Hub City Press receives NEA grant

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Rocco Landesman today announced that the agency will award 863 grants to organizations and individual writers across the country. Hub City Press is one of the grantees and will receive $7,500 to support the publication of four books in 2012. The 863 grant awards total $22.543 million, encompass 15 artistic disciplines and fields, and support projects in 47 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Hub City will publish a novel, a book of essays, a nature book, and an anthology of South Carolina authors writing about their dogs.

“Art Works is the guiding principle at the NEA,” said agency Chairman Rocco Landesman. “And I’m pleased to see that principle represented through the 823 Art Works-funded projects included in this announcement. These projects demonstrate the imaginative and innovative capacities of artists and arts organizations to enhance the quality of life in their communities.”

“This puts us in an elite group of literary publishers in the United States whose work is deemed worthy of national funding,” said Betsy Teter, executive director of the Hub City Writers Project. “We are excited for our press and for our authors.”

In March 2011, the NEA received 1,686 eligible applications for Art Works requesting more than $84 million in funding. The resulting funding rate of 49 percent of eligible applications reflects both the significant demand for support and the ongoing vitality of the not-for-profit arts community despite current financial challenges. Art Works grants are awarded based on the applications received by the NEA and how those applications are assessed by the review panels.

Hub City Press, founded in Spartanburg in 1995, has published more than 50 titles and 400 writers. Hub City, located at 186 West Main in the Hub City Bookshop, publishes well-crafted, high-quality works by new and established authors, with an emphasis on the Southern experience.