Last Call: Levis Applications are due December 1

Here’s more encouragement from winners of the Levis Prize:

When I applied for the Levis Prize, I did so at a time when I was at a cross-roads with my work and writing career. I had just received my MFA from Warren Wilson a few months prior, and my manuscript was on the cusp of becoming a full-length. One of my issues, however, was that in all my time as a writer in the program I was never afforded the opportunity of a true writing retreat to focus on my writing and nothing else. Certainly, we had the residencies at the start of each semester, but we all know those are filled more with lessons and preparation for the oncoming work, rather than a time to settle into yourself in with your literary offspring. I used the Levis Prize for a few things, but my greatest outcome from it was to take a writing retreat abroad in order to sit with my work and push the manuscript over the top. Sometimes the greatest gift we can offer our work is our presence with it, unburdened by financial woes that distract us from the work.

Additionally, winning the prize was a powerful moment in itself. Obviously, to win anything in the publishing world can be a challenge given how it sometimes takes the right people viewing the right work at the right time. That said, it was reaffirming to what I’d been doing as a writer to not only have the wherewithal to travel for my writing, but to also receive a distinction that invigorated me to push forward with the craft in ways I may not have been able to do so otherwise. 

–Tariq Luthun

I applied for the Levis with only one publication under my belt, a short story that hadn’t even come out yet but was due to be published in Waxwing the following summer. I was less than a year out of my MFA and didn’t know if my book project had any legs, or if I had what was needed to make writing my life. At that point in time, I could have gone back to full-time paid work but was reluctant to, because I knew it would take away my writing time. But there was also a voice in my head that said maybe I should just go back to doing what I knew I was good at, and earned me money, rather than spending my time on writing these stories that might never go anywhere. 

When I received the phone call and was told that Peter Ho Davies had selected stories from my collection-in-progress for the Levis Prize, my whole world changed. I sat at my desk and wept with relief. I knew that I had to take this as an opportunity to not return to full-time work, and the money made that possible. But it did more than that – it gave me confidence in my work that I did not at that time have. I remember waking up early in the morning (it was winter in northern Scotland) before it was light, and telling myself that even if I didn’t want to get up and write, that someone I admired had decided my work was good enough to take a chance on. It propelled me forwards. 

That book project is now Homescar, and more of those stories have since been written and published. It is still a collection-in-progress but it is so much further along than it would have been if I had not won the Levis. I am so grateful for what it gave me – financial support, community, visibility and confidence – and would urge anyone at any stage in their writing career to apply for it. 

–Rose Skelton