Prize-winning poet to read at VCU

By Tom Gresham

Matthew Donovan, winner of the 2008 Levis Reading Prize, awarded by Virginia Commonwealth University for the best first or second book of poetry published in the previous calendar year, will visit VCU for a public reading on Sept. 18.

Donovan, who won the Levis Prize for his collection, "Vellum," will read at 8 p.m. in the VCU Student Commons, Commonwealth A, 907 Floyd Ave. A reception will follow. Both the reading and reception are free and open to the public. Donovan also will meet with interested students and faculty for a question-and-answer session on Sept. 19.

Donovan, whose poems have appeared in such journals as Poetry, Agni, the Gettysburg Review and the Kenyon Review, serves as an assistant professor of creative writing at the College of Santa Fe and lives in New Mexico with his wife and son. He is also the recipient of the 2006 Katherine Bakeless Nason Prize for poetry, selected by the poet Mark Doty and awarded by Middlebury College and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and of a literature fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts. “Vellum” was published by Mariner Books.

The Levis Reading Prize was established in 1998 in memory of Larry Levis, the distinguished poet and VCU professor. The award was created to encourage poets early in their careers. Donovan received a $1,000 honorarium and an all-expenses paid trip to Richmond for the reading, which is sponsored by the VCU Department of English and the VCU Graduate Writers Association, with additional funding from the family of Larry Levis.

Previous prizes have gone to Joshua Weiner for his collection “From the Book of Giants,” Ron Slate for “The Incentive of the Maggot,” Spencer Reece for “The Clerk's Tale,” David Daniel for “Seven-Star Bird,” Susan Aizenberg for “Muse,” Steve Scafidi for “Sparks from a Nine-Pound Hammer,” Nick Flynn for “Some Ether,” Joel Brouwer for “Exactly What Happened,” Sandra Alcosser for “Except by Nature” and Belle Waring for “Dark Blonde.”
VCU received more than 150 entries for this year’s award. For more information about the Levis Reading Prize, visit http://www.has.vcu.edu/eng/resources/levis_prize.htm, call 804-828-1329, or e-mail englishgrad@vcu.edu.