Advancement Regrant Deadline MAY 13 + Op Ed Workshop THIS Saturday!
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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.
May Letter
Building Strength Through Stories
LITNYS + GWN = LITNEWS NYS
Announcing Communications Partner Girls Write Now
LitNYS proudly joins forces with longtime member Girls Write Now as our new Communications Parter, focused on elevating the power of this coalition at a new level. Starting this month, we are thrilled to bring you our refreshed newsletter LitNews NYS, chock full of original content, opportunities, and events. 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. Stay tuned for more exciting communications developments throughout the year!
News you want the LitNYS network to know?
The Collaboration between LitNYS and Girls Write Now encourages artistic synergy, empowers the next generation of cultural leaders, and elevates the partners' shared commitment to raise visibility for and expand the impact of New York State’s Literary Arts community.
—LITNYS FOUNDING DIRECTOR, DEBORA OTT
Building Leadership
GIRLS WRITE NOW + LITNYS PODCAST
Lunch With LitNYS: Food for Thought from Leaders in Literature
Nearly 500 visionary literary leaders comprise the LitNYS coalition, enriching each other and shaping culture with our deep skills, experience, and passion for literature. Now, Girls Write Now captures and pays tribute to our heroes behind the scenes through a new 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 will bring you a new episode—including updates and words of wisdom from our featured leaders. You'll feel like you're getting lunch with your smartest friends! We can't wait to feast with you on your stories.
Lunch with Lit podcast is produced by Girls Write Now. Available through Substack, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts
While I may want to rip apart traditional systems, I can respect the fact that they still exist. I can write a grant, I’m on boards, I do all of that, but I’m here to try to… change a system that I think isn’t working and get work out in ways that are more effective for readers and writers.
—IRA SILVERBERG, LITERARY AGENT & EDITOR
LUNCH WITH LIT, EPISODE 1
Featuring Linda Kleinbub & Ira Silverberg
If you don't already know these dynamic leaders, meet Linda Kleinbub, Founding Editor of Pinktree Press, and Literary Agent and Editor Ira Silverberg.
Linda is a relative newcomer to the literary arts scene, getting her start in 2012 downtown NYC creating small handmade books. In addition to being a Girls Write Now Mentor, Linda has fostered a literary community through readings, series, and her press.
Ira is on a mission to bring the punk ethos to independent publishing. Reflecting on the theme of the LitNYS conference, he said publishing work for writers and readers means focusing on disrupture.
LUNCH WITH LIT UPDATES
Hot Off The Press
Linda has been busy since last fall when we originally recorded her interview. Pink Trees Press went to the Sant Jordi Festival, and in June will debut their catalog at the American Library Association Conference for 10,000 librarians nationwide! She'll also be at the NYC Poetry Festival on Governors Island this July.
What's Ira been up to? A lot! He wrote for New York Magazine/Vulture about the death of Gary Indiana and Luca Guadagnino's adaptation of William S. Burroughs' novel, Queer. In the Columbia MFA Writing Program, Ira taught a new Master Class, The ABC's of 20th century transgressive American fiction: Kathy Acker, William S. Burroughs, and Dennis Cooper. Plus Ira has been working with Conjunctions, the literary journal founded by Bradford Morrow. They are leaving Bard College after 33 years and are setting off to go back out there on their own. Already, Sandra Cisneros and Fred Moten have joined the Board, the Board has raised nearly $100,000, and Asterism has taken them on for distribution!
My new book, Appear to Dance, is out now! Besides writing and editing, I’ve recently started teaching with the International Women’s Writing Guild. My many years of mentoring at Girls Write Now prepared me well for this role.
—LINDA KLEINBUB, FOUNDING EDITOR, PINKTREE PRESS
Building Capacity
FUNDING OPPORTUNITY
LitNYS Advancement Regrant
DEADLINE IN TWO WEEKS: MAY 13, 2025
AWARD NOTIFICATION: AUGUST 2025
By The Field, For The Field
What began as two Regrants totaling $15,000 in 2013 has grown—with the love of LitNYS Founding Director Debora Ott and collaborating Managing Director Laurie Dean Torrell—to nearly $100,000 to be awarded this year. Since the the inception of LitNYS, the program has awarded half-a-million dollars in Regrants—serving as a beacon of funding equity for literary organizations throughout New York State and beyond.
2025 Application
Literary arts organizations currently funded by the New York State Council on the Arts are invited to apply for capacity building Advancement Regrants of up to $7,500. Regrants will be awarded to organizations that produce excellent work, thereby increasing and sustaining their capacity as institutions. Advancement Regrants allow organizations to self-assess and define their needs. They are not intended for ongoing expenses such as salaries and overhead, or projects currently supported by NYSCA. Projects must begin no earlier than August 2025 and be completed within 12 months.
Building Community
SAVE THE DATE
2025 Facing Pages Statewide Literary Arts Convening
This year's LitNYS Convening will take place in Hudson, New York, Sunday through Tuesday, September 14-16, 2025.
Festivities will begin Sunday afternoon and wind down Tuesday morning. The address is 434 Columbia Street, Hudson New York, 12534.
Keep a lookout for registration which opens in June.
Building Activism & Awareness
Don't miss out! Please join us to learn or hone your Op-Ed writing skills! Our goal is to raise the profile of your organization—and literary organizations at large. Plus, you'll be wowed by some incredible young writers!
-KENNA MCCAFFERTY, GIRLS WRITE NOW COMMUNITY COORDINATOR
ADVOCACY JOURNALISM PD
POV: A LitNYS Case Study on Writing Your Op-Ed
A Virtual Event
This Saturday, May 3, 3:00-4:15 PM ET
Ready to get serious about amplifying your—and our—literary mission? Girls Write Now has designed a unique professional development event specially for LitNYS Leaders, to be held virtually this Saturday, May 3, 3:00-4:15PM ET.
You and/or members of your team will get hands-on Op-Ed writing and pitching experience, while also exchanging your expertise with mentees who have been engaged in Girls Write Now's Advocacy Journalism course (from evaluating bias to producing for broadcast). This is a great chance to showcase the importance of your work with the next generation, while also practicing a key tool for advocacy.
This event features Girls Write Now Mentee Christiane Calixte, who will walk through the process of perfecting her Op-Ed inspired by our last LitNYS Convening!
Building Next Gen Lit Leaders
Meet our LitNews Editors
GIRLS WRITE NOW
COMMUNITY COORDINATOR
Kenna
McCafferty
GIRLS WRITE NOW
EDITORIAL INTERN
Ayah
Al-Masyabi
Kenna McCafferty joined Girls Write Now's Fellowship program in 2024, and has grown into her role of Community Coordinator, focusing on editorial and marketing initiatives. With a background in journalism and public relations, Kenna's work has appeared in outlets including office magazine, PAPER magazine, Alternative Press, The Creative Independent, Dazed, and LUNA Collective.
Ayah Al-Masyabi joined Girls Write Now as a Mentee in 2022, and this year became an intern leading our LitNYS partnership. Ayah is a student journalist, artist, and writer published in The Colorado Sun, YR Media, The Talon at the Community College of Denver, and more. Stories—especially about humans—are what get Ayah up in the morning, motivating her to keep writing about the things that matter.
About 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.
This program is made possible by New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
