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ABOUT THE ACADEMY |
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Staff of the Academy of American Poets |
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Beth Harrison, Interim Executive Director
Beth joined the Academy of American Poets in 2001 and has served as Associate Development Director, Development Director, and Associate Director. Prior to Academy, Beth was the Development Specialist for Literary Publishing at the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses. She has also worked as a development consultant for arts organizations and nonprofit presses and as an editor for Princeton Architectural Press and Oxford University Press. She has a B.A. in English/creative writing and religion from Miami University, and has participated in New York University's professional program in philanthropy and the Kennedy Center's DeVos Institute of Arts Management. She is the founding editor of the literary magazine Spinning Jenny and a Board member of Four Way Books. |
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Hanna Andrews, Editor, American Poet
Hanna Andrews is a New York native. She holds an M.F.A. in Poetry from Columbia College Chicago and a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College. Her poems have appeared in various journals and publications, and she is the co-founder and co-editor of Switchback Books. Her first book, Slope Move, is forthcoming from Coconut Books. |
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Gerard Coletta, Program Intern
Gerard Coletta was born and raised in Massachusetts. He received his B.A. in English at Harvard University. His work has appeared in many journals, including Open City. He is currently pursuing an M.F.A at Columbia University. |
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Alex Dimitrov, Program Coordinator
Alex Dimitrov's first book of poems, Begging For It, is forthcoming from Four Way Books. He is the founder of Wilde Boys, a queer poetry salon in New York City. His poems have appeared in the American Poetry Review, Kenyon Review, Boston Review, Yale Review, and Tin House. He frequently writes for Poets & Writers magazine. |
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Eric Engleson, Finance Manager
Eric Engleson has been the financial manager at the Academy since 1993. Prior to joining the Academy, Eric worked as a controller for Berger, Stone & Partners Advertising. He received his M.B.A. in finance (2002) and B.B.A. in accounting (1993) from Baruch College (CUNY). |
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Audrey Ference, Development Officer
Audrey Ference was raised, though not born, in San Antonio, Texas. Before joining the Academy, she worked in development at the Morgan Library and the Regional Plan Association. She has an undergraduate degree in English Literature from Haverford College, and her essays and criticism have appeared in various publications. |
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Amber Galeo, Program Intern
Amber Galeo is a New York native. She is currently an M.F.A. candidate in Poetry at Columbia University, and also holds an M.A. in Human Rights and a B.A. in Women's Studies. She worked for seven years in social justice non-profits, during which time her writing and social criticism appeared in various publications. She is currently collaborating on the art and writing project "From Dexter to Sinister: Exquisite Blazonry for the Disenfranchised" with visual artist Sarah G. Sharp. She lives in Brooklyn, NY. |
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Stacy Lasner, Publicity & Outreach Coordinator
Stacy Lasner is a born-and-bred New Yorker. Before joining the Academy, Stacy was a Publicist at Simon & Schuster, representing books and authors in a variety of genres. She received her Bachelor of Science in Communication at Boston University where she specialized in Public Relations.
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Paul Legault, Multimedia Coordinator
Paul Legault was born in Ontario and raised in Tennessee. He is the author of three books of poetry, The Madeleine Poems (Omnidawn, 2010), The Other Poems (Fence, 2011), and The Emily Dickinson Reader which is forthcoming from McSweeney's in 2012. He co-founded and co-edits the translation press Telephone Books.
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Billy Merrell, Web Developer
Billy Merrell is the author of Talking in the Dark, a poetry memoir (Scholastic, 2003), and a co-editor for The Full Spectrum: A New Generation of Writing About LGBTQ and Other Identities (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2006), which received a 2006 Lambda Literary Award. Most recently, he is co-author of Go Ahead, Ask Me (Simon Pulse, 2009). He received his M.F.A. in Poetry from Columbia University. |
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Meghan Nesmith
Meghan Nesmith hails from Vancouver, Canada. She holds an M.F.A from American University and a B.A. in English and Theatre from Middlebury College. Before joining the Academy, she worked at the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Arts. She is a co-founder of The Zoo Project, a regional theatre company, and her writing has appeared in Big Lucks and Geist, among other publications. |
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Renee Risher, Program Intern
Renee Risher was born and raised in Southern California and lived in Austin, TX and Seattle, WA before moving to New York City to study
poetry in the Columbia University M.F.A. progam. She received her B.A. in Visual Art from the University of California at San Diego in 2002. She has worked in many artistic media and her installation, Neon Loci, was included in the Lofi Art Festival at Smokefarm near Arlington, WA in August 2009. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including the American Book Review.
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