By Hand

Benjamin Alire Sáenz received the American Book Award in 1992 for his first book of poems, Calendar of Dust. A former Wallace Stegner Poetry Fellow at Stanford, he also received a Lannan Poetry Fellowship, a Southwest Book Award, the Paterson Prize, and the Americas Book Award and was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. His most recent poetry collection is The Book of What Remains (Copper Canyon Press, 2010). Sáenz is the chair of the creative writing department at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Denise Levertov (1923–1997) was born in England to a German émigré father, a Hassidic Jew who became an Anglican priest. Levertov’s own religious views, particularly the desire for grace, became themes throughout her poetry. The author of twenty books of poetry, criticism, and translation, she held a full professorship at Stanford University. Levertov received the Shelley Memorial Award, the Robert Frost Medal, and the Lenore Marshall Prize, among other accolades. She died from lymphoma and is buried in Seattle, Washington.