Levis Reading Prize
VCU Department of English

	Radial Symmetry  Katherine Larson

Larson will receive an honorarium of $2,000 and will travel to Richmond, all-expenses paid, for a reception and public reading at 8PM on Sept. 20th at the Grace Street Theater. The Levis Reading Prize is awarded in the name of the late Larry Levis, the distinguished poet and teacher who was a VCU professor until his death in 1996. The award was created to encourage poets early in their careers by recognizing the best first or second book of poetry published each year.

Larson’s Radial Symmetry was published by Yale University Press and selected by Louise Glück as the winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets. Larson’s work has appeared in AGNI, Boulevard, The Kenyon Review, The Massachusetts Review, Poetry and Poetry Northwest, among other publications. She is the recipient of a Ruth Lilly Fellowship, the Union League Civic and Arts Foundation Poetry Prize and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. In addition to writing, she has worked as a molecular biologist and field ecologist. She lives in Arizona with her husband and daughter.

The Levis Prize Committee recognized two finalists this year. They are Anthony Carelli for Carnations, which was published by Princeton University Press, and Brian Barker for The Black Ocean, which was published by Southern Illinois University Press.

The Levis Reading Prize is presented on behalf of VCU's M.F.A. in Creative Writing Program. Sponsors include the VCU Department of English, the VCU Libraries, the VCU Honors College, Barnes & Noble @ VCU and the VCU College of Humanities and Sciences, with additional funding provided by the family of Larry Levis. 

Entries may be submitted by either author or publisher, and must include three copies of the book (48 pages or more), a cover letter, and a brief biography of the author including previous publications. (Entries from vanity presses are not eligible.) The book must have been published in the previous calendar year. Entrants wishing acknowledgment of receipt must include a self-addressed stamped postcard.

The annual entry deadline is January 15th. Materials received after that date will be returned unopened. Because we cannot guarantee their return, all entries will become the property of the VCU Department of English.

Judges come from faculty of the VCU Department of English and MFA Program in Creative Writing.

The winner receives an honorarium of $2000 and are invited, expenses paid, to Richmond to present a public reading in the following fall.

To enter, please send materials to:

Levis Reading Prize
VCU Department of English
900 Park Avenue, Hibbs Hall, Room 306
P.O. Box 842005
Richmond, VA 23284-2005

For further information, contact Katelyn Kiley, Levis Fellow: kileyk@vcu.edu