The Literary Arts Fund gives $250,000 prizes to 3 literary nonprofits

NEW YORK (AP) — A Minneapolis-based publishing house, a Nashville-based writers collective and a New York City-based magazine dedicated to short fiction have each received $250,000 grants from a philanthropy launched in 2025 to benefit literary nonprofits: The Literary Arts Fund .

Graywolf Press, which has published such acclaimed authors as Percival Everett and Tracy K. Smith ; the Porch Writers' Collective, founded in 2014 with a mission to nurture a “vibrant creative community and diverse arts landscape”; and One Story, which since 2002 has published fiction by Ann Patchett and Lauren Groff among others, are the inaugural winners of the arts fund's Stylus Prize.

“Literary arts nonprofits make great writing possible,” the fund's executive director, Jen Benka, said in a statement issued Tuesday. “They provide retreats and workshops at which writers polish their new work. They organize public events, including festivals, so writers can meet their readers. They publish writers’ essays, poems, and stories in magazines and books. And they help champion these publications and the importance of reading and literature."

All three recipients issued statements expressing gratitude, with One Story co-founders Maribeth Batcha and author Hannah Tinti noting that the money comes as they prepare to celebrate the magazine's 25th anniversary.

“We started One Story with $3,000, printing and mailing our one-story-at-a-time format to readers from our apartments,” they said. “This award will allow us to enter our anniversary year able to plan for the long-term future instead of focusing on the day-to-day.”