New Chancellors Join the Academy
 
Poets Khaled Mattawa and Alberto R­íos have been elected Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets, an honorary position that has been held by some of the most distinguished poets in the United States. Mattawa and Ríos will each serve for a period of six years. 

 

Alberto Ríos is the author of several poetry collections, including his most recently published, The Dangerous Shirt (Copper Canyon Press, 2009). He is also the inaugural state poet of Arizona. 

 

"For decades, Alberto Ríos has graciously, wittily, and lovingly created a rich body of poems and prose evoking the culture of Mexican American family and community life along the borderlands and in the vast deserts and mountainscapes of Arizona and the American West," said Chancellor Naomi Shihab Nye. "His dazzling voice weaves the disappearing magic of ancestral memory into the mysteries of changing time--always a glowing champion for the power of the particular and the undersung."

  

Read More About Rí­os >

  

 Poems by Ríos:

"Day of the Refugios"

"Teodoro Luna's Two Kisses"

"The Cities Inside Us"

 

 

Photo credit: Tom Story/Arizona State University

Born in Benghazi, Libya, in 1964, Khaled Mattawa immigrated to the United States in his teens. He is the author of several poetry collections, including his most recently published, Tocqueville (New Issues, 2010). 

 

Khaled Mattawa "is one of the best, most inventive, lyrical, and intellectually challenging American poets of his generation," said Chancellor Marilyn Hacker. "His work is as daring in its amalgam of poetic techniques as it is dazzling in the breadth of its subject matter." 

 

Read More About Mattawa >


Poems by Mattawa:

"Airporter"

"Ecclesiastes"

"Lyric"


Photo credit: Khairy Shaban 
The Role of the Chancellors

The Academy of American Poets' Board of Chancellors serve as artistic advisors to our many programs, select the recipients of several of our awards, and serve as ambassadors of poetry in the world at large. Each October, the Chancellors present a public reading in New York City and participate in our three-day conference on poetry, Poets Forum
 
The Board of Chancellors was formed in 1946 and comprises established poets who represent different geographic locations and poetics. Past Chancellors have included John Ashbery, W. H. Auden, Elizabeth Bishop, Lucille Clifton, Yusef Komunyakaa, Marianne Moore, and Adrienne Rich.

We'd like to extend our deepest gratitude to Chancellors Victor Hernández Cruz and Ron Padgett whose six-year terms as Chancellors have ended.

Board of Chancellors 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.