Poetry Foundation Awards $875,000 in Grants

Announcing Fall 2023 Grant Awardees

The Poetry Foundation is proud to announce the 26 nonprofit organizations that received $875,000 in funding in our fall 2023 grant cycle. Selected from 151 grant applications, this impressive roster of grantee-partners is committed to increasing access to poetry and supporting poets through providing support to historically underserved poets and writers, educational activities for youth, festivals, writing workshops for adults, residencies, publications, and more.

In keeping with the Foundation’s commitment to the principles of trust-based philanthropy, the grants program relies on a community-based proposal review process. One hundred twenty members of the arts and culture community applied to serve as grant proposal reviewers. The 19 who were selected made recommendations for funding to the Poetry Foundation's internal committee consisting of the president, chief operating officer, vice president of programs and engagement, and director of grants and awards.

Of the 26 organizations funded this grant cycle, 13 (50%) received Equity in Verse grants and 13 (50%) received Programs, Partnerships, and Innovation grants. Nineteen (73%) of the awarded grants are for general operating support and 16 (62%) of the awarded organizations are BIPOC-led.

Congratulations to all of the Poetry Foundation’s new and returning grantee-partners!

The Foundation’s next cycle of Equity in Verse and Poetry Programs, Partnerships, and Innovation grants will open in January 2024 with a March 1, 2024 deadline. For more information, please visit PoetryFoundation.org/Grants.

Equity in Verse 

• 826CHI, Illinois, $30,000 
• BreatheINK, North Carolina, $30,000 
• Brew & Forge, Massachusetts, $20,000 
• CityLit Project, Maryland, $40,000 
• Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network, California, $40,000
• Foglifter Press, California, $15,000 
• Guild Literary Complex, Illinois, $30,000 
• In-Na-Po, Indigenous Nations Poets, Wisconsin, $50,000
• Mizna, Minnesota, $35,000 
• Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora at Illinois State University, Illinois, $50,000 
• Radical Reversal, New Jersey, $50,000 
• Split This Rock, Washington, D.C., $40,000 
• Stomping Grounds Literary Arts Initiative, Illinois, $30,000

Poetry Programs, Partnerships, and Innovation

• Beyond Baroque, California, $30,000
• Center for Book Arts, New York, $35,000
• Chicago Poetry Center, Illinois, $40,000
• Freedom Reads, Connecticut, $45,000
• Guernica Inc, New York, $20,000 
• Hub City Writers Project, South Carolina, $20,000
• Kitchen Table Literary Arts, Florida, $15,000
• Milkweed Editions, Inc., Minnesota, $40,000
• Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop, Minnesota, $40,000
• Poetic Justice, Oklahoma, $40,000 
• Poets in Need, California, $20,000
• The Poetry Project, New York, $45,000
• WriteGirl, California, $25,000