KDSN RADIO News
Iowa literary group hopes to get financial boost from new fund
An Iowa City organization that promotes creative writing hopes to cash in on a new program that will grant at least $50-million over the next five years to support writers, publishers, and literary programs nationwide.
John Kenyon, executive director of the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature, says he plans to apply to the Literary Arts Fund, which began taking applications on Monday.
Kenyon says the opportunity comes at a critical time.
“It is something that we really feel necessary to pursue, because we want to continue to deliver the same types of programs and services that we always have,” Kenyon says, “and are doing so at a time when costs are increasing and that funding is really flattening.”
Kenyon says the fund is designed to help one of the nation’s most underfunded art forms.
“It’s a pretty potentially transformative thing to drop into the literary arts sector here, which, as they’re pointing out, could certainly use some support,” Kenyon says, “and it’s wonderful that these foundations have identified that need and are willing to step in and help meet it.”
Seven major foundations, including Mellon, Ford, MacArthur, and the Poetry Foundation, are supporting the fund.
According to the nonprofit information service Candid, literature received only around two percent of the five billion dollars in arts grants awarded in 2023.
(By Josie Fischels, Iowa Public Radio)
