Andrew Proctor was recently named executive director of Literary Arts, the twenty-five-year-old nonprofit organization in Portland, Oregon. He will succeed Elizabeth Burnett, who resigned from the post in September 2008. Proctor will assume his new duties on March 24.
Proctor, who was chosen after a nationwide search by the organization's board of directors, has previously worked at PEN American Center, where he was membership and operations director under presidents Salman Rushdie, Ron Chernow, and Francine Prose, and HarperCollins, where he edited and acquired literary fiction and nonfiction.
"We are very excited by what Andrew brings to the organization," board chair Jodi Delahunt Hubbel says. "Andrew impressed the board and staff with his passion for the written word, his dedication to collaborative work and his proven leadership ability."
"This is an exciting time for the organization," she adds. "Portland Arts and Lectures is celebrating its 25th anniversary season with record attendance numbers. Andrew couldn't come at a better time." The Arts and Lectures series is the organization's flagship program, bringing authors and "cultural thinkers" to a 2,700-seat concert hall in in Portland. The nonprofit's other programs include the Oregon Book Awards, the Oregon Literary Fellowships, Writers in the Schools, and the relatively new Delve: Readers’ Seminars, a series of classes in which members of the community gather to discuss literature.
Carrie Hoops, who took over as interim director after Burnett's resignation, will remain in the position until Proctor begins work in the spring.
