The 21st-Century Federal Writers' Project aims to create a state-by-state self-portrait of America

The Depression-era Federal Writers’ Project created cheap, informative, often funny, still delightful book-length “WPA Guides” to all 48 states, as well as 40 cities, 18 regions and territories, countless counties, and other American phenomena. It helped start or restart a star-studded list of literary careers, including those of Saul Bellow, Ralph Ellison, John Cheever, Richard Wright and Zora Neale Hurston.

The 21st-Century Federal Writers' Project will resurrect and reimagine the original Federal Writers Project of 90 years ago for a new century. We expect to produce 56 volumes -- as well as audio and other media -- for each of the United States, territories, and District of Columbia, with other books devoted to our nation’s rivers and national parks. This Project is an exercise in domestic cultural diplomacy. The ideal vehicle to practice this diplomacy will be good, human-born writing, and the deep attentive reading that such writing invites. Our ultimate aim is to create a nonpartisan family portrait of the nation, and to help reintroduce America to itself.

Help us to make the 21st-Century Federal Writers’ Project a reality.