Hugo House has selected Diana Delgado as Executive Director, following an executive search process led by Arts Consulting Group (ACG). She will begin her tenure on June 5, 2023.
Delgado is a highly accomplished leader with over two decades of experience in arts and non-profit administration, strategic planning, operations and facility management, employee supervision, professional development, and donor cultivation. Prior to joining Hugo House, she served as Literary Director at the University of Arizona Poetry Center in Tucson, where she oversaw literary and social justice programming and contributed to strategic planning and needs-analysis. Delgado has also fulfilled the position of Director of Community Center Programming at Coalition for Hispanic Family Services in Brooklyn, New York. In this role, Delgado led the organization through a period of rapid growth, supervising all personnel, programming, and contract benchmarks, managing multiple budgets, and securing funding for renovation initiatives.
A published poet with an impressive body of work, Delgado authored the poetry collection Tracing the Horse that was selected as a New York Times Noteworthy Pick. Her chapbook Late-Night Talks with Men I Think I Trust won the Letterpress Poetry Contest and was published by Center for Book Arts. Her poetry has also appeared in Ploughshares, Ninth Letter, New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Review of Books, Colorado Review, and Tin House, amongst other esteemed platforms. Delgado is the editor of the upcoming poetry anthology Like a Hammer Across the Page, Poets Writing Against Mass Incarceration, which will be published by Haymarket Books in Spring 2024. Delgado holds a bachelor of fine arts in creative writing from University of California, Riverside and a master of fine arts in creative writing from Columbia University. She was a National Endowment for the Arts fellow and has received numerous scholarships and grants, including, but not limited to, Ford Foundation Wellness Initiative Grant, Arizona Commission on the Arts Research and Development Grant, and Vermont College of Fine Arts Scholarship.
“I am thrilled to join Hugo House at this important time in the organization’s history,” said Delgado. “Hugo House has answered the call for change and is ready to engage writers and arts supporters who believe that the imagination is the next frontier for making a difference in our communities and our lives. As the new Executive Director, I look forward to forging partnerships within an already dynamic literary community and creating opportunities that can nurture and broaden our work in the service of reading, writing, and free expression.”
“It was an honor to work with the board and staff of Hugo House on the search for Executive Director,” said ACG Vice President Josyanne Roche. “We congratulate Diana Delgado on her appointment. Guided by deep appreciation for literature and unwavering commitment to social justice, Diana will undoubtedly steer Hugo House towards its thrilling next chapter.”
May 2023