The University of Iowa International Writing Program will end certain programs and shrink its next cohort after seeing federal funding cuts. (Photo courtesy of the University of Iowa International Writing Program)
One of the University of Iowa’s premiere writing programs has seen its federal funding cut, the university announced Thursday, a blow causing the closures of programs and smaller cohorts.
The UI International Writing Program announced online that as of Feb. 26, grants it had received from the U.S. Department of State and Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs had been terminated. According to a notice cited in the release, programs funded by the grants “no longer effectuate agency priorities,” and do not hold “with agency priorities and national interest.”
Canceled federal funding amounts to nearly $1 million, the university stated in a news release, the same amount that would have been generated for the U.S. economy by the program in the next year, as more than 90% of federal grant dollars are spent domestically.
“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 in the release. “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.”
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Separate from the UI’s Iowa Writers’ Workshop, the International Writing Program brings international writers and literature to Iowa City and exposes American writers to cultures from across the globe, according to its website. Its main program is an 11-week residency that does not include academic credits.
As a result of the cuts, the writing program will discontinue its summer youth program, Between the Lines, the Emerging Voices Mentorship Program, distance learning courses and more, according to the release.
The fall 2025 residency cohort, which has traditionally brought in around 30 writers, will be cut in half.
“The Fall Residency is an 11-week program that brings established international writers to the UI campus, providing them with time to produce literary work, while also introducing the social and cultural fabrics of the United States,” the release stated. “The experience enables them to take part in American university life and creates opportunities for them to contribute to literature courses both at the UI and across the country.”
South Korean author and 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature winner Han Kang attended the program in 1998, according to a news release, joining fellow program participants, Nobel Prize-winners and novelists Orhan Pamuk, born in Istanbul, and Chinese author Mo Yan.
Founded in 1967 by Paul Engle and Hualing Nieh Engle, both of whom were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976, the release stated the program has welcomed more than 1,600 writers from more than 160 countries.
The program stated in its announcement it will pursue new funding opportunities in the light of these losses and has other established funding streams in donors, grants, nongovernmental organizations and “foreign ministries of culture.”
The UI is also weathering uncertainty with other federally funded programs, especially research projects with National Institutes of Health grants. According to a March 5 update, Judge Angel Kelley of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts has issued a preliminary injunction on a proposed 15% cap on indirect costs for NIH grants and contracts.
The update stated the university will “continue to submit research proposals according to our federal negotiated indirect cost rate agreement.”
“Considering the irreparable harm likely to befall similarly situated nonparties, the chaos that would result both for institutions and NIH from a patchwork of injunctions, the diffuse nature of the Plaintiffs, and the nature of the suit, a nationwide preliminary injunction is the appropriate and reasonable remedy,” Kelley wrote in her ruling.
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