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Last Friday, n+1 and hundreds of other American arts organizations received an email from the National Endowment for the Arts notifying us that our NEA grants had been terminated. “The NEA,” we were told, “will now prioritize projects that elevate the Nation’s HBCUs and Hispanic Serving Institutions, celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, foster AI competency, empower houses of worship to serve communities, assist with disaster recovery, foster skilled trade jobs, make America healthy again, support the military and veterans, support Tribal communities, make the District of Columbia safe and beautiful, and support the economic development of Asian American communities.” But would there even be an NEA to prioritize these projects? Also on Friday, the Trump Administration released a budget that called for the elimination of the NEA (alongside the NEH and the Institute of Library and Museum Services), and while budgets aren’t meant to be interpreted literally, it’s clear that even if something called the NEA exists in the future, it will have very little in common—in orientation, scale, and capacity—with the agency that has existed since 1965.
On Monday, a number of senior officials at the NEA, as well as their staffs, announced their resignations. According to the Times, “among those leaving the agency are directors overseeing grants for dance, design, folk and traditional arts, museums and visual arts, and theater. Also departing are the directors of arts education, multidisciplinary works and the ‘partnership’ division, which oversees work with state and local arts agencies.” Four of the officials in question—Amy Stolls, Katy Day-Yapa, Jessica Flynn, and Mohamed Sheriff, all from the NEA’s Literary Arts division—sent an email announcing their resignations that we’re reprinting below with their permissions. Their email testifies to the extraordinary range of the NEA’s literary activities and to the incalculable loss this all too calculable act of defunding represents. The Trump Administration’s assault on civil society has taken many forms; Stolls, Day-Yapa, Flynn, and Sheriff’s note is an eloquent tribute to one crucial element of that assault. —eds
Dear Literary Arts Colleagues:
We’re writing to let you know that May 30th will be our last day at the National Endowment for the Arts.
We are processing a lot of complex emotions in this moment, as we imagine you are too in light of recent agency developments, but know that we remain unwavering in our overall support of all of you and the critical work you do.
Collectively, the four of us have dedicated 57 years of service to the literary arts field. During that time, our charge has always been—at its core—to listen and learn, to respond to the needs of and champion the literary arts field, and to serve the public nationwide to the best of our ability. What a pleasure it has been to do that for and among such a brilliant, creative, supportive community.
You inspire us. All of you: writers, readers, translators, editors, teachers, librarians, arts administrators, festival organizers, workshop leaders, literary funders, literary service providers, and so many more of you out front and behind the scenes who help shape what the complex literary arts ecosystem is and can be.
It has been an honor to be part of an agency that, for almost 60 years, has also played a vital role in shaping the literary arts. We find ourselves reflecting with pride on the vast and various impacts the NEA has made during that time. In addition to supporting many hundreds of nonprofit organizations and publishers, the NEA has awarded fellowships to nearly 600 translators to render literature from more than 80 languages and 90 countries expertly into English, and to more than 3,800 poets and writers, often at critical stages of their careers and years before their work was acknowledged by other awards and appointments. And there have been many impactful initiatives over the decades. The NEA Big Read, for example, has reached every Congressional district in the country and has attracted partnerships from more than 40,000 community organizations, and we’re excited to be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Poetry Out Loud national finals this week.
Thank you to all those who worked with us as NEA judges and reviewers, who participated in convenings and attended our events, who inspired your students to recite poems on stage and encouraged your communities to all read and discuss the same book. Thank you to the organizations who have partnered with us on NEA initiatives. Thank you to those who helped us improve our processes and introduced us to new people and met with us at conferences. Thank you to those who work in other disciplines and industries and have welcomed collaboration. Thank you to those who shared knowledge and ideas for new research agendas and ways to make the literary arts more accessible and expansive.
Thank you to the poets, the story writers, the novelists, the essayists, the memoirists for your words that have lifted us toward the light. You remind us to slow down and be awed, to feel that unique joy in wondering about what we don’t know. You allow us to enter the depths of love, fear, sadness, anger, and connection, and to understand the hardships of others. You allow readers to discover themselves in your pages, and you connect us with our past and have the power—the superpower—to guide our way toward a hopeful future.
We are indebted to our NEA colleagues who facilitate the grants, communicate with constituents, oversee guidelines and panel processes, plan events, support the staff, and serve in various other offices throughout the agency. You will not find more dedicated, smart, hard-working, good-humored people who have routinely gone above and beyond the call of duty to support the agency’s mission. While we don’t know specifically how the work of the agency will change, we know the remaining staff will do their best to support you.
With our deepest respect and appreciation,
Amy Stolls, Literary Arts Director
Katy Day-Yapa, Literary Arts Specialist
Jessica Flynn, Literary Arts Specialist
Mohamed Sheriff, Literary Arts & Arts Education Coordinator
May 5, 2025
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