Jan Heller Levi
Encyclopedia
Jan Heller Levi is a poet
who teaches at CUNY Hunter College’s MFA Program in Creative Writing.
, Maryland
. Levi is the recipient of the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets for her first book, Once I Gazed at You in Wonder. She has also received two awards form the Poetry Society of America
, the George Bogin Memorial Award
, and the Writer Magazine/Emily Dickinson Award
.
Prior to teaching at Hunter College
, Levi also taught at Sarah Lawrence College
and the Unterberg Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y in New York City. She is married to the Swiss novelist and playwright, Christoph Keller, and the couple divide their time between New York City and St. Gallen, Switzerland.
In a review of Once I Gazed at You in Wonder, poet Alice Fulton
writes,
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
who teaches at CUNY Hunter College’s MFA Program in Creative Writing.
Life
She grew up in BaltimoreBaltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
. Levi is the recipient of the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets for her first book, Once I Gazed at You in Wonder. She has also received two awards form the Poetry Society of America
Poetry Society of America
The Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists including Witter Bynner. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the have included such renowned writers as Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent...
, the George Bogin Memorial Award
George Bogin Memorial Award
The Poetry Society of America's George Bogin Memorial Award is given "by the family and friends of George Bogin for a selection of four or five poems that use language in an original way to reflect the encounter of the ordinary and the extraordinary and to take a stand against oppression in any of...
, and the Writer Magazine/Emily Dickinson Award
Writer Magazine/Emily Dickinson Award
The Writer Magazine/Emily Dickinson Award is given once a year to a member of the Poetry Society of America "to honor the memory and poetry of Emily Dickinson, for a poem inspired by Dickinson though not necessarily in her style." The winner receives a $250 prize.-Winners:*2010: Marlene Rosen Fine,...
.
Prior to teaching at Hunter College
Hunter College
Hunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized...
, Levi also taught at Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...
and the Unterberg Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y in New York City. She is married to the Swiss novelist and playwright, Christoph Keller, and the couple divide their time between New York City and St. Gallen, Switzerland.
In a review of Once I Gazed at You in Wonder, poet Alice Fulton
Alice Fulton
Alice Fulton is an American author of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.- Biography :Fulton was born and raised in Troy, New York, the youngest of three daughters. Her father was the proprietor of the historic Phoenix Hotel, and her mother was a visiting nurse. She began writing poetry in high school...
writes,
“Jan Heller Levi's work countervails the implications of this curmudgeonly koan with passional, self-critical intelligence. Ardent yet free of gush, the spontaneity and conversational ease of her poems assure that the quality of wonder, like that of mercy, is not strained. In addition to unguardedness and heart, there is backtalk—bite and edge, lip and lash.”
Sources
- http://www.salon.com/books/feature/1999/11/05/poetry/
- http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/63