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W.S. Merwin reads from his early collections The Moving Target (1963) and The Lice (1967), as well as from The Carrier of Ladders (1970), which had not yet been completed at the time of this reading. Used with permission of the Wylie Agency LLC.

Billy Collins reads for the inaugural Tucson Festival of Books, including new poems that would be published two years later in Horoscopes for the Dead.

In this performance, Robert Creeley reads from and discusses his chapbook Yesterdays, published shortly before the reading by Chax Press. He also reads poems that would be published in his posthumous collection On Earth. Creeley closes with the poem "Generous Life," from If I Were Writing This.

Sandra Cisneros reads short stories from The House on Mango Street (1984) and Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991) and poetry from My Wicked Wicked Ways (1987).

Harriet Doerr discusses old age, living in Mexico, and the need to combine experience, imagination, and observation when writing. She reads the first chapter of a story published in 1986 called "Picnic at Amapolas," and she also reads a short excerpt from a chapter called "Immense Distances, Extraordinary Events" in her novel Stones for Ibarra (1984), which covers a woman's experience sorting through her deceased husband's belongings.

Jean Rukkila, a graduate student in Creative Writing at the time, reads her story "Andi and Ann." Ron Hansen reads four sections from his novel The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (1983).

Greg Sarris reads a story titled "Waiting for the Green Frog" from his collection Grand Avenue: A Novel in Stories (1994).