There was an article by Julia Klein in last month’s NY Times about how the Poetry Foundation is spending its megamillions. I’m sorry I missed it then, but I’m sure that if I wait around long enough, the Times will return to the subject eventually: After all, Stephen Kinzer reported on the story twice in 2004, from foundation chairman John Barr‘s initial thoughts to the creation of new awards. Then, earlier this year, after Dana Goodyear cast a critical eye on the Foundation in a New Yorker essay, the NYT Book Review poetry expert, David Orr, issued his own critique of Goodyear’s article.
Honestly, I’m not sure just how much the situation has changed since Goodyear’s reporting in February to “justify” the Times piece, but the reporting seems solid enough—and, of course, there’s always the fact that many Times readers simply never saw the New Yorker feature. Also, I’m not exactly going to complain about poetry being featured in the news.