Help SAFTA Compensate Our Readers & Workshop Leaders and Keep Our Events Accessible

Who We Are

My name is Jessica Ballen, and I'm the Development Director of Sundress Academy for the Arts (SAFTA), a nonprofit writers' retreat and literary community on a farm in Knoxville, Tennessee, and part of Sundress Publications, its corresponding literary press. I'm reaching out because we need help closing a gap in funding for the readers and workshop leaders who make our programming possible.

Sundress Publications is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit found in 2000. Through residencies, our workshop series, and our virtual reading series, SAFTA builds literary community for writers nationwide, with a focus on reaching underserved writers including BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and disabled writers around the world.

What We Need

We're raising $1,865 to compensate the readers and workshop leaders behind our monthly writing workshops and reading series and to sustain the Zoom license that keeps those events accessible to writers everywhere.

We are deeply grateful to the Tennessee Arts Commission for awarding us $2,310 toward this work—we still need $1,865 to reach our $4,175 goal in order to pay all of our writers and readers at our promised rates, and we're asking our community to help close the rest of the gap.

That $1,865 will help pay a $100 honorarium to the writers who lead our workshops and generative writing events and who read as part of our Poets in Pajamas series. It will also sustain Sundress' Zoom license which lets writers join us from anywhere. Every dollar goes directly toward keeping this programming running through the July, 2027.

How It Helps

We need the arts and humanities now more than ever, and compensating readers and workshop leaders is part of how we protect their future. Paying them an honorarium is a statement that writers' labor is work worth paying for, and keeping our Zoom license active means our workshops and readings stay open and free to writers from across the country and beyond. That accessibility matters for all.

How Else You Can Help

If you can't give right now, there's still a lot you can do. You can share this campaign page with anyone who cares about writers and literary community! You can follow SAFTA on Bluesky , Facebook or Instagram. Explore other ways to give, including a Sundress subscription or book purchases. You can also sign up for our newsletter if you haven't already.