Here’s an exciting announcement from the folks at Image.

And what a great choice. I’ve had the privilege of meeting Mr. Lott and hearing him read last summer, and I was mightily impressed.

Dear friend of the arts,

Please join us as Bret Lott, author of the Oprah Book Club selection Jewel, which sold more than three million copies, receives the fourth annual Denise Levertov Award and gives a reading at the newly expanded Seattle Art Museum, soon after its public grand opening, on Tuesday, May 8, 7:30 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public and will be followed by a desert reception.

Bret Lott’s fiction explores the beauty and dignity of ordinary things and ordinary people. His characters embody the old-fashioned virtues of modesty, hard work, and staying in it for the long haul. In his nonfiction and public addresses, he exhibits a keen and sometimes wicked sense of humor: he is at once a fervent Christian believer and an irreverent critic of the absurdities of modern culture—both inside the church and out.

Publishing fiction since the age of twenty-three, Lott is the author of the story collection The Difference between Women and Men, the essay collection Before We Get Started, and the novels A Song I Knew by Heart, Jewel, and many others.

The Denise Levertov Award is named for one of the twentieth century’s greatest poets. Levertov, who spent her last years in Seattle, embraced the landscape and culture of the Pacific Northwest. Her identity as a Christian believer — a pilgrim whose faith was inextricably entwined with doubt — became another important facet of her work, particularly in her later poetry.

Co-sponsored by the SPU English Department, the Levertov Award is presented annually in May to an artist or creative writer whose work exemplifies a serious and sustained engagement with the Judeo-Christian tradition.

Click here for directions to the Seattle Art Museum.

Questions? Call 206.281.2988 or click here.