Lang
3/6/25
The U.S. State Department has notified the University of Iowa International Writing Program that its grants through the department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs are being terminated, stating that the awards “no longer effectuate agency priorities,” nor align “with agency priorities and national interest.”
Due to the loss of federal funding, totaling nearly $1 million, the program’s leaders will cancel its summer youth program, dissolve distance learning courses, and discontinue the Emerging Voices Mentorship Program. Because the program’s Fall Residency also receives funding through a combination of gifts, grants, support from foreign ministries of culture, and nongovernmental organizations, the 2025 cohort will be reduced by about half. The fall program usually hosts about 30 writers.
UI officials say IWP writers and their cohorts have generated economic investment in the state of Iowa that would ordinarily be sent elsewhere. More than 90% of funds associated with the IWP’s federal grants are spent domestically, which would have resulted in slightly less than $1 million going back into the U.S. economy over the next year.
IWP Director Christopher Merrill says the university remains dedicated to the program’s mission, which is to promote mutual understanding through creative writing and literature.
A link to Thursday’s full news release from the UI, including an official statement from the program, can be found here.