NEA Grant Supports Story Week

The Columbia College Chicago Fiction Writing Department’s Story Week Festival of Writers 2013 will receive a $15,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to support “Voices for Change,” its 2013 weeklong literary festival of readings, panels, conversations with authors, performances, and writing workshops. Story Week 2013 will explore the power of story to promote understanding among people from various backgrounds.

“We’re thrilled and honored to be recognized by the NEA,” said Randall Albers the festival’s founding producer and chair of the Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College Chicago. “Story Week’s mission is to expose audiences to the widest possible range of voices, to break boundaries and expand thinking. This additional funding certainly will help us further our reach.”

Story Week 2013 plans 17 author and editor events—all free and open to the public—offered throughout the day and evening during the week of March 17-22. Held at various venues in the city, the festival is also expanding its audience reach through selected podcasts on its website and on Chicago Public Radio’s "Chicago Amplified."

Story Week is one of 788 not-for-profit national, regional, state and local organizations nationwide to receive an Art Works grant. The 788 Art Works grants total $24.81 million and support the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and the strengthening of communities through the arts.

The NEA received 1,624 eligible applications under the Art Works category for this round of funding, requesting more than $78 million in funding.