Plus, Special Summer Session on Building Strategic Capacity
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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.
July Letter
Building Community
LITNYS STATEWIDE CONVENING
Leading in a Liminal Season:
Adaptive Strategies for Growth
While Staying Sane
September 14-16 in Hudson, New York
Free Registration & Hotel for Out-of-Town Guests
Limited Space—Register by August 15!
Liminal seasons are defined as being “betwixt and between”, when we’ve left the past but don’t yet know where the future is taking us. Liminal seasons are challenging, disorienting, and unsettling. Even as we strive to move forward with purpose and certainty, we feel as if in quicksand, overwhelmed by uncertainty as we leave the comfortable known and move toward a future not yet in view.
If we can reposition ourselves to a stance of wonder and curiosity, companioning, collaborating with, and accompanying each other, this can be a freeing season in which old structures and identities are released and new possibilities brought forward. The 2025 Convening invites you into community during a time of quantum shift rapid clip evolution to pave the way together towards a hope-filled future.
LitNYS on LinkedIn
Follow Us & Join Our Group!
LitNYS's news presence on LinkedIn is a forum to address New York's most pressing topics for literary nonprofits. Follow LitNYS to connect with members and stay up to date with LitNYS news. Plus, deepen relationships with members by joining the LitNYS Group where we can meet, exchange resources, and share successes and challenges.
Building Capacity
As poets, writers, arts administrators, and curators in New York State, we are facing a real existential threat. And we are fighting it in many ways not separately, but together. One of the amazing things about the New York literary community is, while organizations and writers are competitive, we find ways to work together to advance the field—crossing borders by genre, ethnicity, and gender more often than not. That allows us all to thrive, and when under assault, survive.
—PATRICIA SPEARS JOINES, POET, PLAYWRIGHT & ACTIVIST
CONVENING OPENING REMARKS
Patricia Spears Jones
Sunday, September 14, 4PM
at the Convening
LitNYS is thrilled to welcome New York State Poet, Patricia Spears Jones. We celebrate her voice, wisdom, and presence as she opens the convening.
Spears is a poet, playwright, cultural activist and a recipient of the 2017 Jackson Poetry Prize and awards from the NEA, NYFA, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. She is also a New York State Poet (23-25) and a Poet Laureate Fellow.
With all her accolades and accomplishments, she testifies to the power of building capacity instead of competition in literary circles, citing New York State as uniquely collaborative, collegial, and community-minded.
EXTRA CREDIT FOR THE CAUSE
Build Passive Revenue
Aurora Consulting and Credit The Cause are teaming up to help nonprofits boost their income by activating automated monthly income. To help you redirect everyday fees into fuel for your mission, join their program The Passive Income Power-Up: Three Days to Start What Pays Forever. Learn how to set up your account, share your mission, and build a scalable outreach strategy!
Bruce Morrow is a writer, visual artist, and nonprofit leader. His first short film, IN DREAMS BEGIN..., won Best LGBTQ Jury and Audience Awards at the 2023 Paris Short Film Festival. He is a former fiction editor at Callaloo and co-editor of Shade: An Anthology of Short Fiction by Gay Men of African Descent. As a nonprofit leader, he has worked with the Misty Copeland Foundation, The Trevor Project, GLAAD, and Bank Street College of Education. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University and recently attended the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Ragdale Residency, and Kimbilio Retreat. Bruce serves on the Board of Girls Write Now.
SPECIAL SUMMER SESSION
Clarity, Strategy & Impact: A Primer on Building Strategic Capacity with Bruce Morrow
Wednesday, August 20, 10-11:30 AM ET Via Zoom; Registration Free & Limited to 30 Participants
How do we grow sustainable literary arts organizations when we’re often “mission-rich and cash-poor”? This interactive workshop focuses on the building blocks of strategic capacity: clear budgeting, aligned fundraising, and storytelling that moves funders and communities alike. Designed for nonprofit literary leaders, the session walks participants through the process of creating a dream budget, analyzing revenue streams, and crafting a project-based fundraising plan that reflects values and vision.
Please be prepared to answer:
- What’s your biggest capacity-building challenge?
- What would it take (people, money, time) to solve it?
- What are your organizational top three priorities as reflected in your budget?
Through practical exercises, group discussion, and real-world examples, participants will leave with tools to turn ambition into action—and to grow with clarity, strategy, and impact.
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 captures and pays tribute to our heroes behind the scenes through a podcast series, Lunch with Lit. The project was kindled through interviews recorded at our last 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
Brenda M. Greene, Center for Black Literature
Last month we got to hear from Ruth Dickey, Executive Director of the National Book Foundation. In this next episode, we sit with Dr. Brenda M. Greene to learn about bringing our elders' stories to the table, the impact of book bans on Black writers, and approaches to building a literary community.
Literary organizations are facing a slew of challenges, from a lack of funding to the banning of diverse books. In the midst of this harsh climate, leaders like Dr. Greene are paving the way for the literary landscape to flourish. Dr. Greene is a multitalented leader and activist who is a Professor of English, and the Founder and Executive Director Emeritus of the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College, CUNY.
We’re not only educating people around reading, writing, and the academic disciplines, we’re educating them to be change agents. To transform ourselves and the world, we need a strong knowledge of self, and of culture.
—BRENDA M. GREENE, FOUNDER OF THE CENTER FOR BLACK LITERATURE
Charlotte Hunter with Brenda Greene at 2024 Convening.
Our writers are our seers, our visionaries, our documentarians, and our voices of conscience in the universe.
—BRENDA M. GREENE
Do you have updates you want the LitNYS network to know?
LUNCH WITH LIT UPDATES
Beginning New Chapters
This year Dr. Greene stepped down from her role as Executive Director from The Center for Black Literature to work on her expanding professional and personal goals. "The next part of my journey is focused on some writing projects that I have delayed because of the demands of my administrative duties at the Center. I am very excited about my current project which will be a book of essays and conversations based on the interviews I have conducted with writers over the last 20 years," shares Dr. Greene. You can follow her progress and process in her newsletter, Meditations.
In her transition letter, Dr. Greene writes, “my life’s passion has been working in and building educational and cultural arts institutions that are dedicated to supporting and advancing Black life in Brooklyn and beyond. My long-standing friendships, collaborations, and strategic partnerships with educational and cultural institutions have become a part of my DNA…I am truly grateful for this impactful, fulfilling, and transformative journey, and look forward to continuing on new paths.”
Building Activism & Awareness
CONVENING SESSION PREVIEW
The Call to Practical Action
Monday, September 15, 10 AM- 12PM
When the going gets tough, the tough show off what they’ve got. As funding sources dwindle and challenge the entire literary arts ecosystem, how do we push ahead? Convening speakers are poised to inspire and mobilize us when we all meet together in September.
Session Two of the convening will be lead by LitNYS mentor and arts consultant Ira Silverberg. It will include findings from Magnitude and Bond, A Field Study on Black Literary Arts Organizations, showing how they are relevant in the development of community action for all of us; and, with Margo Viscusi, underscore the importance of board leadership to jumpstart and sustain action.
Panelists will also include Mahogany L. Browne and Daniel T. O'Brien, who give us here a glimpse of their insights as we gear up to take practical action.
CONVERSATION STARTERS
Mahogany L. Browne
Art is a gathering of grief and resistance, imagination and action—a study of the past and a vision of the future. In times of crisis, art-making transforms: a candle of hope, a weapon, an archive, a protest. When we support our artists, we invest in the mapmakers—those who craft loving blueprints with instructions for living in the world we deserve.
Mahogany will speak this September at the LitNYS Convening on effective collective action in times of crisis.
Mahogany L. Browne, a MacDowell Arts Advocacy Awardee, is a writer, playwright, organizer, and educator. Browne received fellowships from All Arts, Arts for Justice, Air Serenbe, Baldwin for the Arts, Cave Canem, Hawthornden, Poets House, Mellon Research, Rauschenberg, Wesleyan University, and UCross.
Daniel T. O’Brien is a creative writer and literary arts professional. He fancies himself a facilitator, streamliner, walker-and-talker, unreasonable rule-breaker, community organizer, creative strategist, data nerd, and out-of-the-box collaborator with a passion for literature, film, and social justice. He is currently the Executive Director of the Independent Publishers Caucus and Director of Books Across Borders.
CONVERSATION STARTERS
Daniel T. O'Brien
As the world spins madly on, some universal truths hold. One of these, I believe, is the power of collectivity. Whether we're looking at direct action, community building, or fundraising, the first step is aligning our organizations to match the values of the communities we serve. One-on-one conversations with community members—that's where it starts. From there, we build the network(s) we need to, yes, exist and survive as an organization, but an organization seeking merely to exist has lost the plot. What and who are we here for? If we put out a call to action, and nobody turns up, we're bound to fail. Collectivity and collaboration is where the work both begins and ends.
Daniel will speak at the LitNYS Convening on the collective action of organizations—from library campaigns to broadening international attention for their members.
Building Next Gen Lit Leaders
Passing the Torch
At LitNYS, we are always cultivating a new generation of literary lovers and leaders. Each month we'll get a sense of how our collective future is taking shape as we meet talent inheriting both the promise and pressure of leadership.
Dr. Greene built a more than two decade-long legacy that I have been called upon to continue. During a very difficult time for nonprofits and organizations that deal with Black literature, People of Color, Women, and Social Justice, my charge is to continue what she built and begin to reimagine what the future of the Center of Black Literature can be.
—DONNA HILL, BESTSELLING AUTHOR & THE CENTER FOR BLACK LITERATURE'S NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
CENTER FOR BLACK LITERATURE
Donna Hill, Incoming Executive Director
As Dr. Brenda M. Greene departs from the Center for Black Literature, Donna Hill will take the helm, bringing with her fresh perspective and ambitious plans for the future of the Center.
With over ten years at Medgar Evers College and over 100 authored books to her name, Donna Hill is no rookie! Most recently, Donna helmed the National Black Writers Conference (NBWC) annual convening. In a talk titled All That We Carry: Where Do We Go From Here? she examined the work of Bernice McFadden, Paul Coates, Peniel Joseph, Percival Everett, and John Oliver Killens to understand the ways in which Black writers draw from oral histories and ancestral stories to craft work that evokes memory, responds to present-day realities, and inspires visions of more liberatory futures.
When it comes to succession planning, Hill says it's best to stay five steps ahead. As a longtime Girls Write Now mentor, Donna Hill knows planning and mentorship are crucial to successful leadership transfers. Dr. Greene's guidance throughout her time at the Center for Black Literature is a valuable lesson in itself. "Even as I'm just stepping into this role now, it's a five year contract, so in five years, who do I see being able to take on this responsibility?"
Upcoming Opportunities
Donna shares rare opportunities through The Center for Black Literature. Don't miss out!
- Wild Seeds Retreat for Writers of Color: The Wild Seeds Retreat provides writers of color with an opportunity to meet other writers;
to workshop their writing among peers; and to engage with published writers about concerns and issues related to writing and publishing. Through its writing workshops leaders, the Retreat provides the public with an opportunity to become knowledgeable about the range and diversity of the work produced by writers of color.
Applications close June 27—Apply Now
- Black Women in Publishing: Throughout August, leaders in publishing will share their experiences, expertise, and tips for breaking into the industry. Leading the conversations will be Abby West from Harper/Collins Amistad and Monique Patterson, St. Martins/TOR, among others.
Thursdays, 3-4 PM, Virtual
- Voices From the Margins: Angela Dodson, Editor of We Refuse to Be Silent: Women's Voices on Justice for Black Men will lead the conversation with contributors Nicole Bailey-Williams and Gloria Browne-Marshall. This is a Brooklyn Book Festival Bookend Event.
September 17, 6 PM, Virtual
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. 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.
