George Mason University

To help aspiring authors, the family of the late Mary Roberts Rinehart began a number of years ago awarding small grants to writers whose work showed particular promise. These grants were given to honor Ms. Rinehart, a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work was popular in the earlier decades of the 1900s. In 1983, the Rinehart family established The Mary Roberts Rinehart Fund at George Mason University to finance annual grants to promising writers. Currently, three grants are awarded in spring for the best nominated manuscript in fiction, in nonfiction, and in poetry.

Candidates for awards in fiction and nonfiction should submit a freestanding entry, such as a short story or a self-contained section of a book. No entry in fiction or nonfiction should exceed 20 pages. Candidates in poetry should submit 1 poem, up to 10 pages in length. Candidates should write on the envelope the genre in which they are seeking a grant. Manuscripts will not be returned.  An author not granted an award one year may apply in succeeding years but once a writer receives an award, he or she may not apply for another, even in a different genre. The decisions of the judges are based on the quality of writing evident in the submitted manuscript.