Richard Jeffrey Newman

That’s what Andy Nul­man, pres­i­dent of Just for Laughs, a com­edy fes­ti­val in Canada, is quoted as say­ing at the end of “It’s Not Bil­lions, but It Can Help Res­cue an Artist,” an arti­cle in The New York Times by Caitlin Kelly. Kelly writes about orga­ni­za­tions like the Craft Emer­gency Relief Fund and the Writ­ers Emer­gency Assis­tance Fund that offer finan­cial help to artists whose lives have been struck by hard­ship and dis­as­ter. I am a poet and a trans­la­tor, but I am also a tenured col­lege pro­fes­sor with a good deal more job secu­rity than most peo­ple in this coun­try, a fact that hum­bles me con­stantly, even as I am pro­foundly grate­ful for it. So I was pleased, really pleased, to know that these orga­ni­za­tions exist and one of the things I am going to do soon is iden­tify one, prob­a­bly one that helps writ­ers, and make a dona­tion. It will be smaller than I would like, since my bud­get is squeezed just like every­one else’s these days, but it’s really important. 

I hope you will con­sider read­ing the arti­cle and mak­ing a dona­tion as well.