NaNoWriMo Announces Closure Amid Financial Struggles & AI Controversy

After decades of inspiring writers worldwide, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) has officially announced it will shut down, citing financial challenges and a year of controversy that shook the organization’s foundation.

In a heartfelt email and accompanying video shared with its community, the nonprofit revealed it has “begun the process of shutting down” after six years of grappling with mounting financial instability. Originally launched as an online event in 1999, the challenge to write 50,000 words in a month grew into a global phenomenon and officially became a nonprofit in 2006.

Yet the closure comes not just from money troubles. In 2024, NaNoWriMo ignited widespread backlash after a blog post suggested that criticism of AI writing tools carried “classist and ableist undertones,” linking the AI debate to broader issues of privilege. The post, which was later deleted, caused a firestorm among authors and readers alike. Prominent literary voices like Roxane Gay, Erin Morgenstern, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia publicly condemned the statement, while authors including Maureen Johnson and Daniel José Older resigned from NaNoWriMo’s board in protest.

The fallout didn’t stop there. Around the same time, NaNoWriMo faced growing scrutiny over the moderation of its forums, raising serious concerns about community safety—especially for minors participating in its writing challenges.

Despite attempts to clarify its position on AI and reinforce community guidelines, the damage was done. Combined with shrinking funding—an issue plaguing many nonprofits—NaNoWriMo found itself unable to weather the storm.

“This is not the ending that anybody wanted or planned,” the organization wrote in its final message to the community. “And—believe us—if we could hit the delete button and rewrite this last chapter, we would. But we do have hope for the epilogue.”

While the official NaNoWriMo platform will disappear, the spirit of the challenge—writing boldly, supporting one another, and chasing that 50,000-word goal—lives on. Writers will still band together each November, just without the word-tracking tools and community space that once made NaNoWriMo a cultural landmark.

Maybe this new chapter will be written the old-fashioned way—one word at a time, by human hands.