The emails started landing on a Friday evening after work hours.
That’s when independent publishing houses, literary journals, and other arts organizations learned that the National Endowment for the Arts would be canceling grants and withdrawing previously announced awards, effective May 31.
These grants, which had been awarded but not necessarily dispersed, represented $1,227,500 that the NEA had promised to 51 independent publishers.
“All 51 literary magazines and small presses had their grants terminated or withdrawn, and they had the additional burden of trying to manage the situation and replace funding now and potentially for the future,” says Mary Gannon, executive director of Community of Literary Magazines & Presses (CLMP).
Four members of the NEA Literary Arts staff left the agency by the end of May, according to an email the quartet shared shortly after the May 2 cuts, with another staffer exiting not long after. The NEA did not respond to a request for comment.
The clawing back of more than a million dollars worth of National Endowment of the Arts grants by the Trump administration hit California publishers such as Red Hen Press, Transit Books and Center for the Art of Translation’s Two Lines Press, as well as dozens more nationwide, including Milkweed Editions, Nightboat Books, and many more.
Literary journals and magazines, such as Poets & Writers, n+1, and San Francisco’s Zyzzyva, also discovered that expected funding was being withdrawn that same evening.
The individual grants could be small — say, a few thousand dollars to a particular nonprofit — but the funds helped smaller publishers get started or develop into thriving outlets for voices that might be otherwise overlooked by larger publishing houses.
“The literary field is one of the most under-resourced of the artistic disciplines – even though right now it’s arguably one of the most important art forms,” says CLMP’s Gannon.
In the wake of the cuts, the publishers sounded disappointed but undeterred.
“The loss of this federal funding support will make our work more difficult,” Southern California’s Red Hen Press said in part on its Instagram after cuts were announced. “But we are not going anywhere.”
Out through the inbox
Adam Z. Levy, publisher of Berkeley’s Transit books, remembers receiving the May 2 message.
“It was an email letting us know that our grant had been terminated,” said Levy. “It’s a year-long grant, so it was supposed to be covering through the end of the year.”
Michael Holtmann, president of San Francisco’s Center for the Art of Translation and Two Lines Press, recalls seeing a social media post from another independent publisher, Open Letter Books‘ Chad W. Post, who’d just learned that its NEA award had been “terminated.”
“It had this snowball-coming-down-the-mountain effect,” said Holtmann, after seeing a photo of the letter online. “I was like, ‘Oh, that sounds terrible.’ It wasn’t until after that I reflected on that, like, ‘Oh, one of those is probably coming my way, too.’ So it was probably a few hours after Chad had received that notification that I received a virtually identical email.”
The language of the message read in part: “The NEA is updating its grantmaking policy priorities to focus funding on projects that reflect the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the President,” according to the Instagram post Holtmann recalled reading that night. “Consequently, we are terminating awards that fall outside these new priorities.”
The stated priorities of the Trump administration, per a copy of the email shared online, include: “Projects that elevate the Nation’s [Historically Black colleges and universities] and Hispanic Serving Institutions, celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, foster AI competency, empower houses of worship to serve communities, assist with disaster recovery, foster skilled trade jobs, make America healthy again, support the military and veterans, support Tribal communities, make the District of Columbia safe and beautiful, and support the economic development of Asian American communities.”
“It threw us for a loop,” said Oscar Villalon, the editor of Zyzzyva. “But it’s not like we didn’t think this was going to happen — I think we were all expecting something like this was going to happen.”
Reading the signs
Villalon isn’t the only one who said he had expected something like this to happen. Transit’s Levy said the current administration’s approach to the National Endowment for the Humanities – which included grant terminations and layoffs in April and further layoffs this month – was “a pretty meaningful warning sign” that something similar was in store for the NEA.
“There was some writing on the wall,” says Levy, offering a further opinion. “It seemed kind of inevitable that if the administration wasn’t going to just openly gut the NEA … there was going to be something that would curtail its administration of the grants that it had already awarded publishers like us for this year.”
Despite a general sense that the current administration would not be supportive of their work, most didn’t expect it would renege on funds that had already been awarded.
“There’s kind of absurdity about this particular email,” says Holtmann. “We had applied for this grant more than a year ago, and we were notified of the award well before the Trump administration had even entered office.”
Zyzzyva’s Villalon compared the clawbacks to a recurring “Peanuts” joke. “This whole thing is just Lucy with the football pulling it away from Charlie Brown, you know? They say one thing and then they do another.”
The first cut
What is the actual impact of the NEA cuts? That depends on the size of the award, the economic stability of the recipient, and in some cases, whether the award had already been allocated.
Holtmann said that while a $45,000 grant to the Center for the Art of Translation had been canceled, it was a moot point: The money had already been allocated and spent.
“They, quote, ‘terminated’ a grant for us. It was $45,000,” said Holtmann. “We’re in the very fortunate position to say that we drew down those funds before we received that termination letter. So we did receive that money, even if we received notification that it had been terminated.”
But he and his colleagues recognize the ongoing challenge the cuts represent.
“It’s also evident from this messaging that we will not be receiving any support, certainly for years to come. So there is a long-term impact for us, even if the near term isn’t quite as painful as I know it is for some of our peers,” he says.
Transit’s Levy, who had a $40,000 grant cut, was also thinking beyond the current moment.
“The concern is more long-term. In a sense, we’re in a good position, and I don’t know how that compares to other publishers. We’re a very small organization, but we have a kind of outsized impact, and a lot of our books are doing quite well,” says Levy, whose authors include Nobel Prize winner Jon Fosse and International Booker Prize longlisted writer Laurent Mauvignier.
“In the very immediate term, we’ll be OK,” he says. “But it does present a much more significant challenge for us and a lot of other small presses and arts organizations.”
“I really can’t overstate how important that piece of it is.”
So why fund the arts anyway?
Even though grants are minuscule parts of the overall federal budget, it’s possible someone might ask why funding independent publishing is a priority.
Because the grants matter – and are effective, the publishers say.
NEA support was instrumental to Transit Books’ growth and success, says Levy.
“When we first started the press in 2015, our goal was to just hang on until we would be eligible, after our first three years of programming, for NEA funding,” he says. “That first year [of eligibility] we received a $15,000 grant, which was really meaningful to us and a big percentage of our budget at that time.
“One of the reasons why publishing houses like ours exist with this model is that we actively seek out and publish works that are underrepresented or under-published in a commercial marketplace,” says Levy, who underscores that Transit and publishers like it are driven by their mission and not the market. “We’re able to bring out and champion and celebrate works that otherwise wouldn’t see the light of day in bookstores, in libraries across the country.
“So I do feel like it’s really important what we’re doing, and it’s really important that people understand the kind of support that these organizations need in order to grow and thrive,” says Levy.
These grants offer a secondary benefit, too, says Holtmann: They help to confer legitimacy upon serious publishers that are just starting out.
“We’ve received support from the NEA for more than 10 years, 15 or 20 years, you know, every year,” says Holtmann. “As a kind of institutional support, it’s like a certification or a badge of honor or a trust in our work that we’re able to leverage to receive additional support.
“We’re able to say, ‘We’re a professional organization dedicated to the literary arts. And look, the federal government believes in us and our projects. You can, too,” he says.
Losing that kind of support at a time when there are fewer newspapers, magazines or public forums to shine a light on smaller presses is meaningful, Holtmann says. It allows a few big corporate voices to wield even more influence.
“The scales are tipped further in one direction,” he says.
Transit Books’ Levy says that one of the most significant things about the cuts that will affect people is something many people don’t realize.
“The NEA supports so many small arts organizations. And also it does a lot of regranting through states. So states will get money, and then they will regrant that sometimes in really small dollar amounts, like $500 to an individual artist who’s going to paint a mural in a town or a local theater that’s getting $1,000 to put on the production of a play.
“They’re not direct recipients of funding from the NEA, but it’s regranted along the way. So I think that we’ll see a kind of retrenchment across the board, not just in publishing, but in all disciplines,” he says. “I think we’ll start to realize how much of an impact the NEA has had despite the fact that its budget is so small in the scheme of things.”
Turning a page
There could be more ominous reverberations from all this, says Levy.
“The more meaningful impact in the short term is that we’re seeing the front lines of censorship moving,” says Levy, “toward the places that are sites of production — publishing houses, theaters, music halls, whatever the place and the organization might be.
“It will have, I think, a chilling effect in terms of their ability to put out the kind of work that reflects the diversity of human experience, whatever that might mean,” says Levy.
Villalon says he thinks these cuts are part of an ongoing effort.
“I mean, this is not the end of it,” he says. “I don’t know of anyone who thinks like, Oh, that’s it. They’ll leave us alone now, you know?”
“A lot of us know for a fact that we won’t be getting that money next year from the NEA. So that’s a future deficit that we have to address,” says Villalon.
The government’s position, says Villalon, may make other potential donors less likely to contribute out of fear.
“If I donate money to this group,” he asks rhetorically, “does that hurt me?”
Still, Villalon said he’d received the good news that Zzyvah’s board had stepped in to cover the $12,500 cut, which accounted for about 5% of its budget.
“I hope other boards are able to do the same for other organizations. For us, it’s not huge,” he says. “But obviously, for other organizations, it’s a much bigger chunk of their operating budget. So we’re fortunate that we’ve been able to cover that $12,500. … I know other people won’t be in that situation.”
But he thinks lots of people have similar concerns to those of publishers and literary journals.
“Us feeling anxious is just a reflection, I think, of how most Americans are feeling, because if it’s not about the NEA, it could be having to do with your Social Security check. … There are a lot of reasons why everyone’s just kind of really on edge,” he says, citing events at the Kennedy Center as an example. “Everyone is under extreme pressure right now.”
So what will they do? Transit’s Levy says his organization will be pivoting to other ways of raising funds.
“We’re going to need to find other sources of revenue to make up for that difference,” he says.
CLMP’s Gannon says, “CLMP has tried to help these publishers navigate the situation, and we’re going to continue to do that. And we’re hoping that there will be other avenues of funding that emerge.”
Two Lines Press Holtmann says he hopes readers who want to see independent voices thrive will also help with support.
“I think for those people who are familiar with these small presses or NEA-supported presses, now’s the time to show your support by donating money, buying books, getting a subscription,” says Holtmann. “There are a lot of things you can do that don’t cost money, too.”
These gestures include signing up for newsletters, attending literary events and going on social media to talk about the books you care about that are published by small, independent nonprofit presses.
“And certainly, this is a time to talk to your members of Congress or any kind of representative that has influence over arts funding,” Holtmann says. “Just saying, this is meaningful to me as a reader, as a citizen, as someone who cares about art and creativity and there are economic impacts to this, too.
“We’ve got a really rich tradition of publishing, and a lot of the great writing of the last 20 years is published by small presses,” says Holtmann, citing fellow Bay Area publisher Transit for publishing a Nobel Prize winner. “A lot of the really great creative work coming out today is done by these small groups of editors and presses that are doing this work with great care and thoughtfulness. So support them.”
Even a success story from mainstream publishing, such as Percival Everett’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “James,” has its roots in independent publishing: Everett spent two decades publishing with Minnesota’s Graywolf Press before going to Doubleday, and he has published his poetry with Pasadena’s Red Hen.
The answer, says Levy, is close to home, wherever home may be.
“I would say, look local,” he says. “The NEA prides itself on its ability to support arts organizations in all 50 states, in rural areas and urban ones. And if you’re a reader, look to the publishing houses that are near you, and look into ways that you can get involved in their events, in their subscriptions, in the individual books they publish. It doesn’t just need to be in terms of financial support.
“So much of the work all of us are doing is about developing community around books and literature and the conversations that they can animate,” he says. “So I think that just getting involved locally is probably a great first step.”
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