RUTH DICKEY has spent more than 25 years working at the intersection of community building, writing, and art, now as executive director of the National Book Foundation. She previously had the pleasure of leading organizations in Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Cincinnati, and Seattle. An ardent fan of dogs and coffee, she served as a fiction judge for the 2019 National Book Awards. She holds an MFA in poetry from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and a B.S. in foreign service and M.A. in Latin American studies from Georgetown University. She is the author of the full-length collections Our Hollowness Sings and Mud Blooms, and the chapbook Paper Houses, Sky Ceilings.