Features | Blackbird v19n2

Levis Remembered
In Blackbird’s Levis Remembered reading loop find video of the virtual event recognizing the winner of the 2020 Levis Reading Prize, Ilya Kaminsky, poems from his prize-winning Deaf Republic, and a review of his book by Colin Bailes. Larry Levis is represented by his poem “Winter Stars,” images of manuscript pages documenting the creation of the poem, and prose from an autobiographical essay visiting the same incident that sparked the poem.

Remembering Eleanor Ross Taylor at One Hundred
Eleanor Ross Taylor, a unique voice from the Middle Generation of American poets, kindly submitted work for Blackbird's first issue and continued, up to her death in 2011, as a generous friend. 2020 marks the centennial of her birth, and to celebrate this anniversary as well as her contribution to the art she practiced, we have collected her Blackbird publications here and invite you to join us in revisiting what we have gathered.

Emily Nemens & Christine Schutt: Tarumoto Prize Reading
On February 13, 2020, Emily Nemens, winner of the Rebecca Mitchell Tarumoto Short Fiction Prize, read from her award-winning short story, “After Incus,” (Blackbird v17n1). Joining her as a special reader was Pulitzer Prize finalist Christine Schutt, who read from her short story collection Pure Hollywood. The event took place at James Branch Cabell Library, and included introductions from David Wojahn, and Blackbird’s Katie Brooks and Caitlin Wilson.

A Conversation with Emily Nemens & Christine Schutt
The morning of February 14, 2020, Emily Nemens, joined by Christine Schutt, visited the Blackbird staff on the campus of Virginia Commonewalth University for an informal conversation about their work. They answered questions about writing and the writer’s life from student interns and editors. Both spoke to questions of influences, process, and revision. An edited and condensed transcript of this discussion appears in this issue of Blackbird.

A Reading from Scholarship Boy
In September 2020, Larry I. Palmer, Richmond-based writer and retired law professor, read excerpts from Scholarship Boy: Meditations on Family and Race for VCU’s James Branch Cabell Library. He begins with a passage from “Get the Boy on the Train,” which details his departure from St. Louis as an adolescent bound for a northern prep school, continues with a memory of dancing with his sister, and closes with a scene in which he graduates from Harvard.

A Conversation between Larry I. Palmer & Jeffrey Blount
September 10, 2020, James Branch Cabell Library hosted a virtual conversation between Larry I. Palmer and Jeffrey Blount. Palmer, a Richmond-based writer and retired law professor, and Blount, VCU alumnus, novelist and Emmy Award-winning television director, discuss Palmer’s book Scholarship Boy: Meditations on Family and Race. The event was hosted by VCU’s Department of English and James Branch Cabell Library.

A Reading by Steve Scafidi
On June 29, 2019, poet Steve Scafidi was a visiting writer at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond. Scafidi read a selection across his four books, including To the Briar and the Bramble, as well as two previously unpublished poems, “The Bull Leaper’s Birthday” and “The Jewel,” which appear under Poetry in this issue of Blackbird. The event was made possible by Carole Weinstein’s support of the center’s Leslie Shiel Scholarship for Creative Writing.

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