The Academy of American Poets has appointed Robert Casper as the nonprofit organization’s president and executive director. Casper, who has worked at a number of literary arts organizations over the last twenty-five years, most recently as head of Poetry and Literature in the Literary Initiatives Office at the Library of Congress, where he worked with U.S. poets laureate, will start in his new role on January 26. He succeeds former president and executive director, Ricardo Alberto Maldonado, who had filled the role for two years before stepping down last July. Anika Selhorst has been serving as the interim executive director since then.
Robert Casper, the president and executive director of the Academy of American Poets. (Credit: Matthea Harvey)
“It is the honor of a lifetime to serve as the president and executive director of the Academy of American Poets,” Casper said in a press release announcing his appointment. “Alongside its board of directors, chancellors, and staff—as well as with partners in the field—I am eager to invite all Americans to connect to the living art of poetry, support poets as they shape the language of our time, and advocate for poetry’s critical role in our collective future.”
Prior to joining the Library of Congress, Casper held leadership roles at the Poetry Society of America and the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP). He has also served as poetry chair of the Brooklyn Literary Council and is the founding publisher of the literary magazine jubilat (2000–2021) and cofounder of the jubilat/Jones reading series.
With a budget of around $5 million, the Academy of American Poets annually awards more than $1.3 million to more than two hundred poets at various stages of their careers through its prize program, produces the website poets.org, organizes National Poetry Month each April, and publishes the Poem-a-Day series and American Poets magazine.
