About Merlyn

Merlyn Climate Grants awards several grant fellowships of $500 to $3000 annually to emerging climate activists age 13 to 30 in New York and New England.

See Recent Merlyn Climate Grant Recipients

Before Merlyn Climate Grants, there was Merlyn's Pen: The National Magazine of Student Writing. Established in 1985, the magazine mentored and published rising teen voices. Its reading audience reached 100,000, and its award-winning fiction anthologies were read and re-published in Europe and Asia, including in translation. 

Many novelists writing today, among them Amity Gaige, Dara Horn, Alex Taylor, Jennifer E. Smith, Theresa Meyers, David Barr Kirtley, and Curtis Sittenfeld, found early publication and support in Merlyn's Pen. The NEW LIBRARY OF YOUNG ADULT WRITING archives its most memorable works, many showcased with beautiful illustrations by premier artists.

Merlyn's Pen was launched in 1985, founded by R. Jim Stahl and Mary Jane Sorrentino. They had significant help from Stahl's fellow graduates in the MAT program at the University of Chicago; all had trained there under the mentorship of George Hillocks, Jr. Once underway, the magazine enjoyed editorial leadership from Christine Lord, Jo-Ann Langseth, Kathryn Kulpa, and Lee Teverow.  Leading the magazine's illustration team were Kathy Szarko and, later, Ken Vaudrain. Many of Mr. Vaudrain's magnificent pen-and-ink illustrations are found in a search for "Illustrated Works" in the New Library.

For more information, contact Grants@MerlynGrants.org, or call 401-751-3766.

The Merlyn Education and Climate Protection Project