| On May 5, 2025, we received the following message from the personal email accounts of our friends at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Dear Literary Arts Colleagues: We’re writing to let you know that May 30th will be our last day at the National Endowment for the Arts. We are processing a lot of complex emotions in this moment, as we imagine you are too in light of recent agency developments, but know that we remain unwavering in our overall support of all of you and the critical work you do. Collectively, the four of us have dedicated 57 years of service to the literary arts field.During that time, our charge has always been – at its core – to listen and learn, torespond to the needs of and champion the literary arts field, and to serve the publicnationwide to the best of our ability. What a pleasure it has been to do that for andamong such a brilliant, creative, supportive community. You inspire us. All of you: writers, readers, translators, editors, teachers, librarians, arts administrators, festival organizers, workshop leaders, literary funders, literary service providers, and so many more of you out front and behind the scenes who help shape what the complex literary arts ecosystem is and can be. It has been an honor to be part of an agency that, for almost 60 years, has also played a vital role in shaping the literary arts. We find ourselves reflecting with pride on the vast and various impacts the NEA has made during that time. In addition to supporting many hundreds of nonprofit organizations and publishers, the NEA has awarded fellowships to nearly 600 translators to render literature from more than 80 languages and 90 countries expertly into English, and to more than 3,800 poets and writers, often at critical stages of their careers and years before their work was acknowledged by other awards and appointments. And there have been many impactful initiatives over the decades. The NEA Big Read, for example, has reached every Congressional district in the country and has attracted partnerships from more than 40,000 community organizations, and we’re excited to be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Poetry Out Loud national finals this week. Thank you to all those who worked with us as NEA judges and reviewers, whoparticipated in convenings and attended our events, who inspired your students to recite poems on stage and encouraged your communities to all read and discuss the same book. Thank you to the organizations who have partnered with us on NEA initiatives. Thank you to those who helped us improve our processes and introduced us to new people and met with us at conferences. Thank you to those who work in other disciplines and industries and have welcomed collaboration. Thank you to those who shared knowledge and ideas for new research agendas and ways to make the literary arts more accessible and expansive. Thank you to the poets, the story writers, the novelists, the essayists, the memoirists for your words that have lifted us toward the light. You remind us to slow down and be awed, to feel that unique joy in wondering about what we don’t know. You allow us to enter the depths of love, fear, sadness, anger, and connection, and to understand the hardships of others. You allow readers to discover themselves in your pages, and you connect us with our past and have the power – the superpower – to guide our way toward a hopeful future. We are indebted to our NEA colleagues who facilitate the grants, communicate withconstituents, oversee guidelines and panel processes, plan events, support the staff,and serve in various other offices throughout the agency. You will not find morededicated, smart, hard-working, good-humored people who have routinely gone above and beyond the call of duty to support the agency’s mission. While we don’t know specifically how the work of the agency will change, we know the remaining staff will do their best to support you. Moving forward, the best way to reach us in our personal capacities is through thisshared email address: towardthelight4@gmail.com. With our deepest respect and appreciation, Amy Stolls, Literary Arts Director Katy Day-Yapa, Literary Arts Specialist Jessica Flynn, Literary Arts Specialist Mohamed Sheriff, Literary Arts & Arts Education Coordinator May 5, 2025 |