Larry Levis

Larry Levis (1946–1996) published five poetry collections during his life, including The Widening Spell of Leaves (1991) and Winter Stars (1985), both from the University of Pittsburgh Press. He also published a book of short stories, Black Freckles (Peregrine Smith Books, 1992). Three books of Levis's poetry have been published posthumously: Elegy (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997), The Selected Levis: Poems 1972–1992 (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000), and a new volume of previously uncollected poems, The Darkening Trapeze: Last Poems , edited by David St. John (Graywolf Press 2016). A collection of Levis’s essays, interviews and reviews, The Gazer Within (University of Michigan Press, 2001), was also posthumously published as part of the Poets on Poetry Series. His work appeared in American Poetry Review , The Southern Review , FIELD , and The New Yorker . Levis won many awards, including the Lamont Poetry Prize, and was selected for the National Poetry Series. He recieved a Fulbright Fellowship as well as fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Levis received a BA from California State University–Fresno, an MA from Syracuse University, and a PhD from the University of Iowa. He taught at the University of Missouri, the University of Utah, the University of Iowa, Warren Wilson College, and Virginia Commonwealth University. Photo by Jay Paul

Gregory Donovan is the author of the poetry collections Torn from the Sun (Red Hen Press, 2015), long-listed for the Julie Suk Award, and Calling His Children Home (University of Missouri Press, 1993), which won the Devins Award for Poetry. His poetry, essays, translations, and fiction have been published in The Kenyon Review , The Southern Review , New England Review , TriQuarterly , diode , Crazyhorse , Gulf Coast , Copper Nickel , and many other journals. His work has also appeared in several anthologies, including Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets of Virginia (University of Virginia Press, 2003). Among other awards for his writing, he is the recipient of the Robert Penn Warren Award from New England Writers as well as grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and fellowships from the Ucross Foundation and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Donovan has served as a visiting writer and guest faculty for a number of summer conferences and low-residency programs, such as the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Chautauqua Institution Writers’ Center, the River Pretty Writers Retreat, the VCFA Postgraduate Writers’ Conference, and the University of Tampa MFA program. With the writer/director Michele Poulos, he is a producer of A Late Style of Fire , the feature-length documentary on the life and work of the late Larry Levis. Donovan is a founding faculty member of Virginia Commonwealth University’s graduate creative writing program. He is a senior editor at Blackbird . Photo by Michele Poulos

Devon Walker-Figueroa is the author of Philomath (Milkweed Editions, 2021), a 2020 National Poetry Series Competition selection, winner of the 2022 Levis Reading Prize, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize for a best first book in any genre. A 2022–2023 Amy Lowell Traveling Scholar, her work has appeared in The Nation , Poetry , the American Poetry Review , and elsewhere. Photo by Kenneth Barton