State Department: UI International Writing Program no longer of ‘national interest’; terminates $1M funding

IOWA CITY — 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.”

When asked for comment from The Gazette, a spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks said her office had “reached out to senior leaders at the State Department and the administration for more information and expressed concern on behalf of the IWP.”

  Buy Photo

‘Different funding model’

Since Paul and Hualing Engle launched the program — earning them a Nobel Peace Prize nomination in 1976 for their cultural diplomacy efforts — it’s hosted more than 1,600 established writers from more than 160 countries, at least 1,127 of whom were wholly or partially funded by the State Department and its agencies.

Over its span, the program has produced three Nobel laureates — recipients of the acclaimed Nobel Prize.

Its evolution beyond the fall residency — which brings international writers to campus from August to November — includes a two-week summer exchange program for 15- to 18-year-old students nationally and internationally.

The IWP also boasts a cultural exchange program that’s introduced more than 170 prestigious American authors to new literary landscapes and global audiences.

Through its digital learning work, the IWP has offered dozens of online courses, exchanges, and events — amassing more than 50 free “massive open online courses” and the like, enrolling more than 95,000 people from 197 nations.

The new virtual six-month “Emerging Voices Mentorship Program” — now discontinued, due to the cuts — matched emerging writers who are displaced, sheltering in place, or facing limited educational opportunities with IWP alums “for creative writing and professionalization instruction.”

The first iteration of that program supported 35 writers — including 10 from Afghanistan, eight from Myanmar, 11 from Nicaragua, and six from Ukraine.

“I'm thinking some time over the next several months, we will put our heads together with the administration here at the university and try to think what the IWP should look like going forward,” Merrill said. “Obviously, we’re going to have to come up with a different funding model.

“We have enough to host the fall residency, but nothing beyond that.”

‘National interest’

  Buy Photo

The IWP’s grant termination notice on Feb. 26 promised “detailed instructions will follow.” And Merrill told The Gazette his program has received a stop work order, meaning “we technically can’t pay anybody for any work that’s been done.”

For employees on term appointments, the UI Graduate College has agreed to keep them going through the end of their terms. But those positions will be gone, along with a fall residency coordinator the program was looking to hire.

“We’ve spent a fair amount of time talking to the General Counsel, trying to get some kind of an understanding of whether we have any legal recourse,” Merrill said. “The General Counsel is still combing through the grants and the agreements and the amendments.”

Beyond their literary contributions to the university, Iowa City, and the world, IWP writers and their cohorts have had an economic impact — spending money locally that would have gone elsewhere and touting the region both by mouth and through their creative work.

“More than 90 percent of funds associated with the IWP’s federal grants are spent domestically, which would have resulted in slightly less than $1 million going back into the U.S. economy over the next year,” according to the university. The program — with its rich history in writing — was paramount in Iowa City’s designation as a “City of Literature.”

“The International Writing Program is such a vital part of our City of Literature; indeed, it's likely we wouldn't have earned UNESCO's designation without it,” Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature Executive Director John Kenyon said.

“When I travel around the world and interact with people in the global literary community, they know about Iowa and Iowa City in large part because of this program and the work of the hundreds of writers who learned about American culture and values during their time here.”

Referencing the State Department’s comments in its termination notice, Kenyon said, “To say that its work no longer aligns with national interest says an awful lot about what this current administration thinks about our place in the world, none of it good.”

Across the range of types of returns on investment, Kenyon characterized the IWP as being “without peer.”

“At a time of international upheaval, the best thing we can do is to form alliances with the people in other countries, and there is no more effective way to do so than through arts and culture,” he said. “I would love to see our congressional delegation fight for this Iowa institution, and for Iowans both native and in spirit to rise up in support with their voices and their wallets.”

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com