The annual Giovanni-Steger Poetry Prize will be held Feb. 8 as part of the first-ever Virginia Tech Humanities Week.

The ceremony will be held 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre, located in the Moss Arts Center. A reception will follow.

To attend the ceremony in person or virtually, register through this link.

Renowned author and University Distinguished Professor of English Nikki Giovanni established the poetry competition in 2005 and named it for its first benefactor, the late Charles W. Steger, who served as the university’s president at the time.

The prize honors the work of student poets at Virginia Tech. The Giovanni-Steger Poetry Prize Committee selects multiple winners, who read their poems as part of the celebration.

All undergraduates of any major are eligible for the competition, which is considered one of the most prestigious undergraduate literary prizes in the nation. 

The ceremony is one of several Virginia Tech Humanities Week events set for Feb. 7 through 11. Humanities Week will celebrate 150 years of the humanities at Virginia Tech and is part of the university’s Sesquicentennial Celebration.

Visit the Humanities Week webpage to learn more about Humanities Week programming.

Virginia Tech Humanities Week Events