Belying the idea that people who have made fortunes in the high-tech industry are only interested in business or science, Logical Information Machines president and CEO Ravi Desai has pledged a $2 million gift to the University of Washington's Creative Writing Program, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports.

The donation is meant to support the study of poetry at the school, Desai told the Post-Intelligencer. The gift -- which effectively doubles the Creative Writing Program's endowment -- will fund a poet-in-residence program, as well as provide fellowships for graduate students, the newspaper reports.

Desai's gift is no surprise to people familiar with his previous philanthropy, the paper reports. He has given smaller gifts to other poetry programs and is the founder of The Desai Foundation, which focuses on poetry.

Desai, 30, graduated from Harvard with degrees in English literature and physics and attended a master's program there in creative writing. However, he realized that his talents might be better suited for the business world.

"I'm a failed, defunct, horrible poet," Desai told the newspaper.

His gift went to the University of Washington because he wanted to give to a public institution, the newspaper reports. Desai was impressed by the high quality of the Creative Writing Program's professors and contacted the university president by e-mail to arrange a donation.

"I went to Harvard and Harvard has plenty of money," he told the Post-Intelligencer.

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