This includes four quarterly gatherings and a final public literary reading.
• If you received a SASE/Jerome grant during either of the previous two grant cycles, you are NOT elegible for a SASE/Jerome Award this year.
• Intermedia Arts staff and board members, and members of their immediate families are ineligible for SASE/Jerome Awards.

Selection Process

SASE/Jerome grant applications go through three stages of review:

• Eligibility Screening

  Our staff screens each application in order to ensure it is complete and meets all eligibility requirements. Incomplete applications will be immediately disqualified.
  
  

• Community Judging

  Members of our local literary community are asked to review all eligible applications and choose a maximum of 20 finalists to move on to the next round of judging.
  
  

• Panel Review

  Final selections for the SASE/Jerome Awards are made by the previous year's grant recipients. As part of this process, finalists are offered the opportunity to strengthen their application by participating in a panel interview, during which applicants are able to answer any questions that may have come up during the review process.

Judging Criteria

SASE/Jerome grant applications are evaluated according to the following criteria:

Artistic Quality

The writer must have significant literary potential.

• Does the writing demonstrate artistic excellence and significant knowledge of the writer's craft?
• Is the writing consistent in its style, reflecting a complete grasp of technical details and clearly conceived ideas throughout?

Project Merit

The project must advance the writer's artistic and/or professional development.

• Will funding this project support the creation and/or production of new artistic works?
• Will funding this project contribute significantly to the writer's professional advancement?
• Will not funding this project have a negative impact on the career of the writer?

Ability

The writer must be able to complete the project.

• Is the project well designed, with reasonable expectations and a realistic timeline and budget?
• Has the writer outlined specific goals/outcomes?
• Has the writer given you reason to believe that s/he has the discipline and desire to complete the proposed project?