Grants

In December 2021, the Poetry Foundation announced a new grantmaking strategy to provide support to the fields of poetry and literary arts.

The Poetry Foundation has committed $9 million over three years, beginning in 2022. Grants will support US-based nonprofit organizations through the following priorities:

• Continuing relief funding in 2022 to nonprofit poetry and literary arts organizations impacted by the pandemic;
• Investing in building and strengthening the capacity of BIPOC leadership at nonprofit poetry, literary arts, and publishing organizations, and programs;
• Cultivating and engaging new, diverse audiences for poetry;
• Fostering new collaborations and partnerships, as well as innovation and new technologies in the field.

The Poetry Foundation is a private foundation; its mission is to amplify poetry and celebrate poets by fostering spaces for all to create, experience, and share poetry. The Foundation strives to achieve this through an array of programs and publications designed to develop new audiences, create innovative avenues for delivery, and recognize and support all forms of poetry.

These goals are grounded in the Foundation’s values and commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. The Foundation’s grantmaking initiative actively seeks to build equitable practices and share its resources ethically within the poetry ecosystem to achieve this aim.

The Poetry Foundation Announces Fall 2022 Grant-Awardees

Equity in Verse

The Equity in Verse grant category was created in direct response to the June 6, 2020 community letter requesting that the Foundation examine its historic cultural debt to poets of color. These grants are intended to provide support for nonprofit poetry and literary organizations, which includes presses and publications, led and staffed by people of color.

The Poetry Foundation acknowledges that the art, ideas, and labor of BIPOC people are integral to its work and poetry as an art form and that those contributions have gone underrecognized. Honoring the legacy of past BIPOC poets and making space for living and future poets are critical to the Foundation’s evolution.

Grants range in size from $10,000-$100,000, and all grants are for a 12-month period.

Applications will be available via the grantee portal Friday, January 6 and the deadline to apply is March 1, 2023.

Poetry Programs, Partnerships, and Innovation

Poetry Programs, Partnerships, and Innovation grants provide support to nonprofit organizations invested in at least one of the following priorities:

• Broadening the audiences for poetry;
• Increasing access to poetry;
• New collaborations and partnerships in poetry;
• Innovations in the field of poetry, including investment in new technologies.

Grants range in size from $10,000-$75,000 and all grants are for a 12-month period.

Applications will be available via the grantee portal Friday, January 6 and the deadline to apply is March 1, 2023.

Renewal and Recovery

As part of its commitment and in support of poetry and affiliated nonprofit organizations struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Poetry Foundation, building on the support provided through emergency funding grants awarded in 2020 and 2021, offered a final round of relief funding in 2022. In July 2022, the Poetry Foundation awarded $1,000,000 in pandemic relief support to 79 nonprofit organizations across the United States.

All emergency grant recipients, including those who received funding in 2022, are eligible to apply to the Foundation’s other grants programs in 2022.

Special Projects and Opportunities

Throughout the year, the Foundation may support other special events, opportunities, and programs that elevate and expose poetry and poets to a broader range of audiences.

If you have further questions, please first visit our detailed FAQ.