National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Dana Gioia has announced he’s leaving his post in January so that he can return to writing poetry. (The Chair is prohibited from getting published while in office.) While I wish him well, I have to say I’m sorry to see Gioia go; he’s done a terrific job, bringing Shakespeare to communities across the country that in previous years have gotten nothing for their arts dollars, getting private funding for projects that enrolled Iraq War veterans in documenting their experiences, and making friends and allies everywhere for a department that was used as a kickball for most of the 90’s.

Gioia is so highly respected that the venerated Onion put him on their front page today. Here’s the news of his last, and largest, project at the NEA.

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