🏆 Audio Producer Julia Botero Won a $2,000 Creative Writing Fellowship
“Winning gave me a boost of confidence and a sense of legitimacy I needed.”
If you are motivated by success stories, you’re in for a treat!
Another community member has won a grant (sourced from our newsletter)!
When you’re in the thick of chasing your dreams and working tirelessly on grant applications, it’s easy to get discouraged and question the point of all this.
We hope this story inspires you to continue putting yourself out there and applying for opportunities — whether grants or otherwise— because you never know what’s earmarked for YOU.
So don’t give up—your chance could be just around the corner!
Today, you’ll hear from Julia Botero, an accomplished audio producer, formerly Modern Love Podcast at the New York Times.
Keep reading to learn more about Julia’s inspiring story of winning a $2,000 award for creative writing. Julia also shares tips for crafting successful grant applications and how this win has impacted the pursuit of more awards.
Did you win a grant you found in our newsletter? Share your success story with us by emailing grantsforcreators@gmail.com with the subject line “I won a grant.”
1. Tell us about yourself and your creative work.
Julia Botero: I'm an audio producer who has decided to take a break from working in podcasting to pursue creative writing. I'm currently working on a memoir that addresses themes of immigration, mental illness, family relationships, and care.
Connect on LinkedIn: juliabotero
2. What grant did you win?
Julia Botero: I won a fellowship with the Kweli Foundation*. The foundation's mission is to nurture emerging writers of color and create opportunities for their voices to be recognized and valued.
*This award was shared in our November 2024 newsletter. It provides early-stage writers with a $2,000 stipend and ten months of editorial support to prepare a piece for publication in the magazine.
3. How are you planning to use the grant funds?
Julia Botero: Simply to help me pay for living expenses as I write.
4. How did you approach the fellowship application process? What tools, if any, did you use?
Julia Botero: I attended a workshop on how to apply for writing fellowships and residencies hosted by Narratively.
I finished the workshop just a few weeks before Kweli's application deadline (and before I had heard of the Kweli Foundation).
The workshop taught us how to write a compelling artistic statement and walked us through what most fellowship applications might ask for.
By the time I found out about the Kweli Fellowship, I had a completed artistic statement and felt confident enough in my project that I dove right into the application.
5. What are your best tips for securing grant funding as a creative?
Julia Botero: Make sure to have a rock-solid artistic statement. This is not something you write the night before a deadline.
Spend a week writing one out and share it with people you trust who can give you feedback on it. Revise it until you feel it is concise, describes your project well and hits key points about who you are.
Remember that when it comes to describing what your project is about, less is more.
If you can boil your project idea down to three sentences then you're on your way to being able to communicate what you want to do clearly to someone else.
If you can do that, you have the hardest part of any application process out of the way.
Of course, your project may change over time, but having an airtight statement that you can then add to or rearrange based on the specific requirements of whatever grant or fellowship you're applying to means you are halfway there.
6. How does winning this fellowship impact your pursuit of other funding opportunities?
Julia Botero: It gave me a boost of confidence and a sense of legitimacy I needed. Someone else believes in my project and thinks it's worth supporting. That is everything.
7. How has Grants For Creators helped you with finding funding opportunities?
Julia Botero: I found the Kweli Fellowship Program directly through Grants For Creators.
I was sitting on my couch one evening scrolling through the list of opportunities, and once I saw the listing, I knew I had to apply.
I would have never known about this opportunity had it not been for Grants For Creators. Now that I've won one fellowship, I feel empowered to keep looking for more support.
Grants For Creators makes the process very easy because everything is in one big list centered around deadlines.
I'm notoriously bad at keeping track of when things are due but since Grants for Creators keeps all of that organized for you, it's a great resource for any creative to use who needs to find funding soon.
Not three months from now, not in six months, but now.
Grants For Creators keeps you on your toes by reminding you that there are new funding opportunities every month.
If you've struck out a few times in your search for funding, that's okay because there are always more opportunities.
Click Here » Review our April 2025 Grants Newsletter
Feeling inspired? Read other success stories in this series!
Jesse Mercury Won a $3,000 Grant For a Podcast About Living With Chronic Illness
Dr. Janina Jeff Won $25,000 To Produce Season 3 of In Those Genes Podcast
P.S. If you won a grant you found from this newsletter, please let us know! We'd love to feature you in this ongoing series. Email Danielle Corbett at grantsforcreators@gmail.com with the subject line: “I won a grant.”
Ahhhh! Julia! She and I used to intern together at WNYC. Congrats to her!!!
This is awesome! Congratulations 🎉 🎈