New York, NY (November 10, 2026)— Marking one year since its launch, the Literary Arts Fund announced today a new major prize in the literary arts field—and the first of its kind—honoring literary arts nonprofits for making significant and essential contributions to writers creating new work and engaging readers. From publishing adventurous “books with teeth,” to ensuring short stories remain a beloved genre, to putting Southern authors on the map in a place that’s nicknamed “Music City,” the three inaugural recipients are Graywolf Press, One Story, and The Porch Writers’ Collective. Each will receive an unrestricted cash award of $250,000 to fuel their missions and contribute to their continued momentum. The Literary Arts Fund, which made final award decisions, collected nominations for the 2026 Stylus Prizes from dozens of writers across the U.S. serving anonymously. As the prize name, “Stylus” refers to a writing instrument, underscoring the fact that writers recommended the winners and that the nonprofit recipients in turn help ensure the future is written. 

“Literary arts nonprofits make great writing possible. 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. The Literary Arts Fund is thrilled to name Graywolf Press, One Story, and The Porch as the inaugural recipients of the Stylus Prizes for the indelible ways in which they have influenced and impacted writers’ creative lives,” said Jen Benka, Executive Director of the Literary Arts Fund, the sponsor of the prizes.

About the 2026 Stylus Prize Winners:

The Porch Writers’ Collective in Nashville, Tennessee — “The gold standard of community service through literature.” (Writer nomination)

After independently relocating back to their hometown of Nashville, Susannah Felts and Katie McDougall—two teachers and published writers who didn’t know one another—recognized that while the number of authors and literary readers was growing in the city, it lacked an official space in which creative writers could develop their craft and find community. Inspired by the moment, Felts began offering informal writing workshops at her home and a nearby coffee shop. The considerable success of these early sessions led her to conclude that Nashville was ready to support an actual literary center, and when she met McDougall at a writers’ group that a mutual colleague had organized, Felts shared her idea of building a local home base for creative writers. McDougall was immediately on board. The Porch, rooted in Nashville’s creativity and the rich literary traditions of the South, was born.  

What began as a handful of fiction-writing classes in 2014, last year, The Porch hosted 170 adult workshops across creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry, led by 200 authors that served 5,000 individuals. In addition to workshops, they offer writers’ retreats across Tennessee and a Visiting Writers Series that connects notable authors—MacArthur Fellow Kiese Laymon and former U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón among them—with readers in the region. Two years ago, The Porch launched a literary journal, SWING, to create a space for writers to publish in a venue that has “national sway.” All of the authors who are published in the journal, give readings, or teach for The Porch are paid in an effort to help sustain writers and the local literary ecosystem. The Porch remains the only organization of its kind in Nashville and has become one of the largest literary arts organizations in the Southeast. In 2027, they are planning to move into a larger space designed to be a community hub that will allow them to expand programming and host more literary and multimedia events in partnership with other local arts organizations.

Of their award, co-founders Felts and McDougall said, “We are grateful to the Literary Arts Fund for its vital work in bolstering the literary arts field and creating opportunities for recognition. The Porch exists because we instinctively grasped the value of artistic community and believed passionately in the craft of writing as an art form and a tool for better living. The Stylus Prize honors not only our hard-working team but The Porch community, without whom our many programs could not be sustained. As writers ourselves, we’re proud to have created robust educational experiences, carefully curated venues for publication, and inclusive and welcoming spaces for meaningful connection and literary fellowship.”

One Story in Brooklyn, New York — “One of the greatest short story institutions in this country.” (Writer nomination) 

In the early 2000s, after a number of small literary journals had folded, magazine circulation expert Maribeth Batcha and author Hannah Tinti became concerned that with fewer venues for short fiction, emerging writers would have a harder time getting noticed and the art of the short story could fall by the wayside. In response, in 2002, they launched One Story—a magazine in the form of a single short story, “an unfussy 5 x 7 chapbook” that’s inexpensive to print and mail to subscribers en masse each month. All writers, whether debuting or established, have their stories published in the same format—with the exception of rotating fonts and cover colors—and each author is only featured once, ensuring that One Story continually introduces new voices to readers and that every issue stands stylistically apart from the next. To facilitate their project, Batcha and Tinti were also early innovators of online submissions, developing a system that was one of the first in the literary magazine universe. 

Since publishing their first issue in 2002, One Story has distributed more than 2.5 million copies to readers around the world.
The series currently reaches close to 6,000 readers per month, and Batcha and Tinti have published more than 340 stories by upwards of 340 different writers, including ‘Pemi Aguda, Lauren Groff, Min Jin Lee, Achy Obejas, Ann Patchett, and Paul Yoon. Many of the stories they’ve published have gone on to win awards, including the O. Henry and Pushcart Prizes. Batcha and Tinti mentor their authors long after they publish them, connecting them to agents and editors, guiding them during turning points in their careers, and promoting their books, successes, and other ventures. One Story also hosts literary events and educational programming, both in person and online, creating a vibrant, interconnected community of readers and writers. In 2027, One Story will celebrate its 25th anniversary and redouble their efforts as the literary arts field’s leading champion of the short story. 

“Twenty-five years ago, we started One Story with $3,000, printing and mailing our one-story-at-a-time format to readers from our apartments. 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,” said co-founders Batcha and Tinti. “We are so grateful to the Literary Arts Fund and its funders for recognizing the needs of the field in what are perilous times. The fact that it was writers who nominated us for this incredible opportunity makes it all the more meaningful, as they have always been at the center of the work we do.” 

Graywolf Press in Minneapolis, Minnesota — “One of the nation’s most esteemed independent presses.” (Writer nomination)

Over its 50+ years, Minnesota-based Graywolf Press has become one of the nation’s leading nonprofit publishers of literature. Their books have received the highest honors, from the National Book Award to the International Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, to the Pulitzer Prize. The press also prides itself on a rich history of nurturing authors over many years as their work evolves—Percival Everett, Maggie Nelson, Claudia Rankine, Diane Seuss, and Tracy K. Smith among them

And yet, Graywolf had humble origins: its founder, Scott Walker, launched the press in Port Townsend, Washington, in 1974, printing poetry chapbooks on a letterpress and hand sewing the binding. In 1984, the press relocated to the Midwest and in 1994, veteran editor Fiona McCrae took the reins. She grew their list to include fiction, nonfiction, and genre-bending books, and firmly established the press in the publishing world. In 2022, Carmen Giménez, an award-winning poet who had founded a small press herself, was named Executive Director and Publisher. Giménez has expanded the press’ editorial vision to further critical acclaim, including works in translation from places and languages that are underrepresented in the American literary landscape. Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and translated by Lin King won the National Book Award in 2024 and the International Booker Prize in 2026. Having just launched a new brand identity to match the boldness of the books they publish, Graywolf continues to ensure that literary culture is not solely determined by trends and algorithms, but also by necessary voices. 

“We are tremendously grateful to the Literary Arts Fund for awarding Graywolf an inaugural Stylus Prize, and it’s particularly meaningful to us that we were nominated by authors,” said Carmen Giménez, Executive Director and Publisher. “Author care has always been a core part of our mission; we strive to create a supportive and collaborative environment for their work, one that gives them the freedom to write risk-taking, genre-defying, transformative books, and the confidence that we’ll usher those books into the world with the same vision. This prize means we can continue to build the kind of home that writers seek out.” 

More About the Prize Winners

Graywolf Press is a nonprofit literary publisher of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and works in translation. Graywolf Press publishes risk-taking, visionary writers who transform culture through literature. Recent books published by Graywolf have won the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize, the Booker Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the National Book Award, among other honors. Visit graywolfpress.org to learn more.

One Story is an award-winning, independent nonprofit that celebrates contemporary literary short stories by publishing, educating, and mentoring the authors who write them. Their flagship magazine, One Story, features a single, curated story mailed out to subscribers. Each issue arrives in an envelope to be opened like a letter from a friend. Recognized for editorial excellence and discovering new voices, the organization serves over 1,400 writers each year with reading groups, write-ins, craft classes, and workshops. They celebrate emerging writers at the One Story Literary Debutante Ball, publish stories written by teens in One Teen Story, and educate and train the next generation of literary talent with an annual apprenticeship and the Adina Talve-Goodman Fellowship. One Story’s programs are designed to be affordable and welcoming, cultivating a community that comes together to read, write, learn, and connect. Since publishing their first issue in 2002, One Story has distributed more than 2.5 million short stories to readers around the world. Visit one-story.com to learn more. 

The Porch Writers’ Collective, known widely as The Porch, is a 501(c)3 nonprofit literary arts organization based in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 2014 by Nashville natives Susannah Felts and Katie McDougall, The Porch serves to inspire, educate, and connect writers and readers of all ages and stages through an array of programs including creative writing classes for adults and youth, literary access work and local partnerships, community-building experiences and meetups for writers, retreats and residencies, and a biannual print literary magazine, SWING. Through its online class offerings and SWING, The Porch engages writers in the South, nationwide, and internationally. Visit porchtn.org to learn more.

More About the Literary Arts Fund

The Literary Arts Fund, a fiscally sponsored project of the National Center for Civic Innovation, is a concerted national effort to catalyze support for the nonprofit literary arts in the United States, which currently receives the least arts and culture funding from private philanthropy. Launched in 2025, the Fund will provide at least $50 million in support of nonprofit publishers, presenters, and organizations that directly serve creative writers and strengthen their relationship to readers. It also aims to raise the visibility of the nonprofit literary arts field, including through the release of data and reports. The Fund was initiated by the Mellon Foundation as a collaborative effort with the Ford Foundation, Hawthornden Foundation, Lannan Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Poetry Foundation, and an anonymous foundation. 

In addition to the Literary Arts Fund’s seven founders, a growing list of foundations and donors have become contributing members of the Literary Arts Funders Collaborative, helping to make the Fund’s activities possible. They currently include the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Fund of the Sidney E. Frank Foundation, Barr Foundation, Barbara and Amos Hostetter, Houston Endowment, Jerome Foundation, Marguerite Casey Foundation, and McKnight Foundation. The Fund continues to accept contributions in support of its efforts, and grantmakers interested in more information about the Literary Arts Funders Collaborative, a new philanthropic affinity group, may contact LAFC@literaryartsfund.org.

To keep apprised of Literary Arts Fund activities and updates, visit literaryartsfund.org and subscribe to the Fund’s newsletter.