Northwestern English lecturer Averill Curdy has taken interest in an obscure historical figure: George Sands.

As one of the first explorers and secretaries of the colony of Virginia, Sands inspired Curdy’s book “Ovid in America.” Sands was chosen because he showed the “endless transformations” people go through when they discover new figurative and literal places, Curdy said.

“Ovid in America,” which was also inspired by the Roman poet Ovid, is a poetry series Curdy will write and publish with $10,000 she received from the 2005 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award. Curdy was one of six women to receive the annual award from Jaffe, a novelist who supports emerging female writers. Curdy received the award in New York in September.

Curdy said she writes about human transformation, passion and intelligence by “negotiating the boundary between song and speech.”

“Her poems are musical and precise,” said Robyn Schiff, a visiting assistant English professor. “She’s paying attention to the surface so that there’s a kind of charm – like rubbing two words together to make a fire.”

Poetry allows writers and readers to realize a “surplus of reality,” Curdy said.

“Poetry teaches us how to be human, the life of our senses and ways to approach mystery,” she said.

Curdy is known for co-editing the Longman Anthology of Poetry, a textbook that competes with the Norton Anthology of Poetry, and for publications in literary magazines such as “Slate” and “The Paris Review.” She taught at Northwestern two years ago and has returned to teach for up to five years, she said.

As focused as Curdy is on poetry today, writing wasn’t the only career she explored. Her poetry career didn’t start with a grand realization, but through a series of small steps, she said.

Curdy wrote when she was young but abandoned poetry in college because she “didn’t know how one became a poet.” She worked as a producer for the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and managed projects for a software company.

When Curdy was 25, her mother died. Five years later, this would “come back to haunt” her.

“(My mother) experienced regret in things she hadn’t done and I wasn’t able to help her,” Curdy said. “I didn’t want that same regret.”

Curdy earned a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from the University of Houston and a doctorate from the University of Missouri. Curdy said because she started her poetry career after working, she brings a knowledge of the struggle of writing and of the world outside academia to her teaching.

“No matter what your age is, you’re struggling with perseverance, to find your words like the other poets,” Curdy said.

Curdy helps students apply their perceptions of the world to writing rather than focusing on a book-based academic schedule, said Libby vanBuskirk, one of Curdy’s independent study students who is writing a novella.

“She’s much more grounded in looking at life, not looking at books,” the Weinberg senior said.

For Curdy, poetry itself is part of life.

“Poetry is the thing that keeps me awake,” she said.

Reach Margaret Matray at [email protected].