Matthew Porubsky, of Topeka, has received the 2006 Nelson Poetry Book Award from Kansas Authors Club for “voyeur poems,” his first book of poetry.

Jonathan Holden, poet laureate of Kansas, announced the award at the Kansas Authors Club awards banquet on Sept. 30 in Junction City. Holden called the winner “an astonishing book of serious philosophical weight, having to do with the difference between the imagination and ‘reality’, and a courageous book.”

The Nelson Award honors the best poetry book written by a Kansas resident published within the two years prior to June 1.

Porubsky graduated from Kansas University in 2002 with a degree in creative writing and received the Harry and Jessie Jacobs Prize in Poetry. He has had numerous poems published in The Coal City Review, freefall, The Same, I-70 Review and the Lawrence Journal-World.

Porubsky will be a featured reader at the Coal City/I-70 Review reading at from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday at the Lawrence Visitor Information Center, 402 N. Second St. Also reading will be Gary Lechliter, Brian Daldorph, Kevin Rabas, Phil Miller, Jason Wesco, Leah Sewell, Sarah Ruhlen and more.