Executive Director of the Literary Arts Fund @literaryartsfund.bsky.social Literaryartsfund.org
If you're in or visiting NYC this summer, here's a walking tour of a few wonderful bookstores and bookish landmarks worth checking out as mapped by The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
How to Spend a Bookish Afternoon in Midtown ManhattanThis walking tour through the bustling heart of New York City includes bookstores, great reading spots and literary-themed snacks.www.nytimes.com“It seems to me that literary fiction will shift even further in the direction of the weird, the esoteric, while personalization takes hold of commercial fiction.” —Laura Brooke Robson www.wired.com/story/more-t...
More Typos, Fewer Em Dashes: Writers Are Creating an Anti-AI ‘Literary Counterculture’Novelists, journalists, and power LinkedIn posters are embracing first-person narratives and idiosyncrasies to avoid being mistaken for chat bots.www.wired.com"But what...if the present were still swollen with all the forgotten and unrealized potential of the past? What if?" Ismail Muhammad on Colson Whitehead's body of work and new novel. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/m...
How a Novelist of the American Past Recovered His Faith in Its Future (Gift Article)Colson Whitehead’s Harlem trilogy turns away from the pessimism of his recent novels to offer a more hopeful vision for Black history.www.nytimes.comWe readers have more work to do to encourage a broader return to literature and reading. There are a myriad of things we can do, including getting involved with & supporting the local library or literary arts nonprofit, & sharing the joy of reading with people in our lives. time.com/article/2026...
In Defense of Reading BooksReading literature is a force of good for our health and communities, writes Jen Benka.time.comGood news for the arts in NYC: "My administration is proud to make a historic, record-level investment in NYC's arts and cultural organizations. Because we believe the people who make this city what it is should be able to build their lives here.” —Mayor Mamdani hyperallergic.com/nyc-mayor-ma...
NYC Mayor Mamdani Approves Record $323M Funding for CultureThe overall city budget also establishes a "Cultural Stability Fund" for struggling arts organizations.hyperallergic.com"A lesson of this historic season is that one could love basketball all year, not just when the games are being projected on the sides of bodegas...Here’s what to read if you’re almost ready to commit to basketball." —Brittany Allen lithub.com/what-to-read...
What to read next if the Knicks win made you “basketball-curious.”Today in New York, you can’t get to lower Manhattan because the streets are clogged with Knicks fans. My town is still on fire from their historic championship win last weekend. People who co…lithub.comHere's a new stat that's makes plain the economic challenges authors face: they earn $10,000 annually on average. This amount has "declined about 42% since 2009" though "books are available in more formats..." More from the Authors Guild and Codex Group: www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
Authors Guild Looks at Why Author Incomes Are in DeclineA survey commissioned by the Guild found that only 25% of print books and e-books read in the past month were bought new or through a paid subscription, with readers increasingly turning to low- or no...www.publishersweekly.comThe Literary Arts Fund has launched a new grant opportunity to support innovation, the first of its kind for nonprofits supporting literature and writers. A total of $1 million will be awarded in what is anticipated to be a highly competitive process. The deadline is August 17, 2026. More info here:
Literary Arts FundApplications are open for the Literary Arts Fund’s 2026 innovation project grants. Grants will range from $25K to $100K and provide funding to literary arts nonprofits for new, one-time, and forward-thinking projects that would strengthen literary arts nonprofits’ ability to serve creative writers.
I'm honored to help share this news and shine a light on the important work being done by literary arts nonprofits to champion writers and reading.
Literary Arts FundThe Literary Arts Fund is pleased to announce the recipients of its inaugural general operating grants, 40 nonprofit literary arts organizations and publishers spanning 19 states—from Alaska to Florida—that will receive a combined total of $7.7 million in unrestricted funds.
There's a surge in the number of independent bookstores, which Kelley Hartnett of Double Dog Bookshop in Wentzville, Missouri attributes to people "craving connection, especially in-person connection." apnews.com/article/inde...
Independent bookstores are multiplying, although many people still think they're dying outAllison Hill, CEO of the American Booksellers Association, often hears people express sympathy for her role, assuming bookstores are disappearing.apnews.comIt’s an important time to back books— especially those published by the dedicated staff at nonprofit literary presses, where adventurous literature lives.
Literary Arts FundNonprofit literary publishers provide critical support to creative writers and offer readers a great breadth of literature.
An impossible assignment: name only 15 books "most vital" to American literature. Here's Publishers Weekly's take. What's missing? www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
15 Essential Works of American LiteratureIn honor of America’s 250th birthday, we polled PW’s staffers and freelance reviewers, as well as members of the National Book Critics Circle, on the most essential books published in the U.S. since 1...www.publishersweekly.comOne of humanity’s great art forms, literature is a lot to lose. For too long, literature and writers, and the literary arts nonprofits that champion them both, have not been supported by philanthropy. There’s a huge opportunity to make a difference. May this be a moment of change.
Literary Arts FundLiterature is the least-supported artistic discipline in the U.S., receiving only 1.9% of the $5 billion in arts grants from foundations. This underfunding, which is persistent, underscores the urgent need for increased support for the nonprofit literary arts field. #LiteraryArts
"...There is value in banding with the poets, and fighting for the value of being curious and trying to articulate the world with whatever tools are available to us." —Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, physicist www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/s...
A Physicist Who Thinks in Poetry From the Cosmic Edgewww.nytimes.com"I think of characters as ways for me to ask questions and explore ideas. I see them as instruments. At the same time, they gain lives of their own and gain, hopefully, a certain vitality on the page which exceeds what I’m able to consciously construct." —Megha Majumdar therumpus.net/2026/05/04/w...
Who Deserves Your Compassion? A Conversation with Megha Majumdar - The Rumpus“Kolkata is one of the cities in the world which is most severely affected by climate change. It has grown hotter. It is predicted to endure more storms, and more severe storms. How does it feel to re...therumpus.netFor poets and writers wondering what to do with your archives and how... The WashU Libraries’, with support from the Mellon Foundation, have created an incredibly helpful guide for you on digital preservation practices. library.washu.edu/research-sup...
Born-Digital Poetry - WashU LibrariesThe WashU Libraries' Born-Digital Poetry project explores the discoverability, preservation, and use of born-digital poetry collections.library.washu.edu"Like the field, humans require periods of rest, of fallowness, because the fallow gives rise to the fertile. That before one can sing, one needs to understand the power of silence." —Lauren Groff lithub.com/lauren-groff...
Lauren Groff: There is No Such Thing as Boredom, Only NoticingMy soul is so full that we are here together tonight. Thank you, Hannah and Maribeth for your loving, clear and steady vision for One Story. I can’t believe it has been eighteen years since I had t…lithub.com"I believe in an old-fashioned virtue called Doing the Freakin’ Work. Read the book, not the summary. Write the piece, not the prompt. Suffer like the artist you are. It ain’t easy, but if it were easy, it wouldn’t be worth doing." —Colson Whitehead www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/o...
Opinion | Don’t Use A.I. to Do Thiswww.nytimes.comA wonderful read...
London Review of Books‘There is something redundant in writing about 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘣𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘱; scholars quote the same passages, ones of surpassing beauty that do not bear restatement. The novel must be read.’ @tricialockwood.bsky.social on Willa Cather. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
"For authors, this is not just a technology, it’s a moral issue. Authors feel their work has been stolen." —Seth Fishman www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/b...
A.I. Is Writing Fiction. Publishers Are Unprepared.www.nytimes.com