Tag Archives: #graphicnovels

For more grants like this one, check out the NLC’s Grant Opportunities for Nebraska Libraries.

Applications for the 2025 Will Eisner Graphic Novel Grants for Libraries are now open! These grants recognize libraries for their growth of graphic literature and award funds for graphic novel collection development and programming.

The application deadline is January 12, 2025, 12pm CT.

The objective of the Will Eisner Graphic Novel Grants for Libraries is to facilitate library-generated programs and services that will promote graphic novels to library patrons and to the local community.

Two Will Eisner Graphic Novel grants will be awarded in 2025: one Will Eisner Graphic Novel Growth Grant, which provides support to libraries that would like to expand their existing graphic novel collection, services, and programs; and one Will Eisner Graphic Novel Innovation Grant, which provides support to a library or Friends Group for the initiation of a new graphic novel service or program.

All applicants must be current personal or organizational members of ALA in good standing at the time of application. The institution can be a school, public, academic, or special library and must be located in North America – Canada, United States, or Mexico.

Visit the Eisner Grants page for the application form and grant details. Be sure to also check out the Eisner Grant FAQ page for new updates and additional information, including samples of some of the previous winning grant applications.

Check out this recorded webinar for some tips and advice for your Will Eisner Grant application. For any questions, contact ALA Graphic Novels & Comics in Libraries Round Table Staff Liaison, Tina Coleman, at ccoleman@ala.org.

Each winning library will receive a grant award of $4,000 to support initiatives that align with the objective of the Will Eisner Graphic Novel Grants for Libraries.  The grant award will consist of the following: 

• $2,000 grant in collection development funds to purchase graphic novels,
• $1,000 grant to host a graphic novel-themed event at a library or another community location, and
• $1,000 grant to attend the ALA Annual Conference to receive their grant money.  This grant can be used towards any of the following: conference registration, transportation, lodging and food.

In addition, from the book publishers and the Eisner Foundation, the winning libraries will also receive the following graphic novels, valued at approximately $3,000:

• The Will Eisner Library: A graphic novel collection of Will Eisner’s work and biographies about Will Eisner* (comprising approximately 40 books)
• A selection of the winning titles from the current year’s Will Eisner Awards* at Comic-Con International (comprising approximately 40 books).

* Please note that some of the titles in these collections are of a mature nature. 

Chosen Grant applicants must agree to take responsibility for organizing a recognition ceremony of their grant in their library.

Will Eisner (1917-2005) was an acclaimed American comics writer, artist, teacher, and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of sequential art (a term he coined) and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential comic series, The Spirit; for his use of comics as an instructional medium; for his leading role in establishing the graphic novel as a form of literature with his 1978 groundbreaking graphic novel, A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories; for his 20 years of teaching at the School of Visual Arts, leading to his three textbooks. In a career that spanned nearly seven decades—from the dawn of the comic book to the advent of digital comics—Will Eisner was truly the “Father of the Graphic Novel.”