Writing the Other offers in-person and online writing classes for creators who want to include characters whose gender, sexual preference, race, or other major identity differs significantly from their own and/or set their narratives in cultures outside of their own. Your contributions ensure writers learn fundamental skills about representation, inclusion, and diversity to help them craft great fictional narratives found in short stories and novels, tabletop roleplaying games and video games, comics and graphic novels, TV shows and movies.
Writing the Other is operating as a nonprofit organization under the fiscal sponsorship of Clarion West, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Your donations to Writing the Other are tax-deductible and, upon donating to us, you’ll receive a receipt you can use for tax purposes.
How to Give
Help us help writers learn how to combat cultural toxicity and create narratives that represent and reflect the world with a one-time donation or with a recurring pledge.
One-time Donation
Writing the Other is happy to accept one-time, tax-deductible donations from individuals and corporations placed online through Stripe or by mailing us a check or money order.
Donate Online
To make a one-time donation to Writing the Other online, please click the button below or give using this link.
Mail Us a Check
To donate to Writing the Other, you can also mail us a check or money order. Please use this address for your gift.
Writing the Other
8001 14th Avenue NE
Suite A
Seattle, WA 98115
Recurring Support
Our monthly supporters on Patreon help build a reliable source of funding for our scholarship, resources and outreach, and operations expenses. We offer multiple tiers to accommodate a variety of financial circumstances ranging from $1 per month to $100.
To support Writing the Other on an ongoing basis, visit Writing the Other on Patreon.
Other Ways to Help
Writing the Other is an online resource that helps writers craft characters who represent the “Other” sensitively and convincingly. If you cannot afford to donate to us, we understand. You can also help by:
- Telling others about our classes and resources
- Signing up for our newsletter
- Following us on BlueSky, Mastodon, and Tumblr
- Subscribing to our YouTube Channel
- Liking, Favoriting, and Resharing our posts
Our mission is to help all authors, regardless of their experience, career status, or financial circumstances. Helping others be aware of this mission is just as important as your donation.
How Your Donation Helps
Donations received help writers learn how to write the “Other” by funding their class tuition and our free resources. Additionally, donations also help cover expenses associated with outreach and operational costs.
Vonda N. McIntyre Sentient Squid Scholarship
Writing the Other’s scholarship fund is named for author Vonda N. McIntyre, an award-winning and beloved science fiction and fantasy novelist who passed away in April 2019, and whose generosity is the reason this scholarship exists. In 2016, Vonda offered to pay for a registration in an upcoming Writing the Other class so writers who couldn’t afford to take it could still benefit. Though she didn’t want public credit, we named the scholarship “Sentient Squid” in secret honor of a character in her Starfarer book series, the “squidmoth” Nemo.
To date, the Sentient Squid Scholarship has provided over $25,000 in financial aid to a wide range of deserving applicants. Approximately 20% of alumni have benefited directly from scholarship funds. Our goal is to set aside 25% of the spots in each of our classes for scholarship students.
Scholarship applications open on a class-by-class basis. Students receive instructions to apply when enrollment opens, and applications are processed immediately for the class they wish to attend.
To learn more, read about the Vonda N. McIntyre Sentient Squid Scholarship.
Education and Outreach
To further our mission, Writing the Other curates and creates free, multimedia resources available to the general public about creating inclusive fiction and other narratives. Our free resources about writing the “Other” include articles, videos, podcasts, and more.
These resources have been curated by Writing the Other teachers. A more comprehensive library of online resources is available to alumni of our classes, workshops, and retreats.
Operations Expenses
As a nonprofit organization, Writing the Other subsists on your generous support. Donations help offset our operational costs associated with facilitating our courses and workshops and related business expenses.
What Our Students Say
Receiving the Sentient Squid Scholarship both instilled further confidence in me as a writer and enabled me to grow in ways I wouldn’t have been able to without taking the Description Deep Dive class. Receiving the scholarship has had long-term effects on my writing that I wouldn’t have been able to get otherwise.
— James F
The Sentient Squid Scholarship was a unique opportunity for me, and I’m thankful for it. I’m from Brazil, and we don’t have many creative writing classes here and classes about “writing the other” are nonexistent. It gave me the chance to learn how to write better and to rethink the way I write, while it also taught me how to tell my own experience better.
— Jordana
The scholarship meant a lot to me. Unemployed, it gave me the ability to attend the Worldbuilding Class. This class expanded my horizons, showed me my own biases, and got me back into writing after a long absence. I loved this class, and hope to see more like it.
— Meghan M
Writing the Other is operating as a nonprofit organization under the fiscal sponsorship of Clarion West, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donations to Writing the Other are applied to where the need is greatest and are not earmarked. All donations to Writing the Other are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.