Solmaz Sharif, a lecturer at Stanford University in California, has been selected to receive the 2017 Levis Reading Prize from the department of English and the master of fine arts in creative writing program at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. The prize is awarded to the best first or second collection of poetry published in the previous calendar year. The prize is named after the late poet Larry Levis who served on the Virginia Commonwealth University faculty at the time of his death in 1996.
Sharif is being honored for her poetry collection Look (Graywolf Press, 2016). She will be honored at a ceremony at the James Branch Cabell Library in Richmond on March 29. The prize includes an award of $5,000.
Born in Istanbul, Turkey, to Iranian parents, Solmaz Sharif is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. She earned a master of fine arts degree in creative writing at New York University.