Amazon Literary Grants in 2024 Expand to Ireland

In News by Porter Anderson

The US- and UK-based Amazon Literary Partnerships have announced beneficiaries for their grants in the States, UK, and Ireland.

Members of the Girls Against Anxiety community writing workshops, a program of the Amazon Literary Partnership grantee Literature Works. Image: Literature Works

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

‘A Positive Impact in Communities’
As Publishing Perspectives readers know, the Amazon Literary Partnership in the United Kingdom has followed the US edition, which started in 2009.

Now in its fifth year, the UK edition of the program has expanded to include the Republic of Ireland and its grants are going to 37 organizations all told. These are grants intended to support various nonprofit literary organizations, writing centers and community engagement programs. “While each has a different cause,” the program’s descriptive text says, “all have a shared goal of offering opportunities to aspiring writers and empowering those from underrepresented communities to experience the magic of storytelling.”

This tracks closely to the pattern of the older, larger United States version of the program. Now in its 14th year, the States’ edition of the Literary Partnership is dispensing grants to 93 beneficiaries, the leading criterion, as in the UK and Ireland, being the support of writers, most of them in various programs to develop their work.

Darren Hardy

Darren Hardy, the senior manager at Amazon for agent and editorial programs for Europe and the UK, is quoted on the announcement of the UK-Ireland grants, saying, “Championing the creativity and talent of diverse writers both young and old is more important than ever.” The program, Hardy says, searches for “inspiring literary organizations to help create a positive impact in communities around the United Kingdom.”

In extending the program to Ireland this year, he says, the charity “looks forward to playing a small part in inspiring the next generation of writers alongside our partner organizations for the first time.”

One difference in the program in the UK and Ireland side and its older counterpart in the States is that the American edition is somewhat more forthcoming about the money involved in its grants, characterizing the overall cost of the benefits again in this year’s generosity to be around US$1 million for that overall pool of 93 beneficiaries. The UK program, when asked by Publishing Perspectives, declines to offer any numbers.

Amazon Literary Partnership: 2024 UK and Ireland Recipients

Some of the best known beneficiaries on the list in the UK and Ireland are English PEN, Granta Trust, the National Centre for Writing, and the Scottish Book Trust.

Amazon Literary Partnership: 2024 United States

Again this year, the partnership in the States is handled by senior manager Al Woodworth, and that program continues to partner with the Academy of American Poets and the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP). Each of those organizations produces a list of recommended beneficiaries in the respective field.

Al Woodworth

The American program this year benefits recipients in more than 25 states, and its grants go to  more than 10 even-driven organizations; 18 poetry organizations; more than 30 literary magazines and nonprofit small presses; more than 10 workshop and/or writing centers; and at least five organizations solely focused on working with young writers.

Among those programs for younger writers is the National Book Foundation’s Five Under 35 program, which is among the highest-profile recipient programs, as are PEN America, MacDowell, Graywolf Press, Deep Vellum Publishing, Yaddo, and Words Without Borders.

Beneficiaries new to the program this year are marked with an asterisk.

More from Publishing Perspectives on Amazon is here, more on the Amazon Literary Partnership program is here, and more on issues around the work of authors is here. More on the United Kingdom’s book market is here, more on issues in diversity and inclusion is here, more on the United States’ market is here, and more on Amazon is here.

About the Author

Porter Anderson

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Porter Anderson has been named International Trade Press Journalist of the Year in London Book Fair's International Excellence Awards. He is Editor-in-Chief of Publishing Perspectives. He formerly was Associate Editor for The FutureBook at London's The Bookseller. Anderson was for more than a decade a senior producer and anchor with CNN.com, CNN International, and CNN USA. As an arts critic (Fellow, National Critics Institute), he was with The Village Voice, the Dallas Times Herald, and the Tampa Tribune, now the Tampa Bay Times. He co-founded The Hot Sheet, a newsletter for authors, which now is owned and operated by Jane Friedman.