The pandemic has been such a challenge for all of us, and this funding provides enormous relief and support as we continue to serve our community.

— Matt Weinkam, Executive Director of Literary Cleveland

2022 Impact Report, Literary Arts Emergency Fund. Funded by The Mellon Foundation.
Credit: 2022 Literary Arts Emergency Fund Impact Report, Literary Arts Emergency Fund, established and administered by Academy of American Poets, Community of Literary Magazine & Presses, and National Book Foundation.

The Literary Arts Emergency Fund (LAEF) is a historic collaboration between the Academy of American Poets, the Community of Literary Magazines & Presses (CLMP), and the National Book Foundation to support and advocate for the nonprofit literary arts field.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation, over two cycles, the Fund distributed an unprecedented $7,830,000 to 376 nonprofit literary arts organizations and publishers in 43 states across the US, as well as Washington, DC and Puerto Rico, which were disastrously impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In September 2020, regrants were made to 282 nonprofit literary arts organizations and publishers. In April 2022, regrants were made to 313 nonprofit literary arts organizations and publishers.

Across both funding cycles, data was collected from applicants, which included information about finances, programs and publications, and reach. In preparation for the second funding cycle, LAEF worked with WolfBrown, a consulting firm that assists cultural organizations with expertise in market research, program design, and evaluation, to strengthen and expand its data collection effort. WolfBrown then analyzed the data collected and produced, in partnership with LAEF, a first-of-its-kind report on the nonprofit literary arts field.

Download the 2022 Literary Arts Emergency Fund Impact Report.

(Credit: 2022 Literary Arts Emergency Fund Impact Report, Literary Arts Emergency Fund, established and administered by Academy of American Poets, Community of Literary Magazine & Presses, and National Book Foundation.)

Watch an Information Session Hosted by the Literary Arts Emergency Fund About the Report.

The report, which focuses on data collected from the 410 literary organizations and publishers that applied to the fund in 2021, offers a detailed and compelling look at the tremendous cultural impact of nonprofit literary organizations and publishers and, at the same time, the financial precarity they face.

While “literary culture” often brings to mind commercial publishing, bookstores, and libraries, the report demonstrates the unique contributions that nonprofit literary organizations and publishers make to literature and the larger arts and culture sector in the US. For example, in 2021 alone these organizations and publishers reached 220.3 million individuals through programs and publications; provided $22 million to writers; and employed 2,546 individuals, many of whom are writers.

The report also reveals that nonprofit literary arts organizations and publishers, to a large extent, exist with meager budgets, few staff, and little or no cash reserves. This is especially true for nonprofit publishers and those organizations that are led by BIPOC staff and serve historically underrepresented groups.

For additional information about funding challenges faced by the literary arts field, in 2021, Inside Philanthropy (independent and distinct from LAEF) produced the report “Giving for Writing & Literature” (behind a paywall), which notes that, “Philanthropic giving for writing and literature is minuscule relative to other artistic disciplines.”

In 2020 and 2021, the Literary Arts Emergency Fund awarded one-time, unrestricted emergency grants from $5,000 to $50,000. Grant amounts were determined by the following factors: financial need and projected loss due to COVID-19; budget size; diversity, equity, and inclusion as it relates to an organization’s staff and board; poets and writers contracted with; audiences served; geographic location; and an organization’s ability to continue offering programming.

Eligible applicants included:

  • Literary arts organizations and publishers* AND
  • Incorporated nonprofits with 501(c)3 status OR a fiscal agent AND
  • Based in the United States, U.S. territories, or Tribal lands

*Because financial losses experienced by nonprofit literary arts organizations and publishers were substantial and emergency relief was limited, libraries, museums, book arts organizations, humanities councils, centers for the book, residencies, playwriting organizations, author’s homes, and organizations devoted to championing the legacy of an individual writer were ineligible.

Decisions about the eligibility of applications as determined by the three managing organizations were final.

Applications were reviewed by independent panelists who were named on the three managing organizations’ websites. Panel ratings formed the basis for funding. Award decisions were approved and finalized by members of the Board of Directors of the three managing organizations.

Funding through the Literary Arts Emergency Fund has closed. All applicant organizations from the most recent round were notified whether or not they received funding via Submittable on Monday, April 11, 2022.

The Literary Arts Emergency Fund is made possible the Mellon Foundation.

The literary arts organizations and publishers receiving emergency funding in 2022 are:

1455 ($5,000)

2892 Miles to Go ($5,000)

826 Boston ($5,000)

826 MSP ($5,000)

826 New Orleans ($10,000)

826CHI ($5,000)

826DC ($5,000)

826LA ($5,000)

826michigan ($5,000)

826NYC ($5,000)

Adirondack Center for Writing ($15,000)

Afghan American Artists and Writers Association ($10,000)

African Poetry Book Fund ($10,000)

African Voices Communications ($15,000)

Alabama Writers’ Forum ($15,000)

Alaska Quarterly Review ($15,000)

Alice James Books ($25,000)

Alternative Field ($5,000)

The American Literary Translators Association ($15,000)

American Poetry Review ($10,000)

American Short Fiction ($15,000)

Anaphora Literary Arts ($10,000)

Apogee Journal ($5,000)

Archipelago Books ($25,000)

Arte Publico Press ($50,000)

Artefactus Cultural Project ($15,000)

Asian American Writers’ Workshop ($25,000)

Aspen Words ($10,000)

Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) ($25,000)

Aunt Lute Books ($15,000)

Austin Bat Cave ($25,000)

Autumn House Press ($15,000)

Backbone Press ($5,000)

Balir ($15,000)

Bamboo Ridge Press ($25,000)

Bay Area Book Festival ($25,000)

Bowery Poetry Club ($10,000)

Behind the Book ($15,000)

Bellevue Literary Press ($25,000)

Bellevue Literary Review ($5,000)

Beloit Poetry Journal ($5,000)

Belt Media Collaborative (Belt Magazine) ($5,000)

Beyond Baroque Foundation ($25,000)

Birds, LLC ($10,000)

Black Ink: A Charleston African American Book Festival ($5,000)

Blue Stoop of Culture Trust ($25,000)

BOA Editions, Ltd. ($25,000)

BOMB Magazine ($10,000)

Bookmarks ($10,000)

Boston Book Festival  ($15,000)

Brink Literacy Project (F(r)iction) ($10,000)

Brooklyn Book Festival ($25,000)

Brooklyn Poets ($5,000)

Buckeye Authors Book Fair Committee ($15,000)

Bushwick Book Club ($5,000)

The Cabin Idaho ($10,000)

California Poets in the Schools ($10,000)

Cambodian American Literary Arts Association ($5,000)

CantoMundo ($25,000)

Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning ($15,000)

Cascadia Poetics LAB ($5,000)

Catamaran Literary Reader ($10,000)

CavanKerry Press ($15,000)

Cave Canem Foundation ($50,000)

Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College ($25,000)

The Center for Fiction ($25,000)

Center for the Art of Translation ($50,000)

Centrum ($5,000)

Chapter 510 Ink ($25,000)

CHARM: Voices of Baltimore Youth ($15,000)

Chicago Poetry Center ($5,000)

City of Asylum Pittsburgh ($25,000)

City of Asylum/Detroit ($15,000)

CityLit Project ($15,000)

Coffee House Press ($50,000)

Common Foundation (The Common) ($10,000)

Common Notions Press ($10,000)

Community Literature Initiative ($10,000)

Community of Writers ($15,000)

Community-Word Project ($25,000)

Conjunctions ($5,000)

ConTextos ($10,000)

Contratiempo ($10,000)

Copper Canyon Press ($25,000)

Creative Nonfiction Foundation ($10,000)

Cuatrogatos Foundation ($15,000)

Day Eight ($5,000)

Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation ($10,000)

December Publishing ($5,000)

Deep Center ($5,000)

Deep Vellum ($15,000)

DewMore Baltimore ($10,000)

DreamYard Project ($10,000)

The Drift Magazine ($5,000)

Driftless Writing Center ($5,000)

Dzanc Books ($10,000)

Editora Educación Emergente ($5,000)

Electric Lit ($15,000)

Elizabeth Kostova Foundation ($5,000)

Elk River Arts & Lectures ($5,000)

Epiphany Literary Magazine ($5,000)

Etruscan Press ($10,000)

Eulalia Books ($5,000)

Evergreen Review ($5,000)

Everybody Wins DC ($5,000)

Feminist Press ($25,000)

Fence Magazine ($5,000)

Fishtrap ($10,000)

Foglifter Press ($10,000)

Four Way Books ($15,000)

Free Verse Writing Project ($15,000)

Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University ($15,000)

Futurepoem ($10,000)

A Gathering of the Tribes ($15,000)

Gemini Ink ($25,000)

Georgia Writers Association ($5,000)

Get Lit! Festival ($5,000)

Get Lit – Words Ignite ($10,000)

Girls Write Now ($15,000)

Graywolf Press ($50,000)

Greensboro Literary Organization ($15,000)

GrubStreet ($15,000)

Guernica ($10,000)

Guild Literary Complex ($5,000)

Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts ($15,000)

Hanging Loose Press ($10,000)

The Head and The Hand ($15,000)

Herstory Writers Workshop ($15,000)

House of SpeakEasy Foundation ($10,000)

The Hudson Review ($10,000)

Hypertext Magazine & Studio ($5,000)

Image ($10,000)

In Black Ink ($15,000)

In-Na-Po, Indigenous Nations Poets  ($25,000)

Inprint ($15,000)

International Women’s Writing Guild ($5,000)

Just Buffalo Literary Center ($25,000)

Kaya Press ($25,000)

Kearny Street Workshop ($25,000)

Kenyon Review ($10,000)

Kimbilio ($15,000)

Kore Press Institute ($15,000)

Kundiman ($25,000)

Kweli Journal ($15,000)

Lambda Literary ($50,000)

Letras Latinas at University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies ($15,000)

LibroMobile ($15,000)

Libros El Navegante ($10,000)

Life Journeys Writers Club ($5,000)

Literary Arts ($25,000)

Literary Cleveland ($5,000)

Literary Freedom Project ($10,000)

The Literary Review ($5,000)

Litmus Press ($5,000)

Litquake Foundation ($10,000)

The Loft Literary Center ($15,000)

Lookout Books ($10,000)

Los Angeles Review of Books ($15,000)

Lost Horse Press ($10,000)

Louisville Literary Arts ($5,000)

Louisville Story Program ($10,000)

Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance ($10,000)

MAKE Literary Productions ($10,000)

The Markaz Review ($25,000)

Marsh Hawk Press ($5,000)

Mass Poetry ($15,000)

The Massachusetts Review ($10,000)

McSweeney’s ($25,000)

Miami Book Fair ($15,000)

Milkweed Editions ($15,000)

Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop ($50,000)

Mississippi Book Festival ($15,000)

Missoula Writing Collaborative ($5,000)

Missouri Review ($10,000)

Mizna ($25,000)

Montana Book Festival ($5,000)

The Moth ($25,000)

The Muse Writers Center ($15,000)

n+1  ($5,000)

National Novel Writing Month ($25,000)

The National Poetry Series ($10,000)

National Youth Foundation ($5,000)

Nebraska Writers Collective ($5,000)

New Letters Magazine ($5,000)

New Literary Project ($10,000)

The New Orleans Poetry Festival ($5,000)

Nightboat Books ($15,000)

Nimrod International Journal of Prose and Poetry ($10,000)

Nomadic Press ($15,000)

North Carolina Writers’ Network ($10,000)

North Dakota State University Press ($15,000)

Northern Arizona Book Festival ($5,000)

Northwestern University Press ($25,000)

Nuyorican Poets Cafe ($10,000)

NY Writers Coalition ($5,000)

O, Miami ($15,000)

Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora ($15,000)

The Offing ($5,000)

Omnidawn Publishing ($10,000)

One Book One New Orleans ($5,000)

One Story ($10,000)

Orion Magazine ($15,000)

OutWrite DC ($15,000)

Oxford American Literary Project ($10,000)

Page 15 ($10,000)

Parachute Literary Arts ($5,000)

The Paris Review ($10,000)

Passager Books ($5,000)

PEN American Center ($15,000)

PEN/Faulkner Foundation ($15,000)

Pen Parentis ($5,000)

PenUltimate Press ($10,000)

Philippine American Writers and Artists (PAWA) ($10,000)

Pleiades: Literature in Context ($5,000)

Ploughshares ($10,000)

Podium RVA ($10,000)

Poetry Center San Jose ($5,000)

Poetry Daily ($10,000)

Poetry Flash ($5,000)

The Poetry Project ($15,000)

Prairie Schooner ($5,000)

Poetry Society of America ($15,000)

Poetry Society of New York ($5,000)

Poets & Writers ($50,000)

Poets House ($10,000)

Polyphony Lit ($5,000)

The Porch ($15,000)

Public Poetry ($5,000)

A Public Space ($25,000)

RADAR Productions ($10,000)

Radius of Arab American Writers ($5,000)

Rain Taxi ($15,000)

The RED Bookshelf ($10,000)

Red Hen Press ($25,000)

Restless Books ($25,000)

River Styx ($5,000)

Room Project ($15,000)

Roots. Wounds. Words. ($25,000)

Rose O’Neill Literary House ($5,000)

Ruminate Magazine ($5,000)

Saint Louis Poetry Center ($5,000)

San Antonio Book Festival ($15,000)

San Francisco Writers Conference ($5,000)

Sarabande Books ($15,000)

Seattle Arts & Lectures ($25,000)

Semiotexte Limited ($5,000)

The Seventh Wave Magazine ($5,000)

Shout Mouse Press ($10,000)

Siglio ($15,000)

Sinister Wisdom ($5,000)

Sistories ($5,000)

Skagit River Poetry Foundation ($5,000)

Small Press Distribution ($10,000)

Small Press Traffic ($15,000)

So Say We All ($10,000)

Society of the Muse of the Southwest (SOMOS) ($15,000)

Southern Lit Alliance ($15,000)

Speculative Literature Foundation ($5,000)

Split This Rock ($10,000)

Sundress Publications ($5,000)

Swan Isle Press ($5,000)

Teachers & Writers Collaborative ($25,000)

Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival ($15,000)

Texas Book Festival ($25,000)

Third World Press Foundation ($15,000)

The Threepenny Review ($10,000)

Torrey House Press ($15,000)

Town Hall Seattle ($10,000)

Transit Books ($15,000)

Triple Canopy ($10,000)

Tupelo Press ($15,000)

The Tuxedo Project ($15,000)

Twelve Literary Arts ($15,000)

Two Dollar Radio ($15,000)

Ugly Duckling Presse ($15,000)

Underground Writing ($5,000)

Undocupoets ($5,000)

University of Arizona Poetry Center ($15,000)

University of Pittsburgh Press ($10,000)

Urban Word NYC ($50,000)

Virginia Children’s Book Festival ($5,000)

Voices of our Nations Arts Foundation ($50,000)

Wendy’s Subway ($5,000)

Wesleyan University Press ($25,000)

White Pine Press ($10,000)

Wick Poetry Center ($15,000)

Women in Comics Collective International ($5,000)

Women Writing for (a) Change, Jacksonville ($15,000)

Woodland Pattern Book Center ($25,000)

The Word, A Storytelling Sanctuary ($15,000)

Word Up Community Bookshop ($50,000)

WordPlay Cincy ($15,000)

Words Without Borders ($25,000)

Write Around Portland ($15,000)

Write Now! SF Bay ($10,000)

Write On, Door County ($5,000)

Writers & Books ($15,000)

The Writer’s Center ($10,000)

The Writer’s Garret ($10,000)

Writers in Baltimore Schools ($15,000)

Writers in the Schools ($25,000)

Writers’ League of Texas ($5,000)

The Writers Room ($10,000)

YALLFest Charleston ($15,000)

YMCA of Central New York’s Downtown Writers Center ($15,000)

Young Authors Greenhouse ($5,000)

Young Chicago Authors ($10,000)

Young, Black & Lit ($10,000)

Youth Speaks ($50,000)

Zephyr Press ($5,000)

Zoeglossia ($25,000)

Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation ($50,000)

ZYZZYVA ($15,000)

The administering organizations convened three separate grantmaking panels and disbursements were approved by each organization’s Board. The panelists were:

At the Academy of American Poets: Teri Cross Davis, Alberto Ríos, and Janice Sapigao.

At CLMP: Joseph O. Legaspi, Steph Opitz, and Sara Ortiz.

At the National Book Foundation: Diana Marie Delgado, James G. Thomas, Jr., and Jafreen Uddin.

Read the full announcement here.

Regrants from this fund are made possible by the Mellon Foundation.

The literary arts organizations and publishers that received emergency funding in 2020 are: 

The administering organizations convened three separate grantmaking panels to make recommendations for the final award decisions. The panelists were:

At the Academy of American Poets: Richard BlancoRuth Ellen Kocher, and Deborah Paredez

At CLMP: Harold Augenbraum, Nate Marshall, and Elda Rotor

At the National Book Foundation: Ken Chen, Andre Perry, and Keren Taylor

Read the full announcement here.

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