About Us

Staff & Board

Azzuré Alexander

Development Assistant

Azzuré Alexander is the Development Assistant of the Poetry Society of America. She is an MFA candidate and Goldwater Fellow at New York University's Creative Writing Program with a concentration in fiction writing. She holds a B.Sc. in Applied Psychology with a double minor in Creative Writing and Studio Art, and was selected to attend the Master Class in Poetry with Eileen Myles and Master Class in Creative Non-Fiction with Darin Strauss. Prior to joining the PSA she gained experience working with literary agents and independent publishing presses; served as Fiction Editor for The Minetta Review; and taught through the America Reads association, as well as for the International Rescue Committee.


Emily Hunt

Programs Manager

Emily Hunt is the Programs Manager at the Poetry Society of America. She is the author of the poetry collection Dark Green (The Song Cave, 2015), which was was named a "standout debut" by Publishers Weekly and a "Must-Read Poetry Debut" by Lit Hub. Additional publications include This Always Happens (Brave Men Press, 2013), a book of drawings and text, and the chapbook New Clouds (Floating Wolf Quarterly, 2014). Prior to joining PSA, Emily worked at a variety of arts nonprofits and museums. She has taught writing courses at University of Massachusetts Amherst, Westfield State University, Omnidawn Publishing, and elsewhere.


Madeline Weinfield

Development Director

Madeline Weinfield is the Development Director of the Poetry Society of America. She holds a B.A. in Literature and Creative Writing from Franklin University Switzerland. Prior to joining the PSA, she worked in the human rights field, focusing on fundraising for grassroots organizations working with marginalized communities in the developing world. She has produced intimate and large scale fundraising and cultivation events and has worked with boards and development committees to create goal-oriented programming. Madeline oversees the PSA's membership program, and individual and foundation giving, as well as the annual spring benefit.


Brett Fletcher Lauer

Deputy Director

Brett Fletcher Lauer is the Deputy Director of the Poetry Society of America and the poetry editor of A Public Space. He is the author of the memoir Fake Missed Connections: Divorce, Online Dating, and Other Failures and the poetry collection A Hotel In Belgium, which was named a Top 40 Book of 2014 by Coldfront Magazine. In addition to co-editing several anthologies, including Please Excuse this Poem: 100 News Poets for the Next Generationand Isn't It Romantic: 100 Love Poems by Younger American Poets, he is the poetry co-chair for the Brooklyn Book Festival and lives in Brooklyn.


Alice Quinn

Deputy Director

Alice Quinn is Executive Director of the Poetry Society of America and an adjunct professor at Columbia University's graduate School of the Arts. She was poetry editor at The New Yorker from 1987-2007 and at Alfred A. Knopf, Publishers, from 1976-1986, and she is the editor of Edgar Allan Poe & The Juke-Box: Uncollected Poems, Drafts, and Fragments by Elizabeth Bishop. Her articles on and interviews with writers, poets, and artists have appeared in Artforum, the Canadian National Post, The Forward, Poetry Ireland, The New Yorker, and The New Yorker Online, and she is currently at work editing the journals and notebooks of Elizabeth Bishop.

Board of Directors

President

Kimiko Hahn

Secretary

George Minkoff

Treasurer

Ellen Rachlin

Vice Presidents

  • Allison Binns
  • Elizabeth J. Coleman
  • Billy Collins
  • Howard Rothman
  • Catherine Woodard

Members of the board of governors

  • Michael A. Boyd
  • Cornelius Eady
  • Kate Gale
  • Ruth Kaplan
  • Karen Karpowich
  • Geraldine Harmsworth Maxwell
  • Jane Otto
  • Elise Paschen
  • Anna Rabinowitz
  • Abigail Wender
  • Judith Woodard

President Emeritus

  • Ruth Kaplan
  • William Louis-Dreyfus
  • Molly Peacock

PSA Advisory Committees

New York

  • Michael A. Boyd
  • Helen Klein Ross
  • Melissa Salten
  • Laura Baudo Sillerman
  • Susan Soriano
  • Sasha Wade
  • Abigail Welhouse
  • Abigail Wender
  • Catherine Woodard
  • Judith Woodard

Los Angeles

  • Larry and Betsy Bridges
  • Jenny Factor
  • Kate Gale
  • Dana Goodyear
  • Herbert Higginbotham
  • Lisa C. Krueger
  • Jane Otto
  • Doris Sosin
  • Jacqueline Derner Tchakalian
  • Lynne Thompson
  • Rosemarie Johnstone Weinstein
  • Rex Wilder

Bay Area

  • Allison Binns
  • Cristina Garcia
  • Dean Rader
  • Hilary Rand
  • Martin Rock
  • Tess Taylor
  • José Vadi