coyote

In this reading, Silko engages in "what I really love to do"--storytelling in the Laguna tradition. Most of the stories and poems told here would be collected in the 1981 volume Storyteller.

Simon J. Ortiz reads from the manuscripts of Going for the Rain (1976) and A Good Journey (1977). Many of the poems, as read here, contain more words and phrases in the Acoma language than the published versions.

In his first reading at the Poetry Center since 1969, Gary Snyder reads broadly from his work, including poems from his most recent collection, Danger on Peaks. He ends by reading uncollected newer poems. Snyder also speaks of his time in Japan, his studies of Zen Buddhism, and his friendship with Poetry Center founder Ruth Stephan.

John Gardner reads from two of his stories, "Coyote and the Dead Man" and "Come on Back."

Simon J. Ortiz reads poems following the theme that poetry is the voice that we all speak.

Diane Glancy reads a range of works on the theme of story, including a number of poems that would subsequently appear in The West Pole (1997) and (Ado)ration (1999). She also reads excerpts from Pushing the Bear: A Novel of the Trail of Tears (1996) and closes the reading with a brief extract from Firesticks (1993). 

Nanao Sakaki performs poems and songs in the courtyard of the Poetry Center on Cherry Avenue. Asking the audience, "Any questions? I'll answer by my poems," Sakaki addresses themes raised by audience members such as anger, feeling at home, time, walking, and love for the desert and all forms of life.