Support the Academy of American Poets
Editor’s note: I’ve experienced firsthand the Academy’s unparalleled support of poets and their communities, and I’m deeply disheartened by the termination of their grant with the NEA as it puts at risk the vital work that they do. Poets have carried our nation through its most pivotal moments, and the Academy now needs and deserves our support to defend not defund poetry.
From the Academy of American Poets:
In 1970, just five years after the founding of the National Endowment of the Arts, Academy Chancellor Emeritus W. H. Auden noted in an interview with the Guardian that his “only duty as a poet is to defend the use of language.”
The Academy of American Poets, like so many arts organizations, received notice that our contract with the NEA has been terminated. The communication stated that our project, which “showcases American poets and fosters public interest in poetry,” no longer aligns “with the Administration’s agenda.”
This grant termination, which will produce a significant gap in our budget, is a threat to our work to champion poets and poetry.
Today, we are reaching out to ask you to defend the future of poetry.
Since our founding during the Great Depression in 1934, through periods of cultural upheaval, wars, and moments of political division, the Academy has stood with poets, recognizing the power of language to help us understand the world more fully and make it more bearable.
For many years, federal funding has enabled the Academy to add thousands of poems and poet biographies to Poets.org and to publish Poem-a-Day every year on all 365 days, including 260 new poems by contemporary poets. It has also helped us distribute free educational resources to students and teachers across the nation.
Today, we’re asking you to help. If you are able, please make a contribution. Your donation will help bridge our budget gap and directly support poets, poetry education, and poetry resources for all.
You can also help defend your belief in the public support of poetry by contacting your representatives and letting them know why the arts are so important to you and your community.
And you can ensure that the teachers, educators, and librarians in your network have the materials they need to bring poetry into their schools and communities.
Defend poetry. And help us continue carrying forward a legacy we’ve built together for more than ninety years.
With gratitude and resolve,
Ricardo Maldonado
President and Executive Director
Thank you, Amy, Katy, Jessica, & Mohamed
Editor’s note: I got a glimpse of the thoughtful work the NEA was doing when my co-editors and I were in the process of working on our Dear Human anthology, and again when I was invited to be an NEA panelist. Amy and Jessica were incredibly helpful in offering suggestions and useful resources, and their departure from the NEA is a real and unfortunate loss for all of us.
From the NEA’s Literary Arts team:
Dear Literary Arts Colleagues:
We’re writing to let you know that May 30th will be our last day at the National Endowment for the Arts.
We are processing a lot of complex emotions in this moment, as we imagine you are too in light of recent agency developments, but know that we remain unwavering in our overall support of all of you and the critical work you do.
Collectively, the four of us have dedicated 57 years of service to the literary arts field. During that time, our charge has always been—at its core—to listen and learn, to respond to the needs of and champion the literary arts field, and to serve the public nationwide to the best of our ability. What a pleasure it has been to do that for and among such a brilliant, creative, supportive community.
You inspire us. All of you: writers, readers, translators, editors, teachers, librarians, arts administrators, festival organizers, workshop leaders, literary funders, literary service providers, and so many more of you out front and behind the scenes who help shape what the complex literary arts ecosystem is and can be.
It has been an honor to be part of an agency that, for almost 60 years, has also played a vital role in shaping the literary arts. We find ourselves reflecting with pride on the vast and various impacts the NEA has made during that time. In addition to supporting many hundreds of nonprofit organizations and publishers, the NEA has awarded fellowships to nearly 600 translators to render literature from more than 80 languages and 90 countries expertly into English, and to more than 3,800 poets and writers, often at critical stages of their careers and years before their work was acknowledged by other awards and appointments. And there have been many impactful initiatives over the decades. The NEA Big Read, for example, has reached every Congressional district in the country and has attracted partnerships from more than 40,000 community organizations, and we’re excited to be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Poetry Out Loud national finals this week.
Thank you to all those who worked with us as NEA judges and reviewers, who participated in convenings and attended our events, who inspired your students to recite poems on stage and encouraged your communities to all read and discuss the same book. Thank you to the organizations who have partnered with us on NEA initiatives. Thank you to those who helped us improve our processes and introduced us to new people and met with us at conferences. Thank you to those who work in other disciplines and industries and have welcomed collaboration. Thank you to those who shared knowledge and ideas for new research agendas and ways to make the literary arts more accessible and expansive.
Thank you to the poets, the story writers, the novelists, the essayists, the memoirists for your words that have lifted us toward the light. You remind us to slow down and be awed, to feel that unique joy in wondering about what we don’t know. You allow us to enter the depths of love, fear, sadness, anger, and connection, and to understand the hardships of others. You allow readers to discover themselves in your pages, and you connect us with our past and have the power—the superpower—to guide our way toward a hopeful future.
We are indebted to our NEA colleagues who facilitate the grants, communicate with constituents, oversee guidelines and panel processes, plan events, support the staff, and serve in various other offices throughout the agency. You will not find more dedicated, smart, hard-working, good-humored people who have routinely gone above and beyond the call of duty to support the agency’s mission. While we don’t know specifically how the work of the agency will change, we know the remaining staff will do their best to support you.
With our deepest respect and appreciation,
Amy Stolls, Literary Arts Director
Katy Day-Yapa, Literary Arts Specialist
Jessica Flynn, Literary Arts Specialist
Mohamed Sheriff, Literary Arts & Arts Education Coordinator
You can also show your support by contacting your congressional representative.
