Free to enter, 2010 Levis Reading Prize (for books published in the previous year), prize: $1500

Deadline: 15 January 2011

In memory of Larry Levis, the distinguished poet and teacher who was our colleague until his untimely death in 1996, the Department of English at Virginia Commonwealth University aims to encourage poets early in their careers by sponsoring an annual award for the best first or second book of poetry. Now with over a decade of wiiners, the award continues to raise the cultural appreciation of great poetry while advancing the careers of emerging writers.

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

Entries may be submitted by either author or publisher, and must include a copy 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 $1500 and are invited, expenses paid, to Richmond to present a public reading in the following fall.

Send all 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, call 804.828.1329 or email englishgrad@vcu.edu

More information here.