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07/22/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 07/22/2026 07:40

Amazon Literary Partnership Announces 2026 Grant Recipients

Amazon today announced the 2026 recipients of the Amazon Literary Partnership, providing $1 million in grants to 102 literary organizations across more than 25 states. Amazon believes in the power of words to transform lives, communities, and the world, and is honored to support these vital organizations that champion writers.

This year's grants will support youth-focused writing programs, residency programs, publications, and award programs, reflecting the Amazon Literary Partnership's commitment to supporting writers throughout their careers. The program supports organizations that amplify and uplift writers and connect them with readers.

As part of the grantmaking program, the Amazon Literary Partnership continues its longstanding work with the Academy of American Poets on the Poetry Fund and the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses on the Literary Magazine Fund, which are each awarding more than 15 grants this year.

From Alaska to South Carolina, Texas to Oregon, 2026 grant recipients represent more than 25 states. This year's grants will support 20 literary magazines, 19 poetry organizations, more than 10 workshop and writing centers, more than 10 event-driven organizations, five residency programs, and seven organizations exclusively focused on serving young writers. See below for the full list of 2026 grantees.

2026 Highlights

  • For more than a decade, the Amazon Literary Partnership has funded the National Book Foundation's Five Under 35 program and sponsored the National Book Awards. "The National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 program exemplifies our deep commitment to connecting readers with extraordinary experiences with books and writers. It is a gift to continue our longstanding collaboration with the Amazon Literary Partnership in support of this program, which spotlights talented writers whose debut work of fiction deserves the attention of readers everywhere," said Ruth Dickey, executive director of the National Book Foundation.
  • Across the country, the Amazon Literary Partnership is supporting festivals and event programming like Seattle Arts and Lectures, the Brooklyn Book Festival, the Traveling South Asian Literary Festival, the Miami Book Fair, the Northern Arizona Book Festival, City of Asylum, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, and the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation.
  • Writers need time and space to write, which is why the Amazon Literary Partnership has been a longstanding supporter of residency programs. This year, grants have been awarded to Yaddo, the Center for Fiction's Emerging Fellowship program, MacDowell's James Baldwin Fellowship, and Ucross. "A Ucross residency is often life-changing for emerging poets and writers. After experiencing uninterrupted time in a private writing studio on our vast Wyoming ranch earlier in their careers, Ucross alumni such as Joy Harjo, Colson Whitehead, and Elizabeth Gilbert have gone on to publish works that continue to impact people around the world," said Caitlin Addlesperger, president and executive director. "This generous grant from the Amazon Literary Partnership directly supports our ability to foster the creative spirit in writers and, later, their readers."
  • With the Literary Magazine Fund, the Amazon Literary Partnership will support organizations like Electric Literature, The Drift, Sinister Wisdom, Foglifter Press, Alaska Quarterly Review, and 15 other literary magazines. A longtime grant recipient of the Amazon Literary Partnership, Electric Literature's director of operations and fiction, Wynter Miller shared: "In a culture that celebrates art but has few resources to support it, the Amazon Literary Partnership grantmaking program is vital. With its support, Electric Literature publishes more than 500 writers every year and reaches more than 3.5 million readers. We are enormously grateful for Amazon's investment in our mission to nurture emerging writers and make literature exciting, relevant, and inclusive."
  • With the Poetry Fund, the Amazon Literary Partnership continues its support of poetry organizations across the country. This year's 19 grant recipients include CantoMundo, Indigenous Nations Poets (In-Na-Po), Mass Poetry, Poetry Daily, and the Pongo Poetry Project, focused on young poets. "We are incredibly grateful to the Amazon Literary Partnership for its generous support," said Nebeu Shimeles, co-executive director at Pongo Poetry Project. "Poetry, and the arts more broadly, help us slow down, witness, and reflect; to think differently about ourselves, the world around us and our relationship to it. Thank you to the Amazon Literary Partnership for its belief in this work, and for fueling Pongo's ability to connect marginalized youth with the transformative power of creative expression."
  • The Amazon Literary Partnership will support nonprofit publishers like Graywolf Press, Heyday, Hub City Press, Torrey House Press, as well as those that focus on translation, like Deep Vellum, Archipelago Books, and Zephyr Press.
  • The Amazon Literary Partnership continues to support organizations focused on serving young writers. This year includes 826 National, Girls Write Now, The Telling Room, Empowering Latino Futures, and WriteGirl. "WriteGirl is thrilled to be a recipient of a 2026 Amazon Literary Partnership grant! We're grateful for the support and how it will help us continue our mentoring, workshops, and college guidance for underserved teen girls and gender-expansive youth," said Keren Taylor, executive director of WriteGirl. "From fiction to poetry to screenwriting, giving teens a chance to develop their creative voice helps them live, write, and speak boldly as they become inspiring, transformative leaders."
  • In the South, the Amazon Literary Partnership will support Lostintheletters, Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation, The Watering Hole Poetry Organization, and The Porch Writers' Collective, based in Nashville, among others. "The Visiting Writers Series is essential to the Porch's mission to inspire, educate, and connect writers and readers of all ages and stages," said Susannah Felts, cofounder and artistic director of The Porch Writers' Collective. "Support from the Amazon Literary Partnership allows us to raise the profile of many Southeastern-based writers and expose our Middle Tennessee audience to the esteemed literary work and teaching talents of writers from across the nation. This program cements The Porch's place in the national literary culture."
  • 826 National joins 15 other first-time grantees like the National Book Critics Circle, the Northern Arizona Book Festival, Turkoslavia, Foglifter Press, and Autumn House Press. Elio Ervin from 826 National shared, "826 National exists to answer one question: who gets the chance to write? Students in Woodburn, in Bessemer, in Whitestown, and in thousands of communities without an 826 chapter deserve what every young writer deserves: a teacher who believes in them, a platform to write boldly and revise bravely, and readers waiting at the end. The Amazon Literary Partnership makes more of that possible."

2026 Amazon Literary Partnership grant recipients

2026 Literary Magazine Fund Recipients
Administered by Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP). Alejandro Heredia, Douglas Kearney, and Michelle Tea served as panelists.

"Literary magazines launch and nurture the careers of writers and provide readers with a human, sacred space for discovering the poems, stories, and essays being written now," said CLMP Executive Director Mary Gannon. "Whether cultivating conversations among countries, exploring connections between nature and culture, or amplifying voices that have been historically silenced, this year's grantees, with their distinct editorial visions, serve as a vital record of our contemporary literary landscape. We're so grateful to the Amazon Literary Partnership for supporting their important work."

2026 Poetry Fund Recipients
Administered by the Academy of American Poets. Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello, Geffrey Davis, and Emily Pettit served as panelists.

"Thanks to ongoing, substantial support from Amazon Literary Partnership, poetry organizations and presses have continued to thrive," said Robert Casper, president and executive director of the Academy of American Poets. "Their work is essential to our culture: championing the great poets and poems of our time, as they help us contend with and connect to the world-and each other-through the beauty of language."

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