Controversies
Association with Jeffrey Epstein
New was in regular correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein between 2013 and 2019. [15] [16] Their emails were released by the House Oversight Committee in November 2025. [17] [18] The correspondence revealed that Epstein planned to donate $500,000 to New's Poetry in America. [17] In 2016,Epstein donated $110,000 to Verse Video Education,New's non-profit organization which funds Poetry in America. [17]
New and Epstein directly corresponded regarding the $500,000 donation. [17] Following a 2023 Wall Street Journal expose,a spokesperson for the non-profit reported that New "regrets accepting funding from Epstein". [17] [19] According to the spokesperson,the group later made a contribution "exceeding the amount received,to a group working against sex trafficking". [17]
In a 2019 email to Epstein,New mentioned she would reread Lolita (a novel about a professor who sexually abuses his 12 year-old stepdaughter,and which Epstein was known to have by his bedside) and,separately,recommended he read My Ántonia by Willa Cather,describing both as stories of "a man whose whole life is stamped forever by his impression of a young girl". [20] [21]
