The University of Iowa’s International Writing Program saw a significant cut in funding last month after the U.S. Department of State determined that grants previously awarded to the program no longer aligned with agency priorities.
The International Writing Program was notified on Feb. 26 that its grants with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs were being terminated. The notification stated that the financial awards “no longer effectuate agency priorities,” or align “with agency priorities and national interest,” according to a press release from the UI.
These grants totaled nearly $1 million in funding for the International Writing Program. Multiple programs and services will end as a result of the cuts, including canceling its summer youth program, dissolving distance learning courses, and discontinuing the Emerging Voices Mentorship Program.
The Emerging Voices Mentorship Program was launched in 2024 as a six-month creative writing program that matches emerging writers who are displaced, sheltering in place, and/or facing limited educational opportunities with International Writing Program alums for creative writing and professionalization instruction, the website states.
Founded in 1967, the International Writing Program has hosted over 1,600 established writers from more than 160 countries in its lifetime. Three of those writers have won the Nobel Prize in literature, most recently in 2024, and one author has won the Booker Prize. The program is known for bringing together American and international authors and giving them both a space to be creative and learn from one another.
The International Writing Program’s upcoming fall cohort will also feel the loss in funding. The 11-week program brings international writers to the UI, where they can create literary work while also introducing them to U.S. culture and higher education practices, the press release states.
The fall 2025 cohort will be cut in half, meaning there will be about 15 residents compared to the usual 30. The program’s fall residency also receives funding through a combination of gifts, grants, and support from foreign ministries of culture and nongovernmental organizations, which it will continue to receive, it states.
A banner appeared on the International Writing Program’s website in late February stating that the website was being reviewed for compliance with recent “Executive Orders and other guidance,” the banner read. It has since been replaced with a new banner announcing the changes in funding. It did not state which executive order it was being checked for compliance against.
International Writing Program Director Christopher Merrill said in the announcement posted on the program’s website that the community of writers is “devastated by the abrupt end of this 58-year partnership.”
The program is working with the UI General Counsel and Grant Accounting to review the terminations, understand their impact, and respond in the best interest of the organization, he said.
“Despite this disappointing turn of events, the IWP’s mission to promote mutual understanding through creative writing and literature remains unchanged; with the help of a limited number of other partners, we will still hold a 2025 Fall Residency even while pursuing new sources of funding,” Merrill said in the release.
The funding cut comes as President Donald Trump looks to slash the federal workforce and federal funding to downsize the government as he looks to implement massive tax cuts.
Trump has also signed multiple executive orders looking to limit diversity, equity, and inclusion in the federal workplace and U.S. schools, including higher education institutions.
The U.S. Department of Education notified institutions receiving federal funding that they had 14 days to “cease using race preferences and stereotypes as a factor in their admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, sanctions, discipline, and beyond” or risk losing funding via a letter on Feb. 14.
Iowa lawmakers have also moved to limit DEI in state institutions, most recently ordering state public universities to strip their websites of mentions of DEI.
The UI press release states the literary contributions of the International Writing Program significantly impact the university and Iowa City communities, with the writers and their cohorts generating an economic investment in the state that would ordinarily be sent elsewhere.
“More than 90% 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,” the press release states.