Member News

LitNYS, an alliance of New York State literary arts organizations, is pleased to announce that it awarded a total of $95,000 in Advancement Regrants to 18 New York literary arts nonprofits at its June panel meeting. 2024 Advancement panelists were Veronica Liu, founder and general coordinator of the collective that operates Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria, a bookshop and community arts space; Phil Memmer, Executive Director of the Arts Branch of the YMCA of Central New York and Publisher at Tiger Bark Press; and Lisa Willis, an artistic administrator and creative space maker who currently serves as Executive Director of Cave Canem, an organization founded in 1996 to support the professional and artistic development of Black poets.

Launched in 2013, the LitNYS Advancement Program sustains New York’s literary arts community through direct support to its vital literary arts organizations. These independent publishers, presenting, and service organizations nurture, engage, and promote contemporary writers and writing and are themselves distinguishing assets in their communities. LitNYS helps them build capacity institutionally to enrich relationships with audiences and extend the impact of their work.

LitNYS has awarded 113 capacity building Advancement Regrants of $2,500-$10,000 to date, distributing $600,000 statewide. These regrants afford access to the tools and resources that organizations need to flourish so they may provide writers and communities with opportunities to teach, learn, experiment, create, publish, and thrive through the literary arts.

Advancement awards are made based on project merit, score, and inclusion measures such as geographic diversity, communities served, and organization type. In assessing applications, panelists consider creativity, access, relevance, and managerial and financial competence. Request amounts are based on an organization’s annual operating budget.

Organizations are empowered to define their own priorities when applying for a Regrant. Thoughtful program development and capacity building opportunities enable them to improve operations and financial viability; extend program reach; build solid foundations upon which to pursue their artistic visions; and institute planning, development and communication strategies that contribute to near- and long-term stability and sustainability.

The 2024 Advancement Regrant Awardees are:  

• Asian American Writers Workshop, New York, NY: $7,000
  To help AAWW meet the long-term strategic challenge of how to create, develop, and maintain a justice-oriented workplace that can serve as a new model for arts organizations more broadly.
• Belladonna Collaborative, Brooklyn, NY: $2,500
  To create a tool, of mutual usefulness for small presses and bookstores, that tracks independent bookstores nationwide interested in selling chapbooks.
• Bellevue Literary Review, New York, NY: $2,500
  To create a data management system to manage BLR’s operations, with particular focus on management of subscriptions and other purchases.
• Bright Hill Press, Treadwell, NY: $2,500
  To purchase equipment allowing Word Thursday readings to be in-person as well as digital for readers and viewers.
• The Center for Fiction, Brooklyn, NY: $7,000
  To support a strategic planning process and 3–5-year plan that embraces a wider audience, encompassing a more diverse community than their previous location and identity allowed.
• Community Word Project, New York, NY: $7,000
  To hire a grant writer on a consultant basis for financial management and strategic fundraising.
• The Feminist Press @ CUNY, New York, NY: $7,000
  To bolster the board’s fundraising capacity and governance including a retreat and fundraising centered on the Press's 2025–26 strategic plan.
• Hanging Loose Press, Brooklyn, NY: $2,500
  For a website overhaul that will facilitate book sales directly to customers.
• Herstory Writers Workshop, Centereach, LI: $7,000
  To hire a consultant to redesign its website, provide maintenance services, and create social media content while building the capacity of Herstory’s team.
• Hudson Valley Writers Center, Sleepy Hollow, NY: $5,000
  To bring creative arts and literary programming to community youth via Writers Express, an after-school pilot program.
• Kinsman Avenue Publishing, Rochester, NY: $2,500
  For a website revamp that establishes a subscriber login portal and web pages for curriculum media and resources.
• n+1 Foundation, Brooklyn, NY: $7,000
  For upgrades to the organization’s technology infrastructure through the purchase of four new desktop computers, a color printer, and a projector.
• Point of Contact, Syracuse, NY: $2,500
  To procure high-quality video & audio recording equipment, create mobile recording kits, and enable the organization to document literary programs.
• Teachers & Writers Collaborative, New York, NY: $5,000
  To raise awareness of TWC’s work and legacy by filming and sharing interviews with former TWC students who are now adults.
• Triple Canopy, New York, NY: $7,000
  For seed money to create a contract-based media producer position, and key purchases to replace failing and obsolete documentation and audiovisual equipment.
• Urban Word, NYC, New York, NY: $7,000
  For a consultancy that will guide Urban Word through an equitable, inclusive process for creating a leadership succession plan for staff and board.
• Wendy’s Subway, Brooklyn, NY: $7,000
  To build operations’ capacity for an international distribution cooperative that primarily serves NY-based small presses.
• Writers & Books, Rochester, NY: $7,000
  To support Phases One & Two of a Listening Campaign to enrich & diversify engagement with greater Rochester's needs, challenges, aspirations, & dreams.

With demand for ongoing, new, and adapted creative literary arts programming surging, the importance of LitNYS cannot be overstated. Serving the people of New York through literary arts initiatives for its many distinct populations, LitNYS provides New York’s literary arts nonprofits with direct, essential support through technical assistance, networking, a resource rich website, Mentoring, Advancement Regrants and the Facing Pages — Statewide Literary Arts Convening. This year, the Facing Pages Convening will be held in New York, NY, September 15^th-17^th. More information is available at LitNYS.org.

The LitNYS Advancement Program was designed and is directed by Debora Ott, LitNYS Founding Director. It is administered by Just Buffalo Literary Center with project coordination provided by Debora Ott & Laurie Torrell, LitNYS Managing Directors.  Advancement is open to current NYSCA-supported literary organizations. Projects must propose new activity or acquisition that reaches beyond the scope of an organization’s current NYSCA funding. This program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

For more information about LitNYS and its programs, see www.LitNYS.org. You may also contact: Debora Ott, LitNYS Founding Director, debora.ott.consulting@gmail.com or Laurie Torrell, LitNYS Managing Director at Ldtorrell@gmail.com.