Literary Arts Fund awards inaugural $7.7M to 40 nonprofits supporting writers and readers across U.S.

The Literary Arts Fund has announced $7.7 million in inaugural unrestricted grants to 40 literary arts organizations and publishers across 19 U.S. states, supporting nonprofits that serve writers through festivals, workshops, residencies, and publications. The funding, seeded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation alongside partners including the Ford, MacArthur, and Poetry foundations, aims to address the underinvestment in literature, which receives just 1.9% of private arts funding. Awardees, many operating on budgets under $1 million, collectively support thousands of writers and millions of readers annually. Recipients include Copper Canyon Press (Port Townsend, WA), Kweli Journal (New York, NY), Gemini Ink (San Antonio, TX), CityLit Project (Baltimore, MD), and Transit Books (Berkeley, CA). The initiative is slated to distribute $50 million over the next five years to strengthen the nonprofit literary ecosystem and expand support for writers nationwide.