October 28, 2025
Coalition Launches Historic $50 Million Initiative to Bolster Nonprofit Literary Arts
Power of the Word
How does language shape and change culture?
“America is for Dreamers,” an exhibit featuring the work of artist Patrick Martinez on display at the Vincent Price Art Museum in Monterey Park, CA in 2018. Photo: Monica Orozco
By inviting us to stop, read, and listen, words act as windows into our shared humanity. They inform how we collect our past and inspire how we build our future. Mellon celebrates literary expression in all forms and the futures that might be imagined through the written word.
Voice
The Power of the Pen: How Writing Saved My Life
Read the essay Voice
A Bordering Net
Read the essay 
Francisco Font Acevedo
Fellow
Letras Boricuas
Wiki Education Foundation
Look It Up: Humanities Students are Filling Wikipedia’s Content Gaps
The Center for Economic Research and Social Change, Inc.
Freedom, Put in Writing
The Futuro Media Group
Hearing Myself in Your Voice
Mellon Voices
The Words and Wisdom of Natalie Diaz
Yale University
Felony and Freedom with Reginald Dwayne Betts
Directed by Sindha Agha
“Democracy” by Langston Hughes
From the Heart Productions, Inc.
A Legendary Poet’s Home Becomes a Sanctuary for Young Artists
Mellon Fellows
An Acclaimed Scholar Reflects on Black Life and Literature
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