Poet Nick Lantz Wins the VCU Levis Reading Prize

By Tom Gresham

Nick Lantz’s debut collection “We Don’t Know We Don’t Know” has won the 14^th annual Levis Reading Prize from Virginia Commonwealth University for the best first or second book of poetry published in 2010.

“We Don’t Know We Don’t Know,” which was published by Graywolf Press, has also received the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference Bakeless Prize, among several other awards. Lantz’s second collection, “The Lightning that Strikes the Neighbor’s House,” which also was released in 2010, received the Felix Pollak Prize. Lantz, who will join the faculty of Franklin and Marshall this fall, has seen his work appear in Mid-American Review, Prairie Schooner, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, Poetry Daily and FIELD. It also has been featured on the nationally syndicated radio program “The Writer’s Almanac” with Garrison Keillor. Lantz has received fellowships from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing and the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference.

Lantz will receive an honorarium of $1,500 and will travel to Richmond all-expenses paid for a reception and public reading on Sept. 29 at 8 p.m. in the Grace Street Theater.

The Levis Reading Prize is presented each year in honor of 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.

Finalists for this year’s award are Nicky Beer for her collection “The Diminishing House” and Daniel Johnson for his collection “How to Catch a Falling Knife.”

The Levis Reading Prize is presented on behalf of VCU’s MFA in Creative Writing Program in the Department of English. Other sponsors include James Branch Cabell Library Associates, Friends of the Library, the VCU Libraries, the VCU Honors College, Barnes & Noble @ VCU Bookstore and the VCU College of Humanities & Sciences, with additional funding provided by the family of Larry Levis. 

For additional information about the Levis Reading Prize, visit http://www.has.vcu.edu/eng/resources/levis_prize/levis_prize.htm, call 804-828-1329 or email englishgrad@vcu.edu.