Amy Stolls

Amy Stolls (she/her) is the former Director of Literary Arts at the National Endowment for the Arts, where she managed a portfolio of grants to literary organizations; fellowships to poets and writers and literary translators; and large national initiatives, including Poetry Out Loud and the NEA Big Read. Throughout her 26-year career at the NEA, she championed the work of emerging and established poets, advising on projects and partnerships, traveling to sites and festivals throughout the country, hosting convenings on pertinent topics affecting the field, and participating in annual poetry coalition meetings. Prior to her time at the NEA, she taught literature at American University in Washington, D.C. and worked as an environmental journalist in Seattle, WA. She is the author of two novels: Palms to the Ground, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux (2005), and The Ninth Wife, published by HarperCollins (2011).