Board of Directors

Kofi Appenteng is the president of the Africa-America Institute (AAI). Appenteng has thirty years of domestic and international experience as a corporate lawyer, investment banker, and board director. He serves as chair for Africa at Delphos International and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Rock Creek Group. He is a member of the board at the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, and previously served as board chair of the Ford Foundation. In recognition of his work in business and philanthropy, he was named a “Great American Immigrant” by the Carnegie Corporation in 2013. 

Amy Berkower is the chair of Writers House, an independent, full-service literary agency representing over five hundred authors.

Johanna V. Castillo is a senior agent at Writers House literary agency. Previously, she worked at Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, where she was vice president and executive editor and editorial director of Atria Español.

Allison Davis has a long career as a television and non-profit executive. Currently, she is the founder of a video production company that produces documentaries and virtual events.

Kassie Evashevski is the co-head of media rights at Anonymous Content. Previously, she was a partner at the United Talent Agency, where she was co-head of the books department. Her career has taken her to Brillstein Entertainment Partners, Writers House, and Random House.

Elliot Figman came to Poets & Writers as a volunteer in 1977; in 1981 he became the executive director. Elliot retired as P&W’s executive director at the end of 2020. He led Poets & Writers for nearly four decades, overseeing the launch of Poets & Writers Magazine and pw.org, among other significant initiatives. An accomplished poet, his book, Big Spring, was published by Four Way Books in 2003; his chapbook, Interior Whistle, was published in 2017 by Green Zone Press.

A.M. Homes’ most recent book is The Unfolding (Viking Press/Penguin Random House, 2022). Previous titles include Days of Awe, May We Be Forgiven, This Book Will Save Your Life, Music for Torching, The End of Alice, In a Country of Mothers, Jack, Things You Should Know, The Safety of Objects, and the best-selling memoir, The Mistress’s Daughter. Her opera, RISE, debuted at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in 2022. She teaches at Princeton University and sits on the Council of the Writers Guild of America East.

Tayari Jones is the New York Times best-selling author of four novels. The most recent, An American Marriage (Algonquin Books, 2018), was an Oprah’s Book Club selection and was awarded the Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly known as the Orange Prize), the Aspen Words Prize, and an NAACP Image Award. Her previous novels are Leaving Atlanta, The Untelling, and Silver Sparrow. Jones is a graduate of Spelman College, the University of Iowa, and Arizona State University. She is a professor of creative writing at Emory University, a contributing editor of Poets & Writers Magazine, and a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow.

Andrea Louie is secretary at the Nassau County Department of Health. She was previously executive director of the Asian American Arts Alliance, leading arts advocacy and cultural equity for New York City’s diverse, pan-Asian, multidisciplinary cultural community. She is the author of a novel, Moon Cakes (Ballantine Books/Penguin Random House, 1995), and co-editor of an anthology, Topography of War: Asian American Essays (The Asian American Writers’ Workshop, 2006). She was appointed by Governor Cuomo to the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York State Commission on National and Community Service. In addition, she serves on the boards of SMU DataArts, New Yorkers for Culture & Arts, and Bellevue Literary Press. She was a writer-in-residence for the National Book Foundation and has been awarded artist residencies at Yaddo, MacDowell Colony, Djerassi, Hedgebrook, and the Fundacíon Valparáiso in Spain. She is a member of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop as well as the Asian American Journalists Association.

Helen Macioce is the former president of the Merrill Lynch Bank & Trust Company.

Katie Mahon is retired from a senior management position in banking. She recently co-authored her second book, The Miracle Collectors: Uncovering Stories of Wonder, Joy, and Mystery (Worthy Publishing/Hachette, 2021) and continues to speak widely about miracles and spirituality.

Madeline McIntosh is CEO of Penguin Random House U.S. Her previous positions in the company include president of the Penguin Publishing Group; president and COO of Penguin Random House U.S.; publisher at Random House Audio; and director of adult sales at Random House, Inc.

Michael Pietsch is the chief executive officer of Hachette Book Group, the fourth-largest U.S. trade publisher. During a long career as an editor and publisher at Little, Brown and Company, he worked with acclaimed writers including Michael Connelly, Malcolm Gladwell, Peter Guralnick, Walter Mosley, James Patterson, Stacy Schiff, Donna Tartt, David Foster Wallace, and Malala Yousafzai. His passion for the close partnership between writers and publishers informs his work as CEO and his commitment to Poets & Writers.

Rochelle Riley is the City of Detroit’s director of arts and culture. An award-winning journalist, she was a columnist for the Detroit Free Press for nearly twenty years. She is the author of That They Lived: African Americans Who Changed the World (Wayne State University Press, 2021) and The Burden: African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery. Her many honors include the Ida B. Wells Award from the National Association of Black Journalists and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. An essayist, keynote speaker, and artist, she remains a writer by trade, warrior by necessity.

Randy Siegel has published three critically acclaimed children’s books: Grandma’s Smile, My Snake Blake, and One Proud Penny (Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan, 2017). He has also written for several publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. Siegel was most recently North American CEO of Dennis and publisher of the Week US, the Week Junior, Kiplinger’s and many other magazines, newsletters, and websites in the US and UK. Before joining Dennis, Siegel spent twenty years at Advance where he served as CEO and president of Advance Local, president of Local Digital Strategy, and president of Parade Publications. He has served on the national boards of Share Our Strength, Research America, An Open Book Foundation, NEXT for Autism, Cure Epilepsy, and the Epilepsy Foundation.

Eric Simonoff is a literary agent and partner at the William Morris Endeavor, a global entertainment agency. His clients include Jhumpa Lahiri, Jonathan Lethem, Stacy Schiff, Edward P. Jones, Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child, Phil Klay, Stephen Chbosky, Christina Baker Kline, Megha Majumdar, Yaa Gyasi, ZZ Packer, and the New Yorker magazine, among others.

Liate Stehlik is president and publisher of the Morrow Group, overseeing the publishing operations for William Morrow, Mariner, Harvest, Avon, Dey Street, and Harper Voyager. Liate joined HarperCollins in 2005 as publisher of Avon Books. Prior to joining HarperCollins, Liate was an associate publisher at Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster. She is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and has an M.A. from New York University’s Gallatin Division. She is a member of the board for the NYU/Gallatin Publishing Program. Liate lives in New York City with her husband and four children.