Jen Benka

Jen Benka is the author of the poetry collections Pinko (Hanging Loose Press, 2011) and A Box of Longing with Fifty Drawers (Soft Skull Press, 2005); the artist book A Revisioning of the Preamble (Booklyn, 2003), which has been featured in exhibitions at the Corcoran Gallery, Milwaukee Art Museum, and the Renaissance Society and is held in many museum and library special collections; as well as a Xeric-winning and Eisner-nominated comic book series. 

Benka is the recipient of the 2024 Pegasus Award for Service in Poetry. Benka has worked in service to poets and poetry for 25 years, including as president and executive director of the Academy of American Poets, a post that Benka held for 10 years. In this role, Benka developed new publications and programs, including Poem-a-Day, which published more than 2,500 poems in this period; Teach This Poem, which won the National Book Foundation’s Innovations in Reading Prize; the Ambroggio Book Prize for a collection in Spanish; the Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize; Poets Laureate Fellowships; and the national Poetry Coalition. Benka helped build LitNet, a field-wide effort. 

As managing director of Poets & Writers, Benka led a capital campaign that established a grant program for writers in multiple cities, paid internships, and the Jackson Poetry Prize. As director of marketing and development at 826 National, Benka supported international arts leaders in launching youth writing programs.

During the pandemic, Benka co-organized, with six other national cultural leaders, the Artist Relief Fund, which raised and provided $25 million in emergency grants to 4,682 artists and writers. While at the Academy of American Poets, Benka simultaneously envisioned and co-launched the Literary Arts Emergency Fund, which provided $7.8 million to hundreds of nonprofit literary arts organizations and publishers. 

Benka helped develop and assist with new fellowships and residencies for writers, including the Guggenheim Museum’s Poet-in-Residence position, the Flamboyan Foundation’s Letras Boricuas Fellowships for Puerto Rican writers, and the Writing Freedom Fellowships from Haymarket Books and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for system-impacted writers. Benka has also administered, adjudicated, and assisted with many other literary grants and awards that provide significant funds to organizations, publishers, and writers. 

Benka earned a BA in journalism from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and an MFA in creative writing from The New School in New York. Benka works as a consultant to nonprofit and philanthropic institutions, including as the literary arts strategist for the Mellon Foundation.