Recently in Levis Reading Prize Category

Poet Katie Ford, winner of this year's VCU Levis Reading Prize, will give a reading next week, on September 24 at 8PM in VCU Commons, Richmond Salons.

Katie Ford's Colosseum was selected for the 12th Annual Levis Reading Prize. The collection, which was published by Graywolf Press, stems from Ford's experiences living through Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath in New Orleans. Ford examines both ancient and contemporary catastrophes in the book with particular attention to Katrina's power and impact.

The Levis Reading Prize is presented on behalf of VCU's MFA in Creative Writing Program. Sponsors include the VCU Department of English, the 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 and the Levis family.

The 2009-2010 VCU Visiting Writer Series has been set. This year's line-up of visiting writers includes Colson Whitehead, Thomas Lux, Deb Olin Unferth (winner of the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award), Mary Gaitskill, Katie Ford (winner of the Levis Reading Prize), Linda Bierds, Fanny Howe, and our Visiting Writer-in-Residence, Rosellen Brown.

Katie Ford's Colosseum, from Graywolf Press, has been chosen as this year's winner of the Larry Levis reading prize. Runners up for the prize were Jake Adam York's A Murmuration of Starlings and Craig Arnold's Made Flesh.

MFA student Andrea Cleary has been selected to serve as next year's Larry Levis Fellow in support of the administration of the Levis Reading Prize.