NEA Chairman Dana Gioia on poetry, reading and funding the arts. Also, A New Years story from PROVINCE OF THE HEART by host Francesca Rheannon with music from Gymnopedie by The Virtual Consort.
Theme: Dave Brubeck, Cassandra Break: from album Gymnopedie by The Virtual Consort. Story: Gymnopedie by The Virtual Consort.
We talk with National Endowment for the Arts chairman Dana Gioia about poetry, the state of reading in America, and what government can do to promote literature. We also play a selection from POETRY OUT LOUD, a CD produced by the NEA. And we read Jour de l'An, a story about New Years Day in Provence by Writers Voice host, Francesca Rheannon. Dana Gioia's last book of poetry, Interrogations At Noon, won the National Book Award. He's also written CAN POETRY MATTER? Essays on Poetry and American Culture. He brings his sensibility and passion as a poet to his job as Chairman of the National Endownment for the Arts and to a wide-ranging conversation with Writers Voice. Gioia also talks about The Big Read, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. And it's New Years, a time for reflection of times past and anticipation of the future. We hear a reading of Jour de l'An, a story about New Years in Provence, read by author and Writers Voice host, Francesca Rheannon. Go to www.writersvoice.net to read the whole story and find a recipe for Internet Apple Crisp.