Prof. Steven Leyva's Debut Collection of Poems Celebrated with Roundtable Discussion, Nov. 11
October 30, 2020
Contact: Office of Government and Public Affairs
Phone: 410.837.5739
Steven Leyva, assistant professor in The University of Baltimore's Klein Family School of Communications Design, will see his debut full-length collection of poems, The Understudy's Handbook, celebrated with a bookwarming and roundtable discussion with fellow poets Tim Seibles and zakia henderson-brown on Wednesday, Nov. 11 beginning at 7 p.m. on Zoom. The book, winner of the 2020 Jean Feldmen Poetry Prize and published by the Washington Writers' Publishing House, draws heat and music (and luscious food) from Leyva's New Orleans and Houston childhood, and reveals a sensibility forged by a growing awareness of race and class.
These three poets will discuss mentorship, literary friendship, and the journeys of making a first book.
Prof. Leyva's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in 2 Bridges Review, Scalawag, Nashville Review, jubilat, Vinyl, and Prairie Schooner. He is a Cave Canem fellow and author of the chapbook Low Parish. Leyva holds an M.F.A. from the University of Baltimore.
Tim Seibles is the author of several poetry collections, including Hurdy-Gurdy, Hammerlock, Buffalo Head Solos, and Fast Animal, which was a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award and winner of the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize. Seibles is a former NEA fellow and recipient of a fellowship from the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center. His latest collection, One Turn Around the Sun, was released in 2017. He recently completed a two-year appointment as Poet Laureate of Virginia.
zakia henderson-brown is the author of What Kind of Omen Am I, winner of the 2017 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship, selected by Cate Marvin. She is a Cave Canem graduate fellow and was a 2016 Poets House Emerging Poets fellow. Her poems have appeared in New Daughters of Africa (Amistad), Adroit, African American Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Little Patuxent Review, North American Review, Washington Square Review, Vinyl, and others.
To receive the Zoom link the day before the event, send an email to gsieck@ubalt.edu.
Read a Q&A with Prof. Leyva in the CAS Blog.
Learn more about Prof. Steven Leyva and UB's MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts program, part of the Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences.