Grant-making activities in the Literary Program aim to increase public appreciation, understanding, and support for contemporary literature in the English language.
Since the grant making program was established in 1987, the foundation has supported more than 150 nonprofit organizations nationwide. Primarily, the program has supported publishers and distributors, literary journals, residency programs, educational programs, and literary centers. Over the years the focus of the program has expanded considerably and for a full understanding of the funding interests of the program at this time, we have listed current grants in the Literary program below:
Archipelago Books
www.archipelagobooks.org
Brooklyn, NY
This small Brooklyn-based press is devoted to literature in translation. Committed to bringing to American audiences the best of contemporary and classic literature from around the world, they have titles from France, Spain, China, Palestine, Germany, Japan, Eastern Europe and the Middle East amongst others. Grant funds were awarded to publish and promote new books in translation.
...Hide
BOA Editions
www.boaeditions.org
Rochester, NY
BOA Editions, along with Curbstone Press and Graywolf Press, received a grant in 2002 to participate in an initial three-year project to bring to publication books never before in English translation. In making the grant, Lannan Foundation was responding to the results of an NEA study that indicated there were only 300 books published in English translation each year, and the majority of those were previously translated works, especially the classics. BOA has produced two books per year in a Lannan Translation Selections series and the project has proved so successful it will continue at least through the end of 2010.
...Hide
Bookworm
www.kcrw.com/show/bw
Santa Monica, CA
For many years, Lannan has supported Michael Silverblatt’s nationally syndicated literary interview program, Bookworm. The program is carried over 150 public radio stations nationwide and our website has an ever-expanding archive of past programs available.
...Hide
Cave Canem
www.cavecanempoets.org
New York, NY
Cave Canem is committed to the discovery and cultivation of new voices in African American poetry. Programs include a summer retreat, regional workshops, a first book prize, annual anthologies, readings and other events. They are a national community of emerging and established poets, a family of writers who create, publish, perform, teach, study poetry, and support each others’ work. This grant is for operational support.
...Hide
City of Santa Fe Arts Commission
www.santafenm.gov/index.asp?nid=818
Santa Fe, NM
The city of Santa Fe instituted the position of Poet Laureate in 2006 with private funding and the first poet to hold the two-year position was Arthur Sze. This grant will support the next poet to fill the position.
...Hide
Copper Canyon Press
www.coppercanyonpress.org
Port Townsend, WA
Lannan has a long relationship with this noted small press devoted exclusively to the publication of poetry. Multi-year grants have been awarded for publications in the Lannan Selections series, operational and development support, and technical organizational assistance.
...Hide
Curbstone Press
www.curbstone.org
Willimantic, CT
Curbstone Press is one of three nonprofit presses – see also BOA Editions and Graywolf Press – awarded a grant in 2002 to publish two books in English translation per year for three years, and will continue with the project through 2010. Curbstone, which was founded in 1975 by the late and lamented Alexander (Sandy) Taylor, and his wife, Judith Doyle, focuses on literature that speaks to social issues and human rights.
...Hide
Folger Shakespeare Library
www.folger.edu
Washington, DC
This multi-year grant supports a poetry series from September through May of each year that brings noted poets to Washington, DC to read from and discuss their work and lead seminars and writing workshops.
...Hide
Georgetown University
www.georgetown.edu
Washington, DC
With grant support, students participate in the Folger Library poetry and seminar series; noted writers and poets are invited to campus for readings and seminars; courses have been developed to center on the work of the visiting writers; community outreach programs are offered to area schools, and an annual conference is held at the university.
...Hide
Graywolf Press
www.graywolfpress.org
Minneapolis, MN
Along with Curbstone Press and BOA Editions, this nationally recognized nonprofit press, based in Minneapolis, participated in a three-year project from 2002-2004 to produce new works in English translation. With support from the grant, the press published two books a year that otherwise would not have been translated and published. The success of that initial project has led to further three-year grants for each press so the project will continue through at least 2010.
...Hide
Institute of American Indian Arts
www.iaiancad.org
Santa Fe, NM
Serving Native students from across the country, the Institute is a noted college based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. An initial grant in 2005 supported the creation of a residence program for poets and writers, and the current grant offers ongoing support for the program.
...Hide
KSFR Radio
www.ksfr.org
Santa Fe, NM
This public radio station based in Santa Fe rebroadcasts all Lannan Readings & Conversations events and offers daily Democracy Now! and weekly Bookworm progamming with support from this grant.
...Hide
Marfa Public Library
Marfa, TX
A three-year grant is enabling the Friends of the Marfa Library to purchase and maintain computers and software as well as increase their book and media acquisitions. A recent one-time grant is contributing to major structural renovations to the library.
...Hide
National Poetry Series
www.nationalpoetryseries.org
Princeton, NJ
The National Poetry Series has, since 1978, sponsored the publication of five books of poetry each year. The manuscripts, solicited through an annual open competition, are selected by poets of national stature and published by a distingusihed group of trade, university, and small presses.
...Hide
PEN American Center
www.pen.org
New York, NY
This grant helps support the PEN Writers’ Fund and the Fund for Writers & Editors with AIDS. The Funds offer small grants to professional writers and editors facing unforseen and financially debilitating crises.
...Hide
Poetry Center of Chicago
www.poetrycenter.org
Chicago, IL
This is a multi-year operational grant to the innovative Poetry Center that creates and hosts a wide range of literary events and community outreach programs in the Chicago area.
...Hide
Poetry Daily
www.poems.com
The Poetry Daily website was launched in 1997 and features a new poem every day from a range of books and journals, along with news, reviews, critical prose pieces, an archive, and other editorial features. It has been funded primarily through online donations. This multi-year grant will assist with a complete redesign and updating of the site, adding staff, renting an office, and seeking further foundation and corporate support and sponsorships.
...Hide
Radio Telefs Éirann
www.rte.ie/
Seamus Heaney will turn 70 years old on 13 April 2009. To recognize and celebrate this event, RTE has Heaney’s enthusiastic agreement to record him reading his entire body of work. These recordings in CD and MP3 formats will be sold by RTE, broadcast for 24 hours on the actual birthday, and will be the only such complete record of Heaney’s work. A grant was made to support the recording and distribution of the Heaney project.
...Hide
Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation
www.torhouse.org/
This grant matches a National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) grant in support of a “Big Read” program in October-November 2008 in honor of the organization’s 30th anniversary. Various events featuring the work of Robinson Jeffers are planned.
...Hide
Seven Stories Institute
www.sevenstoriesinstitute.com/
To celebrate the centennial of the birth of the American writer Nelson Algren, Seven Stories Institute is planning a series of programs and publications to include the announcement of the 2008 National Book Award finalists at the Algren Fountain in Chicago; various readings and panel discussions of his work at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) 2009 conference in Chicago; a multidisciplinary event at the Steppenwolf Theater in April 2009 that will be filmed for later DVD distribution; and free distribution of Algren’s books to schools and libraries throughout the country. The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, Seven Stories Press, the National Book Foundation, and the Steppenwolf Theater Company are partners in this project and Lannan joins this collaborative effort with grant support.
...Hide
Trinity University Press
http://tupress.trinity.edu/
Trinity University Press will be publishing a book, Chinese Writers on Writing, edited by poet Arthur Sze. The book will feature essays with accompanying poems, prose, and excerpts of interviews by 39 leading Chinese writers from 1917 to the present. This grant will cover translation and author fees.
...Hide
University of Arizona
www.arizona.edu
A multi-year grant supports writing workshops in the Arizona Prison system, initiated 27 years ago and still led by poet and writer, Richard Shelton.
...Hide
Words without Borders
http://www.wordswithoutborders.org
This is a multi-year grant in support of this website’s new initiative, Project for Global Cultural Literacy. The project will provide educators with high quality literary content for classes that seek international perspectives through works translated into English.
www.wordswithoutborders.org is an innovative response to a serious lack of translated work in the U.S. and offers an ever-changing array of writers from around the world whose work otherwise would be unavailable to those who read in English.
...Hide
