Several charitable groups—among them the Ford, Hawthornden, Lannan, MacArthur, Mellon, and Poetry foundations—are teaming up to launch the Literary Arts Fund, an effort to give the “essential yet critically underfunded” lit world a much-needed boost.

The program, which earmarks funds for the nonprofit literary arts world, will distribute at least $50 million to artists and arts organizations over the next five years.

Early fans include heavy-hitting novelists like Ann Patchett and Percival Everett. Praising the program, Everett said, “This is the kind of support that will reinvigorate the entire artistic landscape of our culture.”

The fund comes at a moment when literature in the United States—as you may have heard—is in dire straits. Arts orgs and artists are chronically underfunded by a hostile federal government, even as production costs rise. Given the kneecapped NEA, artists are working against extra strong headwinds. But this new fund hopes to change that by ensuring “that a wide spectrum of voices and ideas” continue to shape American literary arts.

Elizabeth Alexander, poet and president of the Mellon Foundation, noted the happy timing with a mandate. “American philanthropy can and must play a bigger role in strengthening the financial infrastructure of the literary organizations and nonprofits that serve these literary artists,” she said in a statement.

The Literary Arts Fund will be executive directed by Jennifer Benka, a long-time literary citizen who’s previously held leadership posts at the Academy of American Poets and Poets & Writers.

The fund will award grants to U.S.-based “nonprofit or fiscally sponsored” literary orgs and publishers that support “contemporary writers of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or hybrid literary forms.”

Hopeful grantees may respond to an annual open call beginning November 10. In the meantime? Viva Les Arts!