SARANAC LAKE, NY—Adirondack Center for Writing (ACW) has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for a Grants for Arts Projects award of $15,000.

This grant will support ACW’s 2024 Kickass Writers Festival. In total, the NEA will award 1,135 Grants for Arts Projects awards totaling more than $37 million as part of its second round of fiscal year 2024 grants.

“Projects like ACW’s Kickass Writer’s Festival exemplify the creativity and care with which communities are telling their stories, creating connection and responding to challenges and opportunities in their communities—all through the arts,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “So many aspects of our communities such as cultural vitality, health and wellbeing, infrastructure and the economy are advanced and improved through investments in art and design, and the National Endowment for the Arts is committed to ensuring people across the country benefit.”

The Kickass Writers Festival is a two-day event taking place throughout downtown Saranac Lake on Friday, June 7, and Saturday, June 8, featuring writers, poets, comedians and other creatives from across the country. The festival is a celebration of how writing and storytelling — in all of their forms — are essential to art, entertainment and social change and includes readings, workshops, publishing programs, special performances, a book fair, a stand-up show and more.

“This generous funding from the NEA means that not only can we bring the most exciting writers, poets and comedians to the region, it also means we can keep the cost of attending the festival very low,” said Nathalie Thill, executive director of ACW. “In fact, the kickoff event on Friday evening, which features legends like the NYS poet Patricia Spears Jones and the former Women of the World Poetry Slam winner, Denice Frohman, is absolutely free, as are many other events in the festival. What a gift we can give our community, all due to this funding.”

While many festival events are free at the First Draft registration level, festival goers can register at the Paperback level (Hardcover and Rare Book levels are sold out) to gain access to additional events and programs such as the stand-up comedy show on Saturday night at the Waterhole featuring LA comedian, Greg Edwards. View the full event schedule and line-up, register for the festival and buy tickets for individual events at adirondackcenterforwriting.org/kickassregister.

The Adirondack Center for Writing has been bringing people and words together for 25 years through provocative events and meaningful programs. For more information about ACW, visit adirondackcenterforwriting.org or follow @adkctr4writing on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.