Brenda Hillman has been named our newest Chancellor, an honorary position that has been held by some of the most distinguished poets in the United States, including W. H. Auden, John Ashbery, Elizabeth Bishop, Lucille Clifton, Yusef Komunyakaa, Adrienne Rich, and Mark Strand.
As a member of the Board of Chancellors, Hillman consults with us on matters of artistic programming, serves as a judge for the organization’s largest prizes for poets, and acts as ambassador of poetry in the world at large. Hillman was selected by the fifteen members of the Academy’s current Board of Chancellors, which includes U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera. She will serve for a period of six years, filling the seat vacated by Naomi Shihab Nye, whose term as Chancellor has concluded.