About this site
Life Café is my independent reader-funded publication where I share my real journey as a writer, grant professional, and creative entrepreneur working to build a more balanced, sustainable life.
I’m Sarah Jessie Tucker (she/her/they), grant writer, Cultivating Safe Spaces facilitator, poet, and social entrepreneur at SJT Writing.
Artists cannot solely rely on grants to jumpstart their careers. Grant results take up to 6 months, and given the competitiveness, it's often a matter of chance to be awarded grant funding. I started Life Café because I want to do what many of us dream about: create space for my own creative practice. Specifically, I aim to raise the necessary funds, carve out the time, and undertake the work to write and publish my first book, scheduled for release in Fall 2026.
This blog is how I’m making that possible. When you subscribe, you’re directly supporting me as an independent writer and entrepreneur who wants to work with honesty, integrity, and care.
Your subscription makes this site possible and enables Life Café to continue operating. You are also supporting the development of our creative social enterprise model. Thank you for your support!
What You'll Get as a Paid Subscriber
✅ Every month, you'll receive six blog posts filled with helpful grant writing tips, inspiring interviews, stories, and personal reflections on Understanding Self.
✅ Practical how-tos on grant writing and creative social entrepreneurship for writers, filmmakers, and musicians - basically anyone with a story to tell.
✅ Suggestion Box: access to the content suggestions form to ask all your grant writing and funding questions.
✅ A look behind the scenes at my process, how I fund, plan, and prioritize my own book project.
✅ Full access to every post: past, present, and future.
✅ Invitations to monthly live Zoom circles for shared learning, planning, and real conversation (starting Sept 2025).
✅ Add to friends list on @SJTWriting Instagram.
Why Subscribe?
- Because you believe in supporting independent creators.
- Because you value real talk over marketing spin.
- Because you want to see what it really looks like to fund, write, and build something that matters—without burning out.
- Because you want to be part of a small, intentional community of people trying to do the same.
When you subscribe, you’re helping me write my book. You’re making it possible for me to share this journey openly. And you’re choosing to invest in thoughtful, human-centred writing and content you can use in your own practice.
Access all areas
By signing up, you'll get access to the full archive of everything that's been published before and everything that's still to come. You will be able to comment on posts in your very own private library of content.
Life Café
For those who want to live—and work—by choice, not by chance.
👉 Pull up a chair. Subscribe today. Let’s build what matters—together.