Elisa New on Big Think: “Why Reading Literature is a Form of Therapy”
On April 22, 2020, Big Think President Peter Hopkin’s moderated a live YouTube discussion with PIA Host Professor Elisa New. Focusing on the power of literature and poetry as a coping mechanism, Professor New discussed two poems of loss and healing from Poetry in America Season Two: Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art” and Mark Doty’s “This Your Home Now.” While not every commenter was convinced—Epicon 6 commented “reading literature makes you old fashioned. Some things should stay in the 1920’s!”—the conversation was largely successful, generating thousands of views and hundreds of thumbs up.