The Washington Post reports that Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, plans to leave the federal agency in January. Gioia, a poet and critic, said that he will direct a new arts program at the Aspen Institute, a half-time position that will afford him more time to write. “Six years is a long time in a job,” Gioia told the Post. “I have done most of the things I set out to do. I really want to go back to writing. I haven’t had time for my own writing. I write all the time for the NEA, official writing. Since I have become chairman, I have not published a poem.” Continuing the work established by his predecessors, Jane Alexander and Bill Ivey, Gioia was influential in helping to rebuild the NEA after conservative members of Congress severely diminished the arts organization’s funding by nearly half of early 1990 levels. “We have taken the NEA into a more active position,” he said. “When I came here, it was an interesting job with unbearable pressure; now it is bearable with pressure.” Under Gioia the NEA helped to organize the Big Read in response to surveys indicating a decline in adult reading. Approximately 1,000 editorials and articles were sparked by the program, which encourages reading and discussing classic works of literature at the city level. The initiative now has more than 21,000 organizational partners. Gioia implemented other popular programs, as well, including Shakespeare in American Communities, which has acquainted over one million students with professional theatrical productions; Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest, a spoken word and performance program for middle and high school students; and Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, which encourages U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq and their families to write about their wartime experiences.