AAWW at AWP – Being the Change You Want to See: The New Literary Leadership
Lisa Lucas, Ken Chen, Jen Benka, Britt Udesen, & Andrew Proctor
AAWW at AWP - Being the Change You Want to See: The New Literary Leadership

*This event is not held at the Workshop in NY*

What will a new generation of literary leadership look like? While many literary institutions have a reputation for being stodgy or slow-moving with regards to change, here are five directors who bring unique experience and fresh perspective to literary nonprofits, national and local. They will discuss how youth, technology, and diversity can bring traditional literary institutions into the modern landscape and create a bold, more inclusive future for readers.

Lisa Lucas is the Executive Director of the National Book Foundation, presenter of the National Book Awards. Before joining the Foundation, she served as the publisher of Guernica magazine and the director of education at Tribeca Film Institute.

Ken Chen is the Executive Director of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and a recipient of the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award for his poetry collection, Juvenilia, which was selected by Louise Glück. He is one of the founders of CultureStrike, an arts organization dedicated to migrant justice.

Jen Benka is the Executive Director of the Academy of American Poets. She worked previously as the managing director of Poets & Writers and for 826 National. She is the author of Pinko and A Box of Longing with Fifty Drawers. Jen holds an MFA from the New School.

Britt Udesen joined the Loft in 2015 as its Executive Director. She has held leadership positions at arts organizations such as the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, The Cabin in Boise, Idaho, and the Textile Center of Minnesota.

Andrew Proctor is the Executive Director of Literary Arts, a nonprofit literary center in Portland, Oregon. Previously, he was the membership and operations director at PEN American Center, was an associate editor at HarperCollins publishers, and worked at the Canadian High Commission in London.

AAWW at AWP – Being the Change You Want to See: The New Literary Leadership

Lisa Lucas, Ken Chen, Jen Benka, Britt Udesen, & Andrew Proctor
Saturday, February 11, 2017
10:30 AM
$0.00
Washington Convention Center, Level Two, Room 207A
801 Mount Vernon Place NW
Washington, D.C. 20001
Upcoming Events
April 4 7:00 PM
[IN-PERSON] CRYSTAL HANA KIM: THE STONE HOME W/ JULIA PHILLIPS
Presented by AAWW and Books Are Magic, join us to celebrate Crystal Hana Kim's The Stone Home, a hauntingly poetic family drama and coming-of-age story that reveals a dark corner of South Korean history through the eyes of a small community living in a reformatory center—a stunning work of great emotional power from the critically acclaimed author of If You Leave Me.
April 30 6:30 PM
[IN-PERSON] SEJAL SHAH PRESENTS HOW TO MAKE YOUR MOTHER CRY, WITH MINNA PROCTOR
Join McNally Jackson and AAWW to celebrate Sejal Shah's HOW TO MAKE YOUR MOTHER CRY, a collection of genre-queer short stories braided with images and ephemera explore the experiences of growing up and living as a diasporic Gujarati woman searching for home. Sejal will be in conversation with writer, translator, and editor Minna Proctor!
May 9 7:00 PM
[IN-PERSON] In Celebration of: A Living Remedy
Also-Known-As and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop are thrilled to welcome back Nicole Chung, in conversation with Crystal Hana Kim, to celebrate the paperback release of her critically acclaimed memoir A Living Remedy.