Poets.org: What was it like being a Chancellor? 

Naomi Shihab Nye: Being a Chancellor was one of the best things that happened in my life. To be in that very esteemed company of poets, a changing group of course, to read with colleagues for such generous and lovely audiences, to talk about poetry for a few days nearly nonstop, to try to figure out what we could do to broaden horizons, embrace more readers, and writers—it felt meaningful and profound and comforting. 


Poets.org: Whose work did you discover during your tenure? Do you remember turning to specific poets while serving as a Chancellor?  

NSN: Of course I had already been a reader of Marie Ponsot, C. D. Wright, Toi Derricotte, Sharon Olds, Anne Waldman, and Jane Hirshfield. But getting to work with them, talk with them, eat with them, listen to them, was the best! They became touchstones for my entire forthcoming life. So I didn’t first discover them while there, but the discoveries and joys of their works and sensibilities expanded. Being on stage with Juan Felipe Herrera many years in a row for the teaching sessions was informative, profoundly fun, and life-changing. One night, Anne walked us all to her house in Greenwich Village, where she’d actually grown up too, and I felt transported. This will remain one of my most magical literary memories: Anne talking about all the people who had walked through those doors ...


Poets.org: What was it like working with other Chancellors? 

NSN: Terrific. Heavenly. I was also on the council of the National Endowment for the Humanities for five years and, while I loved our work there, I often felt a bit “out of my element,” lonely for poetry voices among the academics, etc.  As a Chancellor, I was surrounded by the voices of my soul. 


Poets.org: Did you learn anything about poetic lineage and the role of mentors during your time as a Chancellor?  

NSN: Every minute. How important it is that we stay in touch. That we honor our ancestors of text. Always, always. 


Poets.org: Are there any events that you participated in that felt particularly meaningful to you?

NSN: I still have reams of notes that I took from the days when we all presented at New York University. Being in the company of Ron Padgett, whom I had admired since I worked as a poet-in-the-schools from 1974 onward, was thrilling. I had never met or heard him read before, and he was always a landmark poet for me since I first read his poems and essays. Dinner with Ed Hirsch across the table. Elizabeth Alexander’s lecture.

 

Poets.org: Did your experience as a Chancellor change your view of poetry and/or the community of readers?

NSN: It made me happier. It made me realize how many of us there are. Poetry is not a lonely world. And when the greatest grief of my life came, the death of our son, a year and three months ago, I was forever meditating on and looking up to what these poets had written or said about grief. This is forever with me and continuingly helpful. Your website and newsletter postings are always helpful in so many appropriate, changing ways. Your show [Poetry & the Creative Mind] where people read works by others is one of my favorite things of the whole year.

 

Poets.org: Are there any other stories you’d like to share with us? 

NSN: Because I have worked in nearly a thousand or more schools in my days as a visiting writer in fifty years, I kept suggesting a possible initiative wherein we could name poetry heroes.  Pick a teacher anywhere in the country and have them write about their best poetry activities or assignments.They could also include samples of the work their students did. There was a public high school teacher outside Buffalo,New York, who had created one of the best projects I could imagine in which the entire school studied the same poet. Freezing cold there, but the love of poetry is off the charts! I kept wanting to invite this man to write about what he’d done and how. We could probably still track him down.

I’m very grateful for the teaching component. The Dear Poet project has expanded so wonderfully and richly over the years. You’re doing a great job! But could we still have poetry heroes? Teachers just don’t get enough credit for all the amazing things they dream up, and they like to share their ideas.