Kimiko Hahn elected President of the Poetry Society of America

The Poetry Society of America (PSA) is pleased to announce that Kimiko Hahn, who has served on the PSA's Board of Governors since 2007, has been elected the new President, succeeding, Ruth Kaplan, who held the position since 2007.

Kimiko Hahn is the author of nine books of poems, including: Brain Fever (W.W. Norton, 2014) and Toxic Flora (2010), both collections prompted by science; The Narrow Road to the Interior(2006), a collection that takes its title from Basho's famous poetic journal; The Unbearable Heart (Kaya, 1996), which received an American Book Award; and Earshot (Hanging Loose Press, 1992), which was awarded the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize and an Association of Asian American Studies Literature Award. As part of her service to the City University of New York community, she helped to initiate a Chapbook Festival that has become an annual event co-sponsored by major literary organizations, including the Poetry Society of America. Her numerous honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the PEN/Voelcker Award, the Shelley Memorial Prize from the Poetry Society of America, and a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award as well as fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. She has taught at the University of Houston and New York University, and is a distinguished professor in the MFA Program in Creative Writing & Literary Translation at Queens College, The City University of New York. She has also taught for literary organizations such as the Fine Arts Work Center, Cave Canem, and Kundiman. Hahn lives in New York with her husband, the true crime writer Harold Schechter, and their terrier, Trudy.

Remarks from Kimiko Hahn, new President of the Poetry Society of America:

"Poetry is not a business, but nurturing and promoting it in our attention-deficit society certainly is, and Ruth Kaplan, with grace and skill, has devotedly served the PSA and its energetic and innovative engagement with this good work on behalf of poets and the art. In her nine years as board president, the board, under her expert guidance, has evolved into a stronger and more diverse entity. Thankfully, she will be staying on the board so we can continue to benefit from her insight and dedication. I am honored to succeed Ruth. She has set a high standard which, I hope to meet."

Other elections included two new Vice Presidents Allison Binnsof Oakland, California and Catherine Woodard of New York. The PSA full board list can be found here.

About the Poetry Society of America

The Poetry Society of America, the nation's oldest poetry organization, was founded in 1910 for the purpose of creating a public forum for the advancement, enjoyment, and understanding of poetry. Through a diverse array of programs, initiatives, contests, and awards, the PSA works to build a larger audience for poetry, to encourage a deeper appreciation of the art, and to place poetry at the crossroads of American life. The PSA's signature program is Poetry in Motion, featuring poems on transit systems across the country.