Abstract
This research sought to determine which coping skills were used by performers within the literary
arts circuit of poetry and spoken word to cope with stressful life events. Sixty-three participants
were recruited via convenience sampling from social media to complete the COPE Inventory, a
60-item coping response assessment. The data was analyzed using an independent t-test. The
results of this study will be used to inform the future development of effective coping strategies
for literary arts performers.