In 1999, he was elected into the membership of The American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in January 2009 he was elected its president. He previously served as Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 1996 until 2003. In addition to these appointments, he was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Academy of American Poets. When he was given an Award in Literature by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1991, the citation read: