LGBTQIA+ Literary Success Grant Winners

  • Megan Xing

    Nonfiction Recipient

    Megan Xing is a Chinese-American writer from New York. Her work has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and appears in Lumiere Review and Vagabond City Lit. She is an alumna of the Iowa Young Writers’ Workshop and the Kenyon Young Writers’ Workshop, as well as the current Editor-in-Chief of Pollux Journal. She is a junior at Emory University, and in her free time, you can probably find her rewatching The Queen’s Gambit, Fleabag, or Derry Girls.

    Judge’s Citation:

    “The Red Thread,” portrays the steady souring—and eventual faltering—of a relationship (friendship? romance? crush?) through a haze of smoke and substances. The main setting (a summer job at an overnight camp) provides an excellent backdrop for this painful coming-of-age story. The narrative’s jumps through time and space—particularly toward the end of the piece—effectively blur the narrator’s losses, spiralling the narrative toward a striking finish. The question marks that remain only heighten the feelings of loss and dismay in this beautiful essay, echoing those of the narrator. With striking imagery, excellent details, and solid pacing, “The Red Thread” will remain with me for some time.

  • Sal Woessner

    Fiction Recipient

    Sal Woessner (they/she) is a junior at Columbus State University, pursuing a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. They are passionate about fiction as a tool for community building, particularly for queer and other marginalized voices, and have served as president of the university's creative writing club for the past two years. In their own work, they enjoy exploring the strange and macabre, drawing inspiration from Weird, Gothic, and Horror traditions—the kind of books that make you want to wash your hands after putting them down.

    Judge’s Citation:

    The short story “March to the Sea” is fierce—like a punch to the gut—with athletic language, vibrant images, perfect pacing, and a well-earned ending. The characters remain mostly unnamed, but they are deftly drawn, and collectively, they tugged me along through the whole story—along with a solid collection of echoing themes and motifs. I was impressed at every turn, and I can’t wait to read what the author writes next.

  • Ari Quan

    Poetry Recipient


    Ari Quan is a student at Emory University studying English and Creative Writing, as well as American Studies. His poetry has been published in Writing South Carolina Volume 9 and 10, Cathartic Youth Literary Magazine, and PEACHFUZZ.

    Judge’s Citation:

    Ari Quan’s poems are dazzling in their range of formal dexterity, and lyrical complexity. Working across dramatic monologues, one-sided text messages, erasures, and sonnets, Quan satirizes “white picket paradigms,” while also offering moments of profound depth and intimacy. As they write in “A Serenity Prayer for My Creator,” “I love my orchard of apologies, I need to taste/ crisp flesh, the seeds. I need to breathe the brightest benediction.” Ari Quan is a ferociously talented young poet.

Georgia Writers’ LGBTQIA+ Literary Success Grants, modeled on our John Lewis Grants, are designed to encourage and amplify the voices of LGBTQIA+ youth (18-24) in Georgia. At a time when the country possesses a record number of anti-LGBTQ legislation (400+ bills and counting), we believe it is our responsibility to promote positive stories of queer life in the South. By promoting young queer voices state- and nationwide, we offer models for success that all young queer people in the state of Georgia can aspire to.

Generously supported by the Alliance for Full Acceptance (AFFA), the LGBTQIA+ Literary Success Grants will be awarded annually in the categories of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and screenwriting. The purpose of the grants is to elevate, encourage, and inspire the voices of young queer writers in Georgia.

  • Winners in each genre will receive:

    —A grant of $500 to give a reading at our Red Clay Writers Conference

    —A scholarship to the next annual Red Clay Writers Conference

  • Applicants must be 18 - 24 years of age and emerging writers who are queer residents of Georgia for at least one year, or full-time students at a Georgia college or university at the time of application and on the date of the award.

    • Applicants are ineligible if they have published more than one traditionally published book. Promising writers without publication will be considered. Writers who are eligible may apply annually but may only win a grant once. There is no submission fee to enter.

    • Applications will be reviewed anonymously.

    • Applicants are ineligible if they are of relations to any of the Georgia Writers staff or board of directors.

  • Writers may apply in only one genre and must submit the following:

    —A completed grant application

    —An essay of no more tha 500 words as a concise description of your work and goals as a writer. Please tell us what inspires or challenges your writing career.

    —No more than a ten-page writing sample of a published or unpublished piece in the genre in which you are applying--fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or screenwriting. If submitting poetry, one poem per page please.

    —Please format your manuscript: 12 pt. font, double-spaced, name and page number on each page.