Community-Centered Creative Incubation

Funds the annual Cave Canem Prize, which includes a $10,000 award and publication through a partner press for a debut poetry collection, and the Derricotte/Eady Chapbook Prize, which includes a $1,000 award, publication, a residency, and a featured reading.

Provides $500 individual grants to Cave Canem Fellows and Faculty to support poetic pursuits and artistic development initiatives.

Partners with Northwestern University Press to award a biennial prize for a second poetry collection by a Black poet, supporting the continued literary development of established voices.

Offers free, ten-session regional workshops across the U.S. led by accomplished poets, providing instruction, critique, and field introduction for emerging adult Black poets, with nearly 1,000 participants since 1999.

Conducted a field study titled Magnitude and Bond to assess organizational needs, strategies, and sustainability models among Black literary arts organizations, with findings presented at public events in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

Created the Cave Canem Digital Collections in 2024, a growing repository of digitized and born-digital materials including oral histories, audiovisual recordings, photographs, manuscripts, and ephemera reflecting the organization's history and community.

Organizes an annual public reading to launch the debut collection of the Cave Canem Prize winner and hosts Legacy Conversations to honor eminent Black poets and scholars, with recordings archived at Yale University’s Beinecke Library.

Operates an annual week-long writing residency at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg for approximately 50 Black poets, featuring intensive poetry workshops and readings with renowned faculty.

Hosts public readings, literary conversations, and an annual symposium in New York City and virtually, featuring new works, debut collections, and prominent Black poets and scholars.

Offers a one-year subscription to Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora to all new Cave Canem Fellows as part of their fellowship benefits.

Recognizes the best LGBTQ+ books published each year across 26 categories through an annual awards program, including finalist announcements, judging panels, and a ceremony (e.g., the 2026 Lammy Awards at Sony Hall). The program began in 1989 and celebrates outstanding LGBTQ+ storytelling.

Confers multiple annual prizes including the Jim Duggins Prize ($5,000), Jeanne Córdova Prize ($2,500), Pat Holt Prize ($4,000), Denneny Prize ($2,500), Samuel Prize ($5,000), and Karla Jay Prize ($1,500) to support mid-career novelists, emerging scholars, editors, critics, and writers over 50.

Provides free LGBTQ+ books to communities via the Books Not Bans initiative and the Lammys Library program, which has donated over 6,000 books to nonprofit groups, resource centers, libraries, Pride festivals, incarcerated individuals, and youth in transitional housing.

Organizes annual in-person literary festivals including Lavender Con (e.g., June 14–15, 2025 in Washington) and Lambda LitFest, a week-long community-curated festival in Los Angeles launched in 2017 to showcase queer literature and culture.

Organizes Authors Against Book Bans, a coalition of book creators opposing censorship and advocating for the freedom to read, particularly in defense of LGBTQ+ books.

Operates fully searchable directories and databases of all Lambda Literary Award finalists and winners since 1988, documenting finalists, category evolution, and publisher trends for public access.

Places LGBTQ+ writers in K–12 classrooms for curricular and extracurricular visits, workshops, and discussions about LGBTQ+ literature; has reached thousands of students in New York City since 2015 and expanded to 10,000 students by 2021.

Runs an annual week-long residency program launched in 2007 that provides mentorship, craft instruction, and public reading opportunities to emerging LGBTQ+ writers across genres; includes scholarship and fellowship support, with 96 writers selected for the 2026 retreat.