Houston poet scripts success
Inprint executive director Rich Levy relishes work with literary nonprofit
On the October day after the muchanticipated release of her latest book, internationally acclaimed author Sandra Cisneros stood before a packed audience at the Stude Concert Hall at Rice University with a full-face smile.
“Not even my hometowns, San Antonio and Chicago, turn out like Houston,” said Cisneros, a MacArthur Genius Grant fellow who has sold more than a million books.
The event was hosted by Inprint, a literary arts nonprofit organization which offers programs that support and engage readers and writers of fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction.
Headquartered in a small, light-filled Museum District bungalow with brightly painted walls and mismatched furniture, Inprint’s five-and-a-half-person staff quietly lead one of the best programs for readers and writers in the nation.
Behind the scenes
Staff turnover is a fact of nonprofit life, particularly in the arts, but three of the team have been with Inprint for 13, 18 and 19 years each.
They are quick to credit Inprint’s first full-time employee, Rich Levy, 59, who has been the executive director there for 20 years. When he took the helm, Inprint had a budget of $180,000.
Today, it is $1.2 million, and the staff still works long, hard and lean maintaining a focus on outreach and programming.
“We believe in what we do, we value it, we feel proud of it, and we feel privileged to be able to do the work we do. And together, we have fun along the way,” said Krupa Parikh, marketing and outreach director. She said Levy is open to people, new ideas, input and contrary opinions.
“His openness helps keep the organization fresh, inclusive and always growing,” she said. Community programs
Along with the Margarett Root Brown Reading Series, Inprint offers a “Cool Brains!” series for young readers, and “Poetry Buskers” who produce poetry on-demand at local festivals. Other programs for readers include the Inprint Book Club and First Fridays Reading Series.
For writers, Inprint provides a variety of workshops ranging from intensive sessions for serious writers to specialized classes that include the tuition-free Teachers-As-Teachers Workshop and the Senior Memoir Workshop in area community centers.
Inprint has funded more than $3 million in fellowships, juried prizes and other direct support for the renowned University of Houston Creative Writing Program. It recruits instructors for programs from the best of program alumni.
Roots in writing
Levy holds a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from the Iowa Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa, long considered one of the best graduate writing programs in the nation. As a college student, Levy said he discovered the only thing he wanted to do was write poetry.
Although Levy studied at Iowa with some of this generation’s literary greats, his MFA did not prove to be a springboard to personal literary renown.
“I went too young, I was still too insecure and goofy,” Levy said.
Levy met his former wife in Iowa and
the couple ping-ponged between Texas and the Midwest as she finished law school and they grew their family and careers.
Levy served as director of communications at a college in Iowa as well as the University of Houston System, so he was familiar to folks in the writing program there when the time came to find a full-time director for Inprint in 1995.
Michael Berryhill, Journalism Chair at the Texas Southern University School of Communications, was on that search committee and remains active with the Inprint board. He recalled the combination of literary pedigree and solid work ethic made Levy the clear choice.
“It’s the job of a good board to raise money, hire the right people and then get out of their way so that they can do their job,” Berryhill said.
Costs for all Inprint programs are kept low and access is egalitarian through online sales. But, Berryhill said, few people realize that Levy quietly and consistently coaxes visiting authors to make free appearances at local institutions like TSU.
“He has a tremendous sense of the community,” Berryhill said.
Looking ahead
Levy turns 60 this year, and is still trying to adapt to the concept of middleage. Retirement is not yet a consideration, as Levy loves his work for larger and more intimate reasons.
“When the writers visit from distant places with certain expectations based on the clichés about Houston and Texas, they are invariably shocked and delighted by the crowds, the diversity, the vitality,” Levy said. “Poets need day jobs. Knock on wood, I’m happy to have this one.”