Great Regulars: For all its pomp and circumstance,

the first writer's inaugural didn't exactly set the world of words on fire. First, there was the address by President Obama, which, while refreshingly tough-minded, lacked the soaring rhetoric for which he is known.

Then, there was "Praise Song for the Day," a poem commissioned for the inauguration and written and delivered by Elizabeth Alexander, a Yale professor and author of five collections of poetry, including the 2006 Pulitzer Prize finalist, "American Sublime."

from David L. Ulin: Los Angeles Times: Inaugural poem is less than praiseworthy

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In a recent essay in the Nation, William Deresiewicz argued that the NEA has played into the tendency of so-called literary mandarins--the critics and scholars--to see themselves as "the Last of the Readers," an embattled cultural elite. His response to the 2002 survey's finding that "only" 96 million American adults engaged in literary reading? "Ninety-six million American adults engage in literary reading!"

In other words, there's a whole lotta reading going on.

from David L. Ulin: Los Angeles Times: The NEA's take on reading

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