A Year of Building Community & Capacity
No images? Click here
Representing Literature
for New York State
LitNYS is the nation's largest ecosystem of literary arts organizations, building literary capacity, community, and culture for 25 years.
End of Year Letter
LITNYS 2025
A Note From Our Directors
This has been a bear of a year. A fractious time in which we have been called upon to accelerate our circumspection and renew our purpose. Thank you for keeping going. For showing up and getting the word out. For sustaining truth in craft and the principles we hold close—free expression, inclusion, and belonging. Know we are grateful to you for the work that you do in support of writers and the writing arts.
Though a year when national politics has called so much into question, the gratitude imbued from living in New York—a state that values the arts & culture—holds fast. LitNYS’ capacity building support through Regrants, Mentoring, and the Convening will continue in 2026 thanks to visionary support from the New York State Council on the Arts and sustaining partnerships with Just Buffalo Literary Center, Girls Write Now, and Arts Services Inc. So too through the collective work you do.
Happy Holidays and best wishes for a peace filled, impactful and glorious New Year!
—DEBORA OTT, LITNYS FOUNDING DIRECTOR &
LAURIE TORRELL, MANAGING DIRECTOR
Building Together in 2025
Together, we celebrate the successes of 2025 and chart a course for the year ahead. To all who presented, participated, mentored, mentee-ed and "followed" along for the journey, thank you for making this year a success!
COMMUNICATIONS PARTNERSHIP
Girls Write Now & LitNYS Team Up
This year marked the start of our partnership with Girls Write Now to enhance and elevate LitNYS communications. Together we launched the LitNews publication, the Lunch with LitNYS podcast series, and broke new ground on LinkedIn and Instagram.
It's not too late to follow along for updates & networking opportunities in the coming year!
CONVERSATION, COMMUNITY & CAPACITY BUILDING
LitNYS LinkedIn Group
Thanks to everyone who joined the LinkedIn group to share their Convening experience. In the coming months, this space will play an important role in continuing the conversations from your breakout rooms. So if you haven't signed up yet, scan the QR code to join!
ADVANCEMENT REGRANTS
$95,000 Awarded to 18 Organizations
This year, 29 applications were received requesting a total of $160,000. To date, LitNYS has awarded 131 capacity building Advancement Regrants of $2,500-$10,000, distributing $695,000—more than half a million dollars—statewide.
This year, in a competitive pool, LitNYS distributed $95,000 to 18 organizations. Advancement panelists were Michele Kotler, Founder and Executive Director of Community Word Project; Celeste Lawson, Poet/Writer/Founder of Typography of Women; and Jafreen Uddin, Executive Director of Asian American Writers Workshop.
"We strongly believe that continued support for the Advancement Program is essential. By funding capacity-building efforts like ours, the program doesn’t just help individual organizations thrive—it strengthens the entire ecosystem of literary arts."
—FEMINIST PRESS
Stay Tuned for 2026 Regrant
The LitNYS Advancement Regrant Announcement & Guidelines will be released the first week of January, with a deadline of April 7, 2026. Through this program eligible literary arts organizations may apply for up to $7,500 to support thoughtful development and expanded capacity within literary arts organizations that produce excellent work and need help to increase and sustain their capacity as institutions. To start thinking about your proposal now, and to get inspired, you can look at past projects on the LitNYS website.
SPECIAL SESSIONS
Launch of Special Sessions
"In an ever-changing world, there is always something new to learn. The quality and relevance of LitNYS's admission-free special presentations far surpass online opportunities offered elsewhere for a fee. Sessions also advance invaluable community building."
—SPECIAL SESSION PARTICIPANT
This year, we carried the energy of the convening throughout the year, offering Special Sessions to develop capacity, strengthen connection, and deepen our networks. A big thank you to our presenters, Lisa Willis, Michele Kotler, Bruce Morrow, and Andrea Louie.
Topics included Capacity Building, Fundraising, Strategy Development, and Board Building. Each session provided expert insights, research-backed toolkits, and peer brainstorming to work towards solutions for the most pressing issues facing literary organizations.
The LitNYS Special Sessions will continue in 2026, with four being planned. Please let us know if you have a topic or presenter suggestion—or would like to lead one yourself—and stay tuned for the schedule. All are free with just a simple registration required to attend.
MENTORING
180 Hours of Mentoring
The Mentoring Program provides each participating organization with 20 hours of customized mentoring over the course of a year to support and sustain their gains long-term and create and strengthen a culture of continuity and leadership in the field in an intentional way.
In the last year, our network mentors provided 180 hours of mentoring. With just eight mentors working above and beyond, we were able to support nine organizations and ten literary leaders in advancing their strategic goals.
2025 CONVENING
60 Attendees of LitNYS Facing Pages Convening
At the annual LitNYS Facing Pages Convening, Leading in a Liminal Season: Strategies for Staying Sane we heard from experts, literary leaders and community organizers on the most pressing issues and opportunities for growth in the literary field.
Save the Date
The 2026 LitNYS Statewide Literary Arts Convening will be held October 4-6, 2026 at Cave Canem in New York City If you haven't attended a Convening before, we hope you will join us this year!
Do you have updates you want the LitNYS community to know about?
Building Capacity
FUNDING OPPORTUNITY
Literary Arts Fund 2026
The Literary Arts Fund is a tremendously exciting new opportunity for all of us in the LitNYS community—and nationwide—spearheaded by our visionary colleague Jen Benka with support from a large consortium of foundations led by Mellon. We in the literary arts are so used to being sidelined by (and trying to force fit ourselves into) grants that have other priorities.
This one centers literary arts nonprofits that serve adult creative writers and audiences—this one really is for US.
Key criteria to apply include:
- Having a mission that explicitly centers serving adult creative writers and audiences (and this includes translation but does not include playwriting);
- Operating budget of at least $50k (you do not need audited financials, you can submit unaudited financial statement and balance sheet);
- An executive director (or other equivalently titled person) who has served in role for at least 12 consecutive months.
General Operating Grant amounts will be based on org budget size and will be issued in single payment intended for use over five years. If you get one you will not be able to apply for another one. If you don't get one the first time you apply, you can apply again in the next cycle.
The first key deadline for General Operating Grants is December 19th at 11:59PM EST. Check out the Literary Arts Fund website for full information on application process and guidelines. You can also email questions to: info@literaryartsfund.org.
Building Leadership
At Lunch with Lit, you'll feel like you're getting lunch with your smartest friends. The Lunch with Lit Podcast Series is produced by Girls Write Now, and is available through Substack, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Feast on the stories of your field!
LITNYS + GIRLS WRITE NOW PRESENT
Lunch With Lit Podcasts
Nearly 500 visionary literary leaders comprise the LitNYS coalition, enriching each other and shaping culture with our deep skills, experience, and passion for literature. Girls Write Now celebrates the unspoken heroes behind the scenes through the podcast series, Lunch with Lit. The project was kindled through interviews recorded at the 2024 LitNYS Convening hosted by Girls Write Now, and now the podcast has come to life. Each month throughout the year LitNews NYS brings you a new episode—including updates from our featured leaders.
LUNCH WITH LIT FEATURE
Asari Beale
Last month we heard from Executive Director of the Adirondack Center for Writing, Nathalie Thill. In this Episode, Asari Beale, Executive Director of Teachers & Writers Collaborative.
Asari Beale and Vahni Kurra discussed the importance of deeply engaging students in school through writing. Teachers & Writers Collaborative delivers creative writing programs to increase access to the arts, build community, and amplify youth voices in public schools across the country.
With an MFA in Fiction and a background in nonprofits, Asari brings her own experience as both a teacher and writer to meet students where they are, and always learn something in the process.
"There are private schools where there’s a writer-in-residence, and… I would love to see that for all of the public schools in New York City.."
—ASARI BEALE
"For many reasons, it's a challenging time for nonprofits and the people we serve. This is precisely when the arts are needed the most. My focus right now is coalition building and being in community with others so we can continue creating a platform for youth voices."
—ASARI BEALE
LUNCH WITH LITNYS UPDATES
Teachers & Writers Collaborative
Teachers & Writers Collaborative launched a new program this fall in partnership with the New York State Council on the Arts: New York State of Poetry. The program provides high school teachers across the state with tools to bring the world of the literary arts into their classrooms and immerse their students in reading and writing poetry. In the spring of 2026, T&W will publish an anthology of student poems representing all of the participating schools and host readings in Albany and New York City.
T&W continues to offer exciting local writing programs in New York City public schools and community centers, and to share resources for teachers in Teachers & Writers Magazine. The annual Bechtel Prize for an essay on the art of teaching writing (deadline Jan. 11, 2026!) is being judged this year by poet and multimedia artist Diana Khoi Nguyen. If you plan to attend the AWP conference in March 2026, visit T&W at the Writers in the Schools Alliance table!
Do you have updates you want the LitNYS community to know about?
About LitNews Partners
LitNYS
LitNYS is a coalition of New York State-based literary arts organizations committed to field-building work and collective thriving. We connect individuals of shared interest and purpose helping them build and sustain capacity to foster, promote, and present the literary arts. Founded in 2001 as a New York State Council on the Arts Literature initiative, LitNYS responded to national literary leaders’ call to professionalize the field. Our comprehensive collaborative approach—through our Advancement Regrants, Mentoring Program, and Facing Pages Statewide Literary Arts Convenings—has made us the nucleus of field-sustaining work for Literature in New York State.
Girls Write Now
Brought to you in partnership with Girls Write Now, LitNews NYS is a monthly digest of features, resources, and opportunities from the LitNYS network. With attacks on our freedoms mounting daily, now is the time to strengthen and project our collective voices, and Girls Write Now is committed to facilitating connections between LitNYS partners to further this goal. For nearly three decades, Girls Write Now—a nationally award-winning nonprofit, media incubator, and multi-generational community—has broken down the barriers of gender, age, race, and poverty to mentor, teach, and connect writers and leaders across disciplines and around the nation.
