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Abstract
In his introduction to the 2018 edition of The Best American Poetry, Dana Gioia (best-known for his 1991 essay "Can Poetry Matter?") remarked on an "odd statistic" in the most recent National Endowment for the Arts poetry readership survey: "The youngest group of adults (ages 18–24) read more than any other segment. When asked the question, "Why does poetry matter?" U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo observed, "Poetry is the voice of what can't be spoken, the mode of truth-telling when meaning needs to rise above or skim below everyday language in shapes not discernible by the ordinary mind. . Additionally, the authors of these works are both seasoned and debut poets, their audiences ranging from young children to emerging adults. [...]drawing on the power of artistic influence, this year's final honor book, Joy McCullough's debut Blood Water Paint, is a historical verse novel based on the true story of seventeen-year-old Artemisia Gentileschi, a celebrated seventeenth-century Roman artist who found strength and inspiration in painting ancient heroines after experiencing sexual violence at the hands of her painting instructor.