Keep St. Pete Lit Receives $10,000 From Arts Emergency Fund

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Keep St. Pete Lit is among 282 nonprofit literary arts organizations to receive emergency funding administered by the Academy of American Poets, the Community of Literary Magazine & Presses and the National Book Foundation.

The total money awarded to literary organizations this year through the emergency fund is $3.5 million, reported Lit Hub.

The fund was created to help nonprofit literary arts organizations, magazines and publishers who were hit financially hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

"We are so grateful to receive the $10,000 grant because our revenue is down considerably due to Covid," Keep St. Pete Lit's founder Maureen McDole told Patch. "We had to cancel our annual SunLit Festival this year, and that event brings in sponsorship money, which helps to cover our programming for the rest of the year."

McDole said monthly donations from the community were also down because of the economic challenges a big portion of the St. Pete community has experienced.

"This money will help us to bridge the financial gap until other funding opportunities open up," McDole said.

Organizations receiving support have cumulatively reported over $27 million in financial losses and are projecting over $48 million in financial losses in the next year, according to Lit Hub.

The greatest amount given to literary organizations was $50,000 during the application period from July 17 to August 7.

Keep St. Pete Lit has a literary arts program that offers writing classes and writer's residency, and it keeps writers connected. The organization provides many learning tools for the community's writers.

A YouTube series called Typewriter Talks created by the organization's founder, Maureen McDole, features local authors and poets who give writing advice to the literary community. Roy Peter Clark, St. Pete resident and otherwise known as America's writing coach who has authored numerous books about writing and journalism, has been featured as a guest on the series.

For the full list of literary organizations that were chosen as recipients for the emergency fund, visit LitHub.

For more information about St. Pete Lit or to make donations to the organization, visit St. Pete Lit.