Our Response to the Recent NEA Announcement Terminating Grants
By now you’ve heard that the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) terminated or withdrew an incredible range of grant awards on Friday, May 2. The Center for the Art of Translation was among the list of organizations who received the notorious email telling us our work does not align with the Trump Administration’s priorities.
Chad Post, Publisher of Open Letter Books, invited me on the Three Percent Podcast(opens in a new tab) to speak on behalf of the Center for the Art of Translation with him, Adam Levy (Publisher at Transit Books), and Mary Gannon (Executive Director of CLMP) about the impact of the terminated and withdrawn NEA grants.
These cuts are a blow—to us and to our peers. Even if the NEA endures, it is clear we are unlikely to receive additional support for years to come. This administration has changed the funding landscape for the literary arts in dramatically shortsighted ways for the worse.
You can show up for the literary community even if this administration is actively trying to silence those of us who believe the world is large and our shared humanity is more wild and beautiful than one narrow-minded agenda.
On behalf of myself and my colleagues at CAT, I want you to know that we are as committed as ever to our mission to find dazzling new, overlooked, and underrepresented voices, brought into English by the best translators, and to celebrating the art of translation. We are not going to stop honoring cultural differences, promoting a sense of belonging, and showcasing writers who uplift the human experience.
Book purchases and donations will certainly help literary organizations like ours through this challenging time. If you’d like to support the Center for the Art of Translation directly, you can become a Member to receive every book we publish through our publishing program Two Lines Press (at least 8 a year) or support us by making a tax-deductible donation.
But as I mentioned to LitHub(opens in a new tab), there are also things you can do that don’t involve spending money to support literary organizations and publishers like us:
- Call out beloved books you already own on social media
- Sign up for a literary organization’s newsletter as a show of support
- Talk to friends and relatives about the NEA-funded presses that mean the most to you
- Contact your Members of Congress to remind them that the literary arts are a crucial part of American cultural and economic life
You can show up for the literary community even if this administration is actively trying to silence those of us who believe the world is large and our shared humanity is more wild and beautiful than one narrow-minded agenda.
Thanks for joining us to fight the good fight.
Michael Holtmann
President
Center for the Art of Translation | Two Lines Press
Michael Holtmann has worked in the arts for more than fifteen years. Prior to joining the Center, he held positions at the National Endowment for the Arts and the Folger Shakespeare Library. He has served on the board of the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) and the international programming committee of the Bay Area Book Festival.
