Having gutted the staff of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Department of Government Efficiency has terminated funding for state humanities councils in all 50 states as well as project grants made under the Biden administration.
In response, the Authors Guild released a statement: “The NEH’s grants … supported crucial projects like preserving oral histories of the devastating Lahaina wildfire in Hawaii, digitizing Louis Armstrong’s historical archives in Queens, and funding language learning at the Yiddish Book Center in Massachusetts. … By targeting the NEH, the administration isn’t merely cutting a budget line—it’s silencing the voices of disaster survivors, erasing access to irreplaceable cultural heritage, and dismantling the infrastructure that ensures America’s diverse stories can be told, preserved, and understood by future generations.”
State humanities councils typically fund book festivals and literacy programs. Learn more about the scope of the NEH through state humanities councils and search for your state.
- Related: A reporter for The Atlantic attended AWP to see how the organization and its writerly members may be affected by funding cuts. Read Boris Kachka (subscription may be required).
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.
