Donald Levering was born in Kansas City and received an MFA from Bowling Green (Ohio) State University.
His 7th full-length poetry book, Coltrane’s God, published in 2015 by Red Mountain Press, was Runner-Up for the New England Book Festival contest. His previous book, The Water Leveling with Us, placed second in the National Federation of Press Women Creative Verse Competition. He is a former NEA Fellow and won the Literal Latté award and the 2017 Tor House Robinson Jeffers Prize.
He has volunteered with Earthwatch as a species preservation activist for leatherback turtles in Costa Rica and queen conchs in Belize, and with Enkosini for great white sharks in South Africa. He also volunteers as a US citizenship tutor. He lives in Santa Fe, NM.