The Modern Poetry Association, publisher of venerable Poetry magazine, has announced a series of organizational and personnel changes in the wake of receiving a $100-million donation from Ruth Lilly, heiress to the Eli Lilly Pharmaceutical fortune, late last year.
The MPA has restructured itself as a foundation and will now be known as the Poetry Foundation. Deborah Cummins, chair of the foundation's board of trustees, said the foundation was "keenly aware" of the "opportunity and responsibility" of Lilly's gift. "We now stand on the threshold of possibly altering the literary landscape by reinvigorating the presence of poetry in our culture," said Cummins.
Virtually overnight, Ruth Lilly's extraordinary donation to Poetry magazine has made it one of the richest literary foundations in the world and certainly the richest foundation devoted solely to poetry. Poetry magazine was founded in 1912 by Harriet Moore and over the years has published many of the most acclaimed poets of the 20th century.
The foundation also announced that Joseph Parisi, editor of Poetry for 20 years, has been named executive director of publications and programs. He will now manage the magazine and Poetry Press, its book publishing imprint, as well as new programs that are being developed. Parisi is a former executive director of the Modern Poetry Association. He is also coeditor of The Poetry Anthology (Ivan R. Dee) and author of Marianne Moore: The Art of a Modernist and Poets in Person, a companion title to the long-running NPR series.
Christian Wiman, a poet, essayist and assistant professor at Northwestern University, will succeed Parisi as the 11th editor of Poetry magazine.
The Poetry Foundation and the magazine will also move to a larger space at 1030 N. Clark Street, near Chicago's Newbery Library, where Poetry magazine and the MPA have had offices since 1987.
