Chaz O’Neil, the Individual Artist Programs & Percent for Art Coordinator for the Ohio Arts Council, offers behind-the-scenes tips for Ohio writers applying for the $5,000 OAC Individual Excellent Awards. He discusses eligibility, types of writing accepted, submission guidelines, narrative and philosophy statements, the judging process, and how writers can prepare the strongest application possible. Laura also shares a bit about her own application that won her one of these grants in 2022. Learn more about O'Neil at his website and on Instagram.

The Individual Excellence Award application deadline is September 1, 2023. Be sure to check out Part 2 of this series to hear from past OAC panelists who offer advice to applicants.

Additional OAC Resources:

• YouTube Channel

Following this episode, we offer a preview of “Revising Nancy Drew,” our episode featuring Nancy Drew expert and collector Jennifer Fisher. This episode will drop a day early on July 3. Stay tuned!

Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, visit the episode page. To get in touch, email [email protected] (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Twitter or on Facebook.