Ucross Selected As Amazon Literary Partnership 2023 Grant Recipient 

The Amazon Literary Partnership has announced that Ucross received a grant to support its program and operations. Ucross is among the list of 93 Amazon Literary Partnership Grant Recipients this year. In 2023, the Amazon Literary Partnership awarded nearly $1 million in funding to literary nonprofit organizations.

The Amazon Literary Partnership supports writers to help tell their stories and find their readers, empowering writers to create, publish, learn, teach, experiment and thrive. Since 2009, the Amazon Literary Partnership has been committed to uplifting and amplifying the voices of overlooked or marginalized writers by supporting the literary community through grants to writing programs and nonprofit literary organizations, including Ucross, whose mission is to foster the creative spirit of artists by providing uninterrupted time, studio space, living accommodations, and the experience of the majestic High Plains while serving as a responsible steward of its historic 20,000-acre ranch.

“We're honored that the Amazon Literary Partnership has recognized Ucross's continued commitment to supporting a diversity of voices,” said Ucross President William Belcher. “This support will provide emerging writers with the gift of time and space to create on our beautiful ranch.”

In addition to selecting writers from a diverse range of backgrounds, Ucross is committed to supporting contemporary Native American writers at all stages of their careers. The Ucross Fellowship for Native American Writers provides a fully funded residency, a $2,000 award, a $1,000 stipend and the opportunity to present their writing publicly.

“It's an honor to fund these vital institutions that support writers in all aspects of their writing career,” said Al Woodworth, manager of the Amazon Literary Partnership. “At Amazon, we believe in the power of the written word to expand our thinking, advance our empathy and change our world. We are grateful for the incredible work that these organizations do to champion writers and their stories, today and every day.”

 

Located in northeast Wyoming in the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains, Ucross fosters the creative spirit of deeply Committed Artists and groups by providing uninterrupted time, studio space, living accommodations, and the experience of the majestic High Plains, while serving as a responsible steward of its 20,000-acre ranch. Residencies are awarded to around 115 artists each year. Ten artists are in residence at one time, typically a mix of visual artists, writers, composers, and choreographers.

Since the residency program began in 1983, Ucross has supported more than 2,600 artists, including such distinguished fellows as Annie Proulx, Terry Tempest Williams, Elizabeth Gilbert, Ann Patchett, Ricky Ian Gordon, Bill Morrison, Theaster Gates, Anthony Hernandez, and Tayari Jones. National Book Award winners Susan Choi, Sigrid Nunez, and Sarah M. Broom have been residents, as have Academy Award and Tony winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Emmy Award winner Billy Porter, recent Pulitzer Prize winners Michael R. Jackson and Colson Whitehead, and three-term United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo.

Ucross participates in more than a dozen creative partnerships with national organizations that enhance its ability to support outstanding individual artists with residencies. National partners include The Sundance Institute, the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Fiction, the Whiting Foundation, the Ford Family Foundation, the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, The Alley Theatre, UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance, Yale University, the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, Cave Canem, the Houston Ballet and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice.

Since 2009, the Amazon Literary Partnership has provided more than $16 million in grant funding to more than 160 literary organizations, assisting many thousands of writers. Among the organizations Amazon has supported over the years include the Asian American Writers Workshop, National Book Foundation, PEN America, Poets & Writers, Graywolf Press, Lambda Literary Foundation, Loft Literary Center, National Novel Writing Month, Ucross Foundation, Words Without Borders, Yaddo, WriteGirl and many more. Through Amazon's annual grants, Amazon supports literary centers, writing workshops, residencies, fellowships, literary magazines, independent publishers and poetry and translation programs. Writers supported by some of these organizations have gone on to become best-selling and award-winning authors.

To learn more about the Amazon Literary Partnership, please visit www.amazonliterarypartnership.com. 

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