Publishers, NEA Join Forces to Address National Reading Crisis

The Association of American Publishers today announced a new partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts to help raise awareness and mobilize public action in the face of the startling decline in book readership, which the NEA documented in a report released in July. The report, "Reading at Risk", points to an ongoing and significant drop in the number of readers in this country, especially readers of fiction, poetry and drama.

AAP is providing a $19,000 grant to help cover the costs of reprinting the report and to facilitate a nationwide series of "Reading at Risk" presentations at which professional NEA staff members will discuss the study and its implications with groups of educators, policymakers, and scholars at meetings across the country. AAP will also work with the NEA on a second phase of the initiative, to encourage and assist cities across the U.S. in implementing "city reads" programs, and to develop a series of book-focused public service announcements to air on public and commercial radio and TV stations.

~ from Authorlink.com