Amazon Literary Partnership Announces 2019 Grant Recipients

The Amazon Literary Partnership awarded more than $1 million in funding to sixty-six nonprofits dedicated to serving writers and announced a new Poetry Fund in collaboration with the Academy of American Poets and a Literary Magazine Fund with the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses. The funding will support groups that are working to empower writers, helping them to create, publish, learn, teach, experiment, and thrive.

Since 2009, the Amazon Literary Partnership has awarded more than $12 million in grant funding to more than 150 literary organizations, with a particular focus on supporting a diversity of voices. Grant recipients include nonprofit writing centers, residencies, fellowships, after-school classes, literary magazines, national organizations supporting storytelling and free speech, and internationally acclaimed publishers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

In addition to the 66 grants gifted this year, the Amazon Literary Partnership has awarded two $120,000 grants to the Academy of American Poets and the Community of Literary Presses and Magazines (CLMP) to create a new Poetry Fund and Literary Magazine Fund for poetry organizations and literary magazines. Both funds will support more than a dozen organizations and will be announced by the Academy of American Poets and CLMP.

In Texas, Writers in the Schools (WITS) and Inprint, both in Houston, were awarded 2019 Amazon Literary Partnership grants.

Texas Art Organizations Receive $2+ Million from the NEA

The National Endowment for the Arts announced its most recent round of grantees. Funds awarded nationally totaled $80.4 million, given to 1,114 projects across the country, with each state and five US jurisdictions represented in the group. The NEA’s Acting Chairman, Mary Anne Carter, commented on this round, “Reflecting the diverse artistic richness of our nation, these Arts Endowment-funded projects are varied in their size, scope, and artistic discipline. The projects also illustrate the unique geographic reach of Arts Endowment funding, serving Americans in places large and small in all corners of the country.”

Forty-five Texas projects received a total of $2,117,500 in three grant categories: Art Works II, which provides general support to programs; state and regional partnerships, which gives money to local entities that further the NEA’s mission; and Research: Art Works, which supports research that impacts the arts.

Grants which will support literary projects in Texas were awarded to:

Texas Commission on the Arts: $1,027,500

Abilene Arts Alliance: $15,000 to support the Children's Art & Literacy Festival, including readings, art activities, and writing and illustration workshops, as well as an exhibit of illustrations by Peter Brown

Inprint, Inc. (Houston): $20,000 to support literary programming for adults and young people

Texas Folklife Resources (Austin): $30,000 to support “Stories from Deep in the Heart,” a folklore and media education and distribution program

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (Harlingen): $25,000 to support the FESTIBA Festival

Writers in the Schools (WITS) (Houston): $50,000 to support a year-round creative writing program for youth from underserved communities

Texas State University - San Marcos: $10,000 to support the Texas State University Black and Latino Playwrights Conference