Business leader and Nevada Higher Education Chancellor Emeritus Jim Rogers, and his wife Beverly, have committed to a $10 million donation to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The gift is to support the development of literary programming in the university’s Black Mountain Institute. The money will enhance BMI’s budget by between $500,000 and $800,000 annually over the next fifteen years. This will enable the reinstatement and broadening of programs like The City of Asylum, a safe haven for international writers dealing with censorship or threat of imprisonment and death. BMI will also design the Black Mountain Institute Prize, a $50,000 award given biennially for fiction. The funds will also be appropriated to increase annual stipends available for PhD Creative Writing students to $25,000, bolster writers-in-residence stipends by $10,000 bringing that number up to $60,000, develop programs like an alumni reading series, and build the Beverly Rogers Library/Reading Room.

The Black Mountain Institute was founded in 2006 and is committed to enhancing literary conversations across cultures using public programs, publishing initiatives, and residential fellowships. In honor of the gift, the institute will be formally renamed the Beverly Rogers, Carol C. Harter Black Mountain Institute. Beverly Rogers said of the donation, “Our gift marks the beginning of BMI’s new era of progress… our vision is to inspire others to join with us in the strengthening of the force that is Black Mountain Institute to put UNLV and Las Vegas on the cultural and literary map.”

Source: UNLV News Center