Poetry Readership in the US is the Highest on Record in Over 10 Years

About 28 million people or 11.7 percent of the U.S. adult population read poetry in the last year, according to a new survey by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). This number means that "as a share of the total U.S. adult population, this poetry readership is the highest on record over a 15-year period."

The survey showed growth in poetry reading across most demographic sub-groups and especially among women, minorities, and adults with only some college education, as pointed out in an article by NPR.

Amy Stolls, NEA director of literature, explained, “I suspect social media has had an influence, as well as other robust outreach activities and efforts, many of which we support through our grants to publishers and presenters, fellowships to individual poets, Poetry Out Loud, and the NEA Big Read.”

Funding, however, does not pace with this increased interest: poetry is a "perennially under-resourced field," as painter Cecily Brown noted in Inside Philanthropy.

Read here the NPR article on this survey.

Image: Pixabay / cromaconceptovisual