One of the many exciting things about the 2010 Port Townsend Writers' Conference will be the presence of Copper Canyon Press poet Dana Levin, the author of "In the Surgical Theatre" and "Wedding Day."

Dana Levin, who will be leading a poetry workshop combining the workshopping of existing poems with the generation of new work, saw her first collection, "In the Surgical Theatre", receive the 1999 American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize, the John C. Zacharis First Book Award from Ploughshares, the 2000 Wytter Bynner Prize from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the 2003 PEN/Osterweil Award.

Her most recent book is 2005's "Wedding Day". Levin is the recipient of numerous honors, and she teaches in the MFA prgram at Warren Wilson College and directs the creative writing program at College of Santa Fe in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Here is an excerpt from her poem "Ambivalent Light": "I was telling Doctor C. about the dream of throwing the ashtray at my/mother and feeling the ashes inside it and he said 'The ashes inside?'/and I thought how the ashtray had been oddly shaped, almost like a womb,/and I said 'I was throwing the womb back at her,' and I was delighted–"

Levin's workshop title is "Poetry and the Unconsious". Her class description is available here.

Registration is available here, as well as by calling 360.385.3102, x117 or 360.385.3102, x131. We're also available to assist you with any questions or place you in the most appropriate workshop option.