Creation of an emergency fund for the literary arts for organizations in difficulty

In April, a coalition of seven arts organizations including the National YoungArts Foundation, Creative Capital and United States Artists created Artist Relief, an initiative to provide $5,000 relief grants to creatives facing financial emergencies due to the fallout. of COVID-19. Now, the Academy of American Poets, the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses, and the National Book Foundation have come together to create a similar initiative for literary organizations and nonprofits in particular: the Emergency Fund for literary arts. The Fund will distribute grants of amounts ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 to literary and non-profit organizations based on financial need and projected losses due to COVID-19.

The $3.5 million grant that made the Literary Arts Emergency Fund possible came from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which has, according to its website, cumulatively committed more than $200 million to the Literary Arts Emergency Fund. arts and human organizations that have been devastated by COVID-19. “Writers create the vast and complex archives of humanity – they are the chroniclers of our joys and our fears, our varied inner lives, our humor, our angst and our determination,” said Elizabeth Alexander, president of the Mellon Foundation and poet, in a press release. . “This one-time emergency grant provides essential support both to these essential storytellers and to the organizations that ensure their written work remains accessible.”

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Prospective applicants for the Literary Arts Emergency Fund are encouraged to submit their offers immediately, as the deadline for applications falls on August 7. of the pandemic, need help during this crucial time. Additionally, financial grants can be extremely helpful for writers who need more space and time to complete their work. writers who cannot easily adhere to the enormous demands placed on them by society are particularly vulnerable when society begins to fall apart. Organizations that receive this grant will be able to do a lot of good.

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that the fund was available to individual writers. In fact, the fund is only accessible to literary organizations. The piece has been updated to reflect this change.