Diana Chin-A-Fat new director of Poetry International

June 20, 2022

As of 1 September, Diana Chin-A-Fat will be the new general director of Poetry International. This was announced by the board at the end of the 52nd Poetry International Festival Rotterdam last weekend. With Chin-A-Fat, Poetry International has opted for a director with a passion for poetry in combination with a sense of connection, business talent and a great deal of persuasiveness. Chin-A-Fat is currently still connected to the Rotterdam Council for Art and Culture as senior policy advisor and as chairman of the advisory committee City Poet Laureate Rotterdam. In the past Chin-A-Fat has had various functions and roles, including that of literary critic, coordinator of the Writers' School at SKVR and adviser of writing at Kunstfactor. She was also an advisor on literature to the national council for culture.

Diana Chin-A-Fat: "For more than 50 years, Poetry International has lived in the hearts and minds of its audience. I think it is an honor to be able to build on that rich history and to shape the future of Poetry International together with the team. We will do this by focusing strongly on the content: poetry in the broadest sense of the word. As far as I'm concerned, admiration and fun are the key words here."

Board and staff are very pleased with the appointment, according to chairman Mireille Pondman. "We see in Diana a director for Poetry who combines connection, passion for poetry and business talent."

Chin-A-Fat succeeds interim director Reinier Weers, who took over after the departure of Inez Boogaarts in the autumn of 2021. Weers and the Poetry International team created a successful 52nd edition of Poetry International Festival at the beginning of June. No better way to express it than the words of festival poet Marjolijn van Heemstra: "Almost emotional from the amount of audience and the crazy mix of sticks and cuttings that walk around curiously, and especially from the idea that poetry is still supported by a solid group of wonderful types that give language the time and space it so desperately needs. Because otherwise we become rigid.”