Shout out to the Ontario Arts Council

Did I tell y’all I finally got my dream job?!

On Feb 5 that dream became a reality: I have joined the Transatlantic Agency as an Assistant Agent! In fact, I’ll be open to submissions on April 2!

If you’ve been following me for a while you know that I’ve talked about being a literary agent for years. In fact I knew I wanted to be an agent even before completing publishing school. There were many factors that 2018 the perfect time for me to make that dream a reality, but by far the most important factor was my finances.

The only reason I didn’t seek a job at a literary agency immediately after my first internship in 2012 is because the low pay and commission structure was untenable. As someone who came of age during the recession, my student loan debt felt like an anvil hovering over my head. Paying off those student loans in 2017 sparked a major shift in how I handled money. With the biggest chunk of my debt was gone, I felt like I had permission to eat something other McDoubles and Jamaican patties, permission to indulge in a few vacations, and permission to plan risky career changes.

Even so, my most optimistic plans called for at least 3 years of saving until I could switch to agenting. That is until I learned about the Skills and Development Grant. The Ontario Arts Council hosted an event called Fuel for Fire, a day-long professional development program for writers of color. I was invited as a speaker on the networking panel but was inspired by the talk about grants. I was impressed by the breadth of funding available and was surprised to know that there were grants I could qualify for.

After months of hand-wringing (and many nights of furious writing and revision) I applied for the Skills and Development grant in October. And at the end of February I was notified that my application was successful.

I can’t even describe the relief I felt when I got the news. It was the rigor of the grant application that forced me to crystallize my dreams into an actionable plan for the next 12 months. Just the exercise of completing the complicated budget made be consider exactly how much money I needed to fund my career as an agent. Because goals and dreams cost money. Even if (especially if?) they are artistic. In her book Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert talks about the relieving your art of the burden of funding your life. Thanks to the OAC’s grant I can do that, even if only for a few months.

I acknowledge the generous support of the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario, in helping to fund my training as an Assistant Agent. I encourage you all to review their site and apply for funding for yourselves.