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Home > Blog > Whappen > Kwame Dawes named AAP Chancellor

Kwame Dawes named AAP Chancellor

Posted: 4 Jan 2018 - 14:14 in Wha'ppen? In exciting news, the illustrious Academy of American Poets has named Kwame Dawes as one of its newest Chancellors, joining Marilyn Chin and Marie Howe. Previous awardees of the position have included internationally renowned poets such as W. H. Auden, John Ashbery, Elizabeth Bishop, Lucille Clifton, Yusef Komunyakaa, Adrienne Rich and Mark Strand.

'This is an honor,' said Dawes. 'To be recognized by peers I admire and respect and to know the long impressive and complicated history of the academy’s Chancellors I am joining, are part of it. But now I do what I always do, which is to pay attention to how this opportunity can advance the work I do for other poetry and poets in our world.'

The honorary Board of Chancellors has a vital role in judging the organisation's poetry prizes, acting as ambassadors worldwide and offering expertise and knowledge when programming the AAP's artistic activities.Current members Elizabeth Alexander, Ellen Bass, Forrest Gander, Linda Gregerson, Terrance Hayes, Brenda Hillman, Khaled Mattawa, Marilyn Nelson, Alicia Ostriker, Claudia Rankine, Alberto Ríos, and David St. John selected the three new chancellors to fill seats vacated by Toi Derricotte, Jane Hirshfield and Arthur Sze at the end of their terms. Each chancellor serves a six-year term.

About Kwame Dawes Kwame Dawes is the author of over thirty books, and is widely recognized as one the Caribbean’s leading writers. He is Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner and a Chancellor’s Professor of English at the University of Nebraska. His most recent collections with Peepal Tree are Speak from Here to There: Two Poem Cycles (with John Kinsella, 2016), City of Bones and a reissue of his seminal work Prophets (both out 16 January 2017). He is also Peepal Tree Press' Associate Poetry Editor.

Read more on our dedicated author page or at kwamedawes.com.

About AAP

The Academy of American Poets is the USA’s largest membership-based nonprofit organization championing poets and poetry. The organization produces Poets.org, the world’s largest publicly-funded website for poets and poetry; National Poetry Month; the popular Poem-a-Day series; American Poets magazine; resources for K-12 educators; and an annual series of poetry readings and special events.

Find out more at poets.org.







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