University of Iowa International Writing Program lands $250K gift from Florida megadonor Culverhouse

IOWA CITY — A Florida megadonor and firebrand son of a former Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner has stepped up to help the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program after it suffered a devastating blow this year in the loss of nearly $1 million in federal funding.

Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr., who’s become known nationally for giving to programs affected by government spending cuts, has donated $250,000 to the 58-year-old UI writing program, started in 1967 by Hualing Nieh Engle and husband Paul Engle, who for 24 years directed the acclaimed Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

The gift from Culverhouse, a former U.S. Attorney in Miami and the chief executive officer of a 15,000-acre Sarasota community, comes with a challenge for other program supporters “to match his giving,” according to a UI news release. He also urged the program to devise “creative programming that will ensure its survival in the absence of federal funds.”

“I am so very grateful to Mr. Culverhouse for giving us the chance to build a bridge to a sustainable future,” International Writing Program Director Christopher Merrill said, promising to unite program alumni for a symposium on a way forward. “We look forward not only to welcoming a larger cohort of distinguished poets and writers to our fall residency, but to exploring new ways of understanding what their role may be in our changing world.”

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The U.S. Department of State on Feb. 26 notified the UI writing program, or IWP -- the oldest and largest multicultural writing residency in the world — that its grants through the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs would be terminated because they “no longer effectuate agency priorities” or align with “agency priorities and national interest.”

Over its decades, the IWP had grown from a residency program bringing internationally-esteemed writers to the UI campus every fall to other diplomacy-directed programs serving young writers and place-bound learners.

The IWP’s “Lines and Spaces” exchange program, sending prestigious American writers abroad, has facilitated more than 40 exchanges and summits and dispatched more than 170 writers. Its “Between the Lines” program has united 15- to 18-year-olds from around the world every summer since 2008 for a two-week creative writing experience; and its “digital learning” programming has featured dozens of online courses, exchanges and events — including more than 50 free online courses enrolling more than 95,000 people from 197 countries.

The premiere residency program has hosted more than 1,600 established writers from more than 160 countries — at least 1,127 of whom were funded in some part by the State Department.

Losing the federal grants forced the program to cancel its summer youth, international exchange and distance learning programs — along with a mentorship program for displaced or sheltering writers.

In hopes of surviving after the cut with just its fall residency — which also receives some support through philanthropy and foreign ministries of culture — Merrill said the plan was to pare down the 2025 fall cohort from a typical 30 writers to about 12.

“This means we can have a residency of 20 to 25 writers,” Merrill said of the difference Culverhouse’s donation will make. “It’s quite meaningful.”

‘Makeshift operation’

Because the International Writing Program usually works with embassies to recruit applicants — and those have also been the target of ongoing and looming cuts and closures — Merrill said he’s eyeing other recruitment mechanisms going forward that are unattached to the government.

“There is a network of 52 other UNESCO Cities of Literature,” Merrill said of a concept he’s exploring to tap that program for future residency applicants or nominations.

Iowa City since 2008 has been one of 53 cities of literature — which are under a larger UNESCO umbrella of “creative cities” that launched in 2004 and encompasses 350 communities around the world.

Iowa City is one of just two American cities of literature — along with Seattle, which was designated in 2017. Among the reasons Iowa City holds the claim to first U.S. city of literature are its famed Iowa Writers' Workshop and International Writing Program.

“The program connects well-established writers from around the globe, bringing international literature into classrooms, introducing American writers to other cultures through reading tours, and serving as a clearinghouse for literary news and a wealth of archival and pedagogical materials,” according to UNESCO.

Merrill said he plans to attend a Cities of Literature conference in Slovania in September to “make the pitch” for a future residency-nominating mechanism.

But for this upcoming fall, given the cuts and delays in starting the nomination process, Merrill said he’s been working with residency alumni to identify prospects. Thanks to the gift, his hope is to bring at least 20 to Iowa City.

“Once we have the nominations in hand, we’ll be reaching out to writers to see whether they’re interested,” Merrill said. “It’s a makeshift operation this year.”

Culverhouse Jr. known for philanthropy

Like his gift to the UI International Writing Program, Culverhouse Jr. gave $250,000 to the Alabama Humanities Alliance after the federal Department of Government Efficiency ended federal funding for all 56 state and territorial humanities councils, the Alabama Media Group reported earlier this week.

Last year, he donated $107,643 to Sarasota’s Embracing Our Differences art display, which had lost its state and county support.

Originally from Alabama, now living in Florida, Culverhouse Jr. is the son of Hugh Culverhouse Sr. — who once owned the Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL football team and the Palmer Ranch development, which his son went on to run.

He has become known for his philanthropy — giving more than $40 million to the University of Alabama Law School, including a $21.5 million donation amounting to the largest in school history.

In recognition of that gift, the law school briefly changed its name to the Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr. School of Law — until months later, when Culverhouse called for a boycott of the law school bearing his name after that state’s legislature passed a strict anti-abortion rights law. The university system chancellor recommended to return his money and drop his name from the school.

Culverhouse also announced a $500,000 gift to the Donald Trump presidential campaign last year after then-candidate Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of fraud in a New York court — calling the case politically motivated.

Conceding he’s not a Trump fan, Culverhouse said he thought the justice system was being “used as a political tool,” he told the Sarasota Herald Tribune.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

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