Larry Patrick Levis, a poet and professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, was found dead in his home on May 8. He was 49.
The cause was cardaic arrest, the university said.
Mr Levis wrote essays, stories and reviews as well as poetry. His most recent book a volume of short storied titled "Black Freckles," was published in 1992. A collection of his poems, "The Afterlife" (1977), won the Lamont Poetry Prize from the American Academy of Poets.
His other books include "Wrecking Crew" (1972), "The Dollmaker's Ghost" (1981), "Winter Stars" (1985), and "The Widening Spell of the Leaves". (1991).
He is survived by a son, Nicholas of Old Lyme, Conneticut; his mother, Carol Mayo Levis of Selma, California; a brother, W. Kent Levis of Fresno, California; and two sisters, Lynn Acitelli of Fresno and Sheila Brady of Berkeley, California.