The new executive director of The Writers Place, Will Leathem, says the national decline in literary arts is something he'd like to change. By Laura Spencer
Kansas City, MO – Across the country, literary reading is in decline. According to a National Endowment for the Arts survey arts released a few years ago, less than half of American adults read literature. The new executive director of The Writers Place, Will Leathem, says that's something he'd like to change. Leathem has been a force on the literary scene in Kansas City, as co-owner of Prospero's Bookstore, founder of a small press, and poet. He tells KCUR's Laura Spencer that the Writers Place is uniquely situated to move the literary arts forward.