After 58 years of collaborative diplomacy — cultivating global understanding and good will through story and imagination and creative work — the U.S. Department of State has notified the University of Iowa’s esteemed International Writing Program that it is terminating its grants because they “no longer effectuate agency priorities” or align with “national interest.”
That loss of nearly $1 million in federal funding is devastating for the program started in 1967 by Hualing Nieh Engle and husband Paul Engle, who directed the globally-acclaimed Iowa Writers’ Workshop for 24 years from 1941 to 1965.
“This award is being terminated for the convenience of the U.S. Government pursuant to a directive from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for alignment with agency priorities and national interest,” according to the Feb. 26 termination notice.
Without its three State Department grants, Iowa’s International Writing Program will cancel its summer youth program, dissolve its exchange programming for established American writers, end its distance learning courses, and discontinue a mentorship program for displaced or sheltering writers.
Given the program’s premiere fall residency program also receives funding through a combination of gifts, grants, and support from foreign ministries of culture and nongovernmental organizations, the coming 2025 cohort will be cut in half from the typical 30 writers to about 12.
“We are devastated by the abrupt end of this 58-year partnership and are working closely with the Office of General Counsel and the university’s grant accounting office to review the terminations, understand their full impact, and respond in the best interest of the organization,” International Writing Program Director Christopher Merrill said, affirming his commitment to the program’s mission “to promote mutual understanding through creative writing and literature.”
“Despite this disappointing turn of events, the IWP’s mission remains the same and, with the help of a small number of other partners, we will still hold a 2025 fall residency as we also pursue new sources of funding.”
https://www.thegazette.com/higher-e...no-longer-of-national-interest-terminates-1m/
That loss of nearly $1 million in federal funding is devastating for the program started in 1967 by Hualing Nieh Engle and husband Paul Engle, who directed the globally-acclaimed Iowa Writers’ Workshop for 24 years from 1941 to 1965.
“This award is being terminated for the convenience of the U.S. Government pursuant to a directive from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for alignment with agency priorities and national interest,” according to the Feb. 26 termination notice.
Without its three State Department grants, Iowa’s International Writing Program will cancel its summer youth program, dissolve its exchange programming for established American writers, end its distance learning courses, and discontinue a mentorship program for displaced or sheltering writers.
Given the program’s premiere fall residency program also receives funding through a combination of gifts, grants, and support from foreign ministries of culture and nongovernmental organizations, the coming 2025 cohort will be cut in half from the typical 30 writers to about 12.
“We are devastated by the abrupt end of this 58-year partnership and are working closely with the Office of General Counsel and the university’s grant accounting office to review the terminations, understand their full impact, and respond in the best interest of the organization,” International Writing Program Director Christopher Merrill said, affirming his commitment to the program’s mission “to promote mutual understanding through creative writing and literature.”
“Despite this disappointing turn of events, the IWP’s mission remains the same and, with the help of a small number of other partners, we will still hold a 2025 fall residency as we also pursue new sources of funding.”
https://www.thegazette.com/higher-e...no-longer-of-national-interest-terminates-1m/
