Your support meant a lot to us this past year

For more than forty-five years readers like you have kept this magazine in circulation. Your support makes our work possible. Here are just a few ways donations made a difference over the past year.

Operating Support

Last year presented challenges we’ve not experienced before. Since March of 2020 our staff has been working from home. Putting out the magazine — from production to printing to distribution — became more demanding, and retail sales of The Sun dropped as bookstores were forced to close their doors. Because of COVID-19, we canceled our spring fundraiser. It didn’t feel right, during a time of so much loss and uncertainty, to ask our readers for donations. Still, as the year went by, your ongoing support helped us to withstand a difficult time and ready ourselves for what 2021 might bring.

Our Writers and Photographers

Support from readers like you has ensured we are able to continue paying artists fairly. This was especially important during a year when in-person events — such as workshops, readings, and conferences — were shut down. 

You helped us continue our mission to bring fresh voices to the magazine. Over the past year we welcomed eighty-six new writers and photographers to our pages, including poet Gary Jackson; authors Louise A. Blum, Melissa Febos, and Devin Murphy; and photographers Jeannette Gregori, Ruddy Roye, and Forest Woodward.  For the complete list, click here.  If you missed their work in the magazine or want to enjoy it again, we invite you to explore our archive.

Complimentary Subscription Program

With your help, we have continued to give away the magazine to teachers, incarcerated men and women, and others in need. In the last year, we mailed more than a thousand free subscriptions, the majority to people behind bars, who often wrote in to describe their harsh and lonely living conditions during the pandemic and to express their gratitude for the magazine. We also distributed nearly a thousand individual copies of The Sun to prisons through partnerships with the Community of Divine Love and the Indiana Prison Writers Workshop.

We are profoundly grateful for your continued support. Thank you.

Our director of outreach, Molly House, wants to hear from you. Send her your suggestions for events you’d like to attend or other ways we might connect with readers  or simply tell her why you support The Sun.