Ruth Dickey is the Executive Director of the National Book Foundation and has spent 30 years working at the intersection of community building, writing, and art. Prior to the National Book Foundation, Ruth led Seattle Arts & Lectures, where she was a 2017 fellow with the National Arts Strategies Chief Executive Program, and served as a judge in Fiction for the 2019 National Book Awards. The recipient of a Mayor’s Arts Award from Washington DC, Ruth began her career as a teaching artist, leading poetry workshops in soup kitchens, drop in centers, and the DC Public Schools. Ruth is the author of Mud blooms (Harbor Mountain Press, 2019), a 2017 finalist for the National Poetry Series, and Our hollowness sings (Unicorn Press, 2024). Ruth holds an MFA in Poetry from UNC-Greensboro, and an MA in Latin American Studies and BS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.
