Ucross Selected as Amazon Literary Partnership 2024 Grant Recipient

On July 30, Ucross announced that they have joined 92 literary nonprofit organizations as recipient of an Amazon Literary Partnership Grant.

For 15 years, the Amazon Literary Partnership has provided more than $17 million to amplify overlooked or marginalized writers in the literary community. These grants foster writing programs and nonprofit literary organizations such as Ucross, whose mission is to foster the creative spirit of artists by providing fully funded residencies of uninterrupted time and space on their historic 20,000-acre High Plains ranch.

“We too believe in the power of words — and art — to transform lives, and we are thrilled to receive support from Amazon Literary Partnership this year to support Ucross writers,” said William Belcher, Ucross President and Executive Director. “The grant will help us continue to serve overlooked writers and new voices from the High Plains and Rocky Mountain regions. We are grateful.”

An Amazon Literary Partnership Grant allows Ucross Fellows like Alex Arzt the space and time to focus on making publishing accessible to writers and artists. Her projects can be found in libraries at Stanford University, Getty Research Institute, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Photo courtesy of Ucross Foundation.

Over the years, the Amazon Literary Partnership has supported the Academy of American Poets, Asian American Writers Workshop, National Book Foundation, PEN America, Poets & Writers, Girls Write Now, Lambda Literary Foundation, Loft Literary Center, National Novel Writing Month, Words Without Borders and Yaddo, among others.

This grant supports writers to help tell their stories and find their readers, empowering writers to create, publish, learn, teach, experiment and thrive. In addition to championing writers from a diverse range of backgrounds, Ucross supports contemporary Native American writers at all stages of their careers through the Ucross Fellowship for Native American Writers, which provides a fully funded residency, $2,000 award, $1,000 stipend and the opportunity to present work publicly.

Since the Ucross residency program began in 1983, Ucross has supported more than 2,700 artists, including such distinguished fellows as Annie Proulx, Terry Tempest Williams, Elizabeth Gilbert, Ann Patchett, Ricky Ian Gordon, Bill Morrison, Theaster Gates, Anthony Hernandez, and Tayari Jones. National Book Award winners Susan Choi, Sigrid Nunez, and Sarah M. Broom have been residents, as have Academy Award and Tony winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Emmy Award winner Billy Porter, recent Pulitzer Prize winners Michael R. Jackson and Colson Whitehead, and three-term United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo.