In early April, the NEH terminated grants already approved and in-progress in order to repurpose funds for President Trump’s agenda. Now the Authors Guild has filed a class-action lawsuit for unlawful termination of those grants on behalf of all those affected.
The Authors Guild says in a press release, “By canceling current grants, the administration has left many grant recipients stranded mid-project, with the completion and publication of the planned books now in question, even though individual grant recipients were required to forgo other employment or compensation opportunities during the term of their NEH award. Grantees were given no opportunity to appeal. … The administration’s actions in canceling the grants were unlawful. The administration is not free to unilaterally cancel funds that Congress has appropriated for a specific purpose—here, humanities funding.”
The Guild claims the actions are a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act and the Constitution’s guarantees of separation of powers and freedom of expression; the lawsuit also asserts that the actions exceed the congressionally granted authority of agencies.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
