A life dedicated to the art of poetry: A Stephenson Center for Appalachia event

The Stephenson Center for Appalachia will present a two-day celebration of poetry on Thursday and Friday, Nov. 8 and 9.

Starting at 7 p.m. Nov. 8 in Evans Auditorium in the Cannon Student Center, film director Michele Poulos will introduce and present her film A Late Style of Fire: Larry Levis, American Poet.

The following day on Nov. 9 at 2 p.m. in the Dotti M. Shelton Learning Commons, Poulos and producer of the movie Gregory Donovan will read from their original poetry.

A Late Style of Fire: Larry Levis, American Poet explores not only the life and poetry of Larry Levis, but also the risks and triumphs of a life devoted to making art.

The connection among Poulos, Donovan, and Levis comes from their ties to Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), where Levis taught and wrote before dying at the age of 49 in 1996. Donovan, a VCU creative writing faculty member, and Levis were colleagues and friends during his life. Poulos had already admired Levis’ poetry before entering the writing program at VCU in 2005.

 “You couldn’t walk down the street without bumping into someone who had known Levis and the stories people told were fascinating—they were savory and tangled as his poems,” Poulos said.

Poulos, who has a master’s in creative writing (with a focus in fiction writing) from VCU and a master’s in creative writing (with a focus on poetry) from Arizona State University, has a poetry collection titled Black Laurel. Donovan has published widely in fiction, poetry, and essays. His work titled Calling his Children Home won the Devins Award for Poetry.

“We invite everyone in the community to share these two celebrations of poets and poetry with us,” Michael Joslin, director of the Stephenson Center for Appalachia, said.

Stephenson Center for Appalachia programs are free and open to the public. For more information, email joslin@lmc.edu.