Masked up in Seattle, a pedestrian is pictured on April 17 near the Amazon campus’ Spheres. Image – iStockphoto: Bjorn Bakstad

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_AndersonAdding to $13 Million in Charitable Support

Following its deadline of January 15 for applications, the Amazon Literary Partnership has this morning (May 27) announced $1 million in grants to 66 organizations in the United States. And as the country approaches the terrible milestone of 100,000 deaths to the coronavirus COVID-19, the funds being issued by the program may look better than ever.In fact, Amazon already has provided COVID-19 emergency relief donations to Artist Relief and PEN America’s Writers’ Emergency Fund, the latter of which is also supported by the Lannan Foundation, and The Haven Foundation.

Publishing Perspectives readers are familiar with Amazon’s program, both for its more than $13 million in funding since Jon Fine directed the establishment of the program in 2009, and for its focus on supporting nonprofit efforts that serve writers, with a traditional emphasis on “overlooked and marginalized writers,” as Neal Thompson, another director of the program, has put it.

Today, Alexandra Woodworth guides the program, which  has touched the work of more than 150 organizations. As noted in earlier coverage, one of the interesting characteristics of this program is that it funds writers but through programs that work with and for them.

• The theme is the author—with an emphasis on underrepresented voices—and supporting that writer’s needs
• The variations or genres are represented by the wide variety of organizations and services funded

This translates into direct support for 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.

Alexandra Woodworth

On today’s announcement, Woodworth says, “he Amazon Literary Partnership champions organizations that support writers, poets, translators, and diverse voices at every stage in their career. Given the impact that COVID-19 has had on the literary community, we’re proud to continue to fund these remarkable organizations sustaining literary culture in our communities now and for the future.”

The 2020 roster of grant recipients include organizations from 24 states and the District of Columbia.

New grant recipients this time include Deep Vellum Publishing; City of Asylum Pittsburgh; The Center for Africa; and LitNet; Among past grant recipients are the Asian American Writers Workshop; Lambda Literary; National Novel Writing Month; the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” program; Words Without Borders; and Poets & Writers.

Amazon Literary Partnerships 2020

• 826 Valencia
• 826NYC
• Academy of American Poets
• Archipelago Books
• Artist Relief
• Artist Trust
• Asian American Writers’ Workshop
• Aspen Words
• Association of Writers & Writing Programs
• Beverly Rogers, Carol C. Harter Black Mountain Institute
• Brooklyn Book Festival.org
• Center for the Art of Translation
• Centrum
• Chicago Humanities Festival
• City of Asylum Pittsburgh
• Clarion West
• Coffee House Press
• Community of Literary Magazines & Presses
• Community-Word Project
• Creative Writing Program, University of Washington
• Deep Vellum Publishing
• Feminist Press, Inc.
• Girls Write Now
• Graywolf Press
• GrubStreet
• Hedgebrook
• House of SpeakEasy
• Hub City Writers Project
• Humanities Washington
• Indiana Writers Center
• Jack Jones Literary Arts
• Kenyon Review
• Kundiman
• Lambda Literary
• Lighthouse Writers Workshop
• LitNet: The Literary Network
• Loft, Inc. (The Loft Literary Center)
• Milkweed Editions
• Narrative 4, Inc.
• National Book Critics Circle Board
• National Book Foundation
• National Novel Writing Month
• Open Letter Books/Best Translated Book Award
• PEN America
• PEN America Writer’s Emergency Fund
• Restless Books
• Richard Hugo House
• Seattle Arts & Lectures
• Seattle City of Literature
• Seattle Public Library
• Small Press Distribution
• The Center for Fiction
• The Corporation of Yaddo
• The Inner Loop
• The MacDowell Colony
• The Moth
• The Africa Center
• The Telling Room
• The Writer’s Block: Writing Downtown Residency
• Town Hall Seattle
• Transit Books
• Ucross Foundation
• Washington Center for the Book
• Words Without Borders
• WriteGirl
• Writers in the Schools
• Young Writers Project
• Zora Neale Hurston/ Richard Wright Foundation