Three Minnesota literary organizations receive major national grant 

Three Minnesota literary organizations are among the first recipients nationwide of new grants aimed at closing a gap in arts funding.

The Literary Arts Fund announced Thursday that the Loft Literary Center, Graywolf Press and the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop are among 40 recipients that will share $7.7 million.

Traditionally in the arts world, literary arts organizations receive the least philanthropic funding — dramatically so. Of the roughly $5 billion given privately to arts and culture groups in the U.S., only 1.9 percent went to fund literary endeavors in the past five years.

That finding was cited by the Literary Arts Fund, a partnership of seven philanthropic organizations which formed in October 2025 to address that issue.

The grant recipients will receive unrestricted funds for general operations over the next five years.

Arleta Little, executive and artistic director of the Loft, called general operating funds like that “the most critical type of lifeblood support that nonprofit and arts organizations need to pay staff to support programming, especially programs that are not covered by other grant funding or earned revenue.”

The Loft offers workshops and space in downtown Minneapolis that support writers at all levels of their craft. Little said the $300,000 in flexible funding supports their ability to be an “incubator for creatives.”

Another recipient, Graywolf Press in Minneapolis, punches above its weight class as a literary press, publishing fiction and poetry that routinely get nods for national literary awards. Executive Director Carmen Giménez said in a statement that “Graywolf’s nonprofit status allows our editors to acquire and edit books that speak to the human condition while taking creative risks.”

Each organization varies in size, as does their grant. For the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop, which offers creative writing classes and support in all adult prisons in the state, the $150,000 grant accounts for five to 10 percent of their operating budget over the next five years, according to Executive Director Mike Alberti.

“There’s still a really high demand for the kind of programming that we provide in Minnesota prisons. Post-COVID, the demand for the pro-social, in-person classes that are really our specialty has just continued to be very high,” Alberti said. “This [funding] will really help us to continue to scale up to meet the demand.”

The funding comes at a challenging time for the arts in general. Organizations that were still rebounding after the COVID shutdown have in some cases lost funding due to disruptions at the National Endowment for the Arts over the past year.

In addition to the seven national foundations that comprise the Literary Arts Fund, the Minnesota-based Jerome Foundation and McKnight Foundation are contributing members to the fund.

Little said she’s been in conversation with local funders to ask whether this national support will cause Minnesota funders to step back.

“I have heard from funders that ... they have no intentions of doing that,” Little said. “I hope that that is true, and that this will be as it is intended to be — something that addresses a gap, not something that supplants existing sources of support.”

Only New York and California had more Literary Arts Fund grant recipients than Minnesota, which was tied with Texas.

• A new coming-of-age novel by Chang-rae Lee examines how we become who we are
• 'Damage happened here.' In Marlon James' new novel, the violence has a point
• Minnesota teacher publishes poetry collection about what keeps him returning to the classroom
• Ask a Bookseller: ‘Coyoteland’ by Vanessa Hua