Connecting New Yorkers With Writers
“For as long as I’ve been a working writer, I’ve watched Poets & Writers build out our literary world and create communities of writers from one reading series to another.”
– Pulitzer prize-winning poet Vijay Seshadri Every year since 1970, Poets & Writers has paid writers to participate in readings and teach creative writing workshops in New York State. Last year we distributed more than $240,000 to 557 writers participating in 1,148 readings or writing workshops, bringing free or low-cost literary events to over fifty thousand people statewide. Our mini-grants validate and encourage writers while fostering literary programming that might not otherwise take place, from poetry Clockwise, from upper left: Writer Mariana Graciano (center) leads the first writing workshop for bilingual Spanish-English speakers hosted by the Germantown Library in Columbia County; poet Thomas Fucaloro reads at Night in the Naked City, a reading series presented by the NeuroNautic Institute in Manhattan; poet Alisha Acquaye reads at Poetry in the Park, presented by the Fort Greene Park Conservancy in Brooklyn; at the invitation of Pinsapo Press, poet Robert Kocik performs with vocalist Anaïs Maviel at the Verbatim Text Sound Expo in Saugerties; Ella O’Connor, 2022-2024 Suffolk County teen poet laureate (left), and 2019-2021 Suffolk County poet laureate Barbara Southard participate in Poetry in the Village, a reading series organized by the Babylon Village Arts Council and held at local, independent coffee shops. readings in small-town coffee shops to writing workshops in New York City parks, including brand-new programs and those that have been ongoing for years. Readings & Workshops continues in its sixth decade thanks to significant, sustained funding from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, with additional support from the Cowles Charitable Trust and the Friends of Poets & Writers.
Any organization, group, or series—nonprofit status not required—can apply for funding from Readings & Workshops to pay a writer participating in a literary reading or teaching a creative writing workshop in New York State. To learn more, visit pw.org/funding.