dumbfoundry

The Poetry Foundation, no longer one of the arts’ little match girls, is prepared to spend more than $3 million a year to fire the public’s enthusiasm for verse.

The poetry world has been waiting almost two years to hear how the Chicago-based foundation will use a gift expected to exceed $100 million from Indianapolis pharmaceutical heiress Ruth Lilly. The foundation, publisher of the venerable Poetry magazine, is now revealing a strategic plan aimed at building the audience for verse. [...]

He also said the hope is to turn the foundation into a “think tank, a place where new thinking about poetry can occur.” [...]

Those initiatives include:

• A national research study of public attitudes about poetry and what verse is encountered and where. [...]

• A contemporary poetry database/search engine to be launched on the Internet sometime in 2005. [...]

• A program with schools that may include poetry recitation contests -- a throwback to school events once commonplace. [...]

• Reaching out to mainstream media -- print, broadcast and film -- to try to get them to publish or cite poetry.

• Introducing, at an awards ceremony this October, two prizes: a $50,000 Neglected Master Award for a living American poet whose work has been overlooked; and a $25,000 Mark Twain Award to recognize humor in American poetry. Barr said the foundation also will seek to find a publisher for a “neglected master” whose works are out of print. [...]

This entry was posted by eeksypeeksy on Tuesday, September 07, 2004 at 2:29 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.