City of Asylum Pittsburgh

City of Asylum creates a thriving community for writers, readers, and neighbors. We provide sanctuary to endangered literary writers, so that the writers can continue to write and their voices are not silenced. We offer a broad range of programs in a community setting to encourage cross-cultural exchange. We anchor neighborhood economic development by transforming blighted properties into homes for these programs and energizing public spaces through public art with text-based components.

For literary writers exiled under threat of persecution, City of Asylum (COA/P) provides multi--year residencies, so that these endangered writers can continue to write. COA/P provides a home, an annual living stipend of up to $30,000, and medical benefits. In addition, it assists the writer in securing translations and publication in English, and in promoting the writer's career, so that the writer can achieve self-sufficiency in exile after the residency term. COA/P assists the writer in identifying income opportunities that are appropriate to the writer and that allow the writer to continue to write. COA/P also helps the writer to integrate into Pittsburgh, so that the community benefits from his/her unique talent and experience and so that the writer is able to establish a sustainable, independent life here in the event exile is long-term.