WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.240 align:middle line:84% Does anybody want to come sit up here? 00:00:03.240 --> 00:00:06.390 align:middle line:90% I've been [INAUDIBLE]. 00:00:06.390 --> 00:00:10.010 align:middle line:84% There's a lot of floor space if you do so. 00:00:10.010 --> 00:00:12.910 align:middle line:90% They didn't want to. 00:00:12.910 --> 00:00:14.110 align:middle line:90% There's some coming. 00:00:14.110 --> 00:00:17.050 align:middle line:84% I'm waiting for the buzzer to go off so I can [INAUDIBLE].. 00:00:17.050 --> 00:00:21.010 align:middle line:84% Thank you, Aurelie for that beautiful introduction. 00:00:21.010 --> 00:00:24.190 align:middle line:84% And thank you to the Prose Series-- is this good-- 00:00:24.190 --> 00:00:27.350 align:middle line:84% at the University of Arizona, the MFA program, 00:00:27.350 --> 00:00:31.120 align:middle line:84% and the Poetry Center for inviting all of us here today 00:00:31.120 --> 00:00:33.370 align:middle line:90% to celebrate fairy tales. 00:00:33.370 --> 00:00:35.860 align:middle line:84% And for all of you for coming out tonight. 00:00:35.860 --> 00:00:39.412 align:middle line:84% What a brimming and wonderful room. 00:00:39.412 --> 00:00:41.620 align:middle line:84% Aurelie didn't mention, but she's written a lovely fairy 00:00:41.620 --> 00:00:45.990 align:middle line:84% tale or two herself for Fairy Tale Review in one place. 00:00:45.990 --> 00:00:47.740 align:middle line:84% And then we have other contributors here-- 00:00:47.740 --> 00:00:49.420 align:middle line:90% Stacey Richter is back there-- 00:00:49.420 --> 00:00:51.440 align:middle line:90% is also in this collection. 00:00:51.440 --> 00:00:53.020 align:middle line:84% So there are fairy tales everywhere. 00:00:53.020 --> 00:00:55.330 align:middle line:84% And this is just a tiny sliver of the giant candy 00:00:55.330 --> 00:00:56.710 align:middle line:90% house of fairy tales tonight. 00:00:56.710 --> 00:00:59.800 align:middle line:84% But it's great to be here to celebrate My Mother She Killed 00:00:59.800 --> 00:01:02.080 align:middle line:84% Me, My Father He Ate Me with you. 00:01:02.080 --> 00:01:03.850 align:middle line:84% That sounds like a weird sentence 00:01:03.850 --> 00:01:07.160 align:middle line:90% actually as I say it like that. 00:01:07.160 --> 00:01:10.430 align:middle line:84% Actually, the other newsworthy item that recently happened, 00:01:10.430 --> 00:01:12.680 align:middle line:84% in addition to the National Book Foundation petition-- 00:01:12.680 --> 00:01:17.020 align:middle line:84% which is ongoing and I do urge you to sign on to it either 00:01:17.020 --> 00:01:19.390 align:middle line:84% by Facebook or by email somehow-- 00:01:19.390 --> 00:01:21.670 align:middle line:84% the other recent newsworthy item is 00:01:21.670 --> 00:01:27.010 align:middle line:84% that I was very publicly accused of promoting cannibalism 00:01:27.010 --> 00:01:28.150 align:middle line:90% with this collection. 00:01:28.150 --> 00:01:30.190 align:middle line:84% There was a very upset reviewer on Amazon 00:01:30.190 --> 00:01:34.870 align:middle line:84% who generated some 17 or 23 comments about the book saying 00:01:34.870 --> 00:01:38.200 align:middle line:84% that I was a terrible person not only urging children 00:01:38.200 --> 00:01:41.890 align:middle line:84% to eat people but parents to terrorize their children 00:01:41.890 --> 00:01:42.760 align:middle line:90% with fairy tales. 00:01:42.760 --> 00:01:44.140 align:middle line:90% And it went on and on. 00:01:44.140 --> 00:01:45.400 align:middle line:90% It became quite controversial. 00:01:45.400 --> 00:01:47.358 align:middle line:84% But I actually thought that was one of the best 00:01:47.358 --> 00:01:49.090 align:middle line:90% reviews I'd ever gotten. 00:01:49.090 --> 00:01:50.403 align:middle line:90% So it was great. 00:01:50.403 --> 00:01:52.570 align:middle line:84% And scholars have discussed the power of fairy tales 00:01:52.570 --> 00:01:53.920 align:middle line:90% for many years. 00:01:53.920 --> 00:01:57.760 align:middle line:84% Recently, Polish radio called for donations of fairy tale 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:00.520 align:middle line:84% books to be sent to a boy in the hospital who'd 00:02:00.520 --> 00:02:03.340 align:middle line:84% eaten a poisonous mushroom because they believed it would 00:02:03.340 --> 00:02:06.490 align:middle line:84% help give him the courage to live if, in his coma, 00:02:06.490 --> 00:02:09.100 align:middle line:90% he heard fairy tales. 00:02:09.100 --> 00:02:11.330 align:middle line:84% Poor little Tomas he didn't fare so well. 00:02:11.330 --> 00:02:13.690 align:middle line:84% But the story of Polish radio I think 00:02:13.690 --> 00:02:16.360 align:middle line:90% is a wonderful fairy tale. 00:02:16.360 --> 00:02:20.530 align:middle line:84% Traditional fairy tales have such incredible-- 00:02:20.530 --> 00:02:22.870 align:middle line:84% I didn't want to look and see what had happened to him. 00:02:22.870 --> 00:02:24.868 align:middle line:90% But I did. 00:02:24.868 --> 00:02:26.410 align:middle line:84% I think that traditional fairy tales, 00:02:26.410 --> 00:02:28.510 align:middle line:84% with their flat language, everyday magic, 00:02:28.510 --> 00:02:30.610 align:middle line:84% and just-so arrangements, do have the power 00:02:30.610 --> 00:02:32.650 align:middle line:84% to console at the same time as they're 00:02:32.650 --> 00:02:35.980 align:middle line:84% full of all the bewilderment and darkness that marks each of us 00:02:35.980 --> 00:02:37.540 align:middle line:90% at some point in our lives. 00:02:37.540 --> 00:02:40.450 align:middle line:84% Fairy tales have been long misunderstood however, 00:02:40.450 --> 00:02:42.130 align:middle line:84% in part because of their association 00:02:42.130 --> 00:02:45.280 align:middle line:84% with the nursery and, let's face it, women and children. 00:02:45.280 --> 00:02:47.950 align:middle line:84% And, in part, I think too, because of their refusal 00:02:47.950 --> 00:02:51.280 align:middle line:84% to sugarcoat some of life's darkest realities-- child 00:02:51.280 --> 00:02:54.700 align:middle line:84% and spousal abuse, child abandonment, sexual violence, 00:02:54.700 --> 00:02:57.035 align:middle line:90% famine, incest, and rape. 00:02:57.035 --> 00:02:59.410 align:middle line:84% I hoped in gathering the diverse works in this collection 00:02:59.410 --> 00:03:02.590 align:middle line:84% to celebrate this artful form of storytelling, which 00:03:02.590 --> 00:03:04.360 align:middle line:84% contains the very bones and breath, 00:03:04.360 --> 00:03:06.400 align:middle line:90% I think, of story itself-- 00:03:06.400 --> 00:03:10.750 align:middle line:84% adaptive to any stylistic device and any expression. 00:03:10.750 --> 00:03:13.330 align:middle line:84% You know a fairy tale even if there are no words in it-- 00:03:13.330 --> 00:03:16.120 align:middle line:84% if it's just like a pantomime practically. 00:03:16.120 --> 00:03:19.360 align:middle line:84% It's no coincidence that when hiding in the secret annex 00:03:19.360 --> 00:03:22.900 align:middle line:84% during the war, Anne Frank wrote fairy tale after fairy tale, 00:03:22.900 --> 00:03:24.970 align:middle line:84% with their themes of survival, bravery, 00:03:24.970 --> 00:03:27.580 align:middle line:84% and courage against all the odds, mixed 00:03:27.580 --> 00:03:30.190 align:middle line:84% with the wonder in animals we truly do need to live, 00:03:30.190 --> 00:03:33.340 align:middle line:84% fairy tales have the power to save even if in the end, 00:03:33.340 --> 00:03:37.390 align:middle line:84% unlike in a story, we can't live happily forever after. 00:03:37.390 --> 00:03:39.670 align:middle line:84% When Charles Dickens said, "Little Red Riding Hood 00:03:39.670 --> 00:03:41.200 align:middle line:90% was my first love. 00:03:41.200 --> 00:03:43.330 align:middle line:84% If I could have married Little Red Riding Hood, 00:03:43.330 --> 00:03:45.760 align:middle line:84% I should have known perfect bliss." 00:03:45.760 --> 00:03:49.780 align:middle line:84% I think despite the wrongness of that sentence in just about 00:03:49.780 --> 00:03:52.340 align:middle line:84% every way, I think he was getting at something-- 00:03:52.340 --> 00:03:54.340 align:middle line:84% I think he was getting at something very lovely. 00:03:54.340 --> 00:03:57.280 align:middle line:84% And I think that what he meant was that reading a fairy tale-- 00:03:57.280 --> 00:03:58.630 align:middle line:90% I think he meant it as a reader. 00:03:58.630 --> 00:04:01.600 align:middle line:84% Reading a fairy tale as sublime, and he would do it 00:04:01.600 --> 00:04:02.830 align:middle line:90% till the end of his days. 00:04:02.830 --> 00:04:04.420 align:middle line:90% Yeah, that's a bad one. 00:04:04.420 --> 00:04:06.370 align:middle line:90% But everyone loves that quote. 00:04:06.370 --> 00:04:08.410 align:middle line:84% And, actually, I finally decided it was just 00:04:08.410 --> 00:04:10.570 align:middle line:84% about reading when he encountered Little Red Riding 00:04:10.570 --> 00:04:14.230 align:middle line:84% Hood, he just fell in love with the story-- 00:04:14.230 --> 00:04:15.280 align:middle line:90% I hope. 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:18.399 align:middle line:84% And I hope this event and this collection will inspire you 00:04:18.399 --> 00:04:20.890 align:middle line:84% to turn back to the old fairy tales that maybe you heard 00:04:20.890 --> 00:04:24.790 align:middle line:84% as a child or maybe you weren't so lucky to hear or just scraps 00:04:24.790 --> 00:04:28.360 align:middle line:84% of story you somewhat remember or picture book that you loved 00:04:28.360 --> 00:04:30.400 align:middle line:84% for just some ridiculous reason-- 00:04:30.400 --> 00:04:32.260 align:middle line:84% because of a white horse on its pages-- 00:04:32.260 --> 00:04:34.780 align:middle line:84% that it encourages you to turn back to not only 00:04:34.780 --> 00:04:36.280 align:middle line:84% those childhood books, but also just 00:04:36.280 --> 00:04:39.130 align:middle line:84% the old translations-- tattered and moldy 00:04:39.130 --> 00:04:42.640 align:middle line:84% and bookstores-- to rescue them and reread these stories, 00:04:42.640 --> 00:04:46.450 align:middle line:84% which are just an incredible fantastic tradition. 00:04:46.450 --> 00:04:48.550 align:middle line:84% I'm going to introduce our three readers 00:04:48.550 --> 00:04:52.150 align:middle line:84% today in the order in which they're going to read. 00:04:52.150 --> 00:04:54.910 align:middle line:84% And they're each going to read either from the collection 00:04:54.910 --> 00:04:57.100 align:middle line:84% or from a work inspired or related 00:04:57.100 --> 00:04:59.710 align:middle line:84% to the collection-- inspired by or related to the collection. 00:04:59.710 --> 00:05:01.210 align:middle line:84% And after I introduce them, I'm just 00:05:01.210 --> 00:05:02.793 align:middle line:84% going to go through the introductions, 00:05:02.793 --> 00:05:04.960 align:middle line:84% and I'm just going to read a tiny fairy tale myself. 00:05:04.960 --> 00:05:08.080 align:middle line:84% And we may have time for questions or not. 00:05:08.080 --> 00:05:09.100 align:middle line:90% We'll see how it goes-- 00:05:09.100 --> 00:05:12.940 align:middle line:84% see if the buzzer or the gong or the big thing. 00:05:12.940 --> 00:05:16.370 align:middle line:84% But it's such an honor to read with these three writers 00:05:16.370 --> 00:05:16.870 align:middle line:90% tonight. 00:05:16.870 --> 00:05:18.760 align:middle line:84% I can't tell you how much their work has 00:05:18.760 --> 00:05:22.960 align:middle line:84% meant to me over the years and will on into the future. 00:05:22.960 --> 00:05:25.810 align:middle line:84% And my introductions are somewhat impersonal, 00:05:25.810 --> 00:05:29.950 align:middle line:84% almost like little CVs, but I can just say right now, 00:05:29.950 --> 00:05:34.010 align:middle line:84% these are incredible people and they mean so much. 00:05:34.010 --> 00:05:35.770 align:middle line:84% So it's really special to be here tonight. 00:05:35.770 --> 00:05:39.220 align:middle line:84% Joy Williams is the author of many novels, story collections, 00:05:39.220 --> 00:05:40.300 align:middle line:90% and essays. 00:05:40.300 --> 00:05:42.490 align:middle line:84% Her first novel, State of Grace, was 00:05:42.490 --> 00:05:46.570 align:middle line:84% nominated for a National Book Award for fiction. 00:05:46.570 --> 00:05:48.520 align:middle line:84% Her most recent novel, The Quick and the Dead, 00:05:48.520 --> 00:05:51.820 align:middle line:84% was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction. 00:05:51.820 --> 00:05:54.310 align:middle line:84% And you might know her collection of stories 00:05:54.310 --> 00:05:59.410 align:middle line:84% Taking Care or Escapes and a 2001 essay collection 00:05:59.410 --> 00:06:01.750 align:middle line:84% highly recommended, "Ill Nature-- 00:06:01.750 --> 00:06:04.510 align:middle line:84% Rants and Reflections on Humanity and Other Animals" 00:06:04.510 --> 00:06:07.720 align:middle line:84% was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle 00:06:07.720 --> 00:06:09.160 align:middle line:90% Award for criticism. 00:06:09.160 --> 00:06:11.500 align:middle line:84% And "Honored Guests," her most recent collection 00:06:11.500 --> 00:06:14.860 align:middle line:84% of short stories, came out in 2004. 00:06:14.860 --> 00:06:17.920 align:middle line:84% And her wonderful fairy tale novel, The Changeling, 00:06:17.920 --> 00:06:21.590 align:middle line:90% was first published in-- 00:06:21.590 --> 00:06:23.070 align:middle line:90% when was it first published-- 00:06:23.070 --> 00:06:24.920 align:middle line:90% 1978. 00:06:24.920 --> 00:06:30.380 align:middle line:84% And recently reissued in 2008 in a special 30th anniversary 00:06:30.380 --> 00:06:33.800 align:middle line:84% edition with an introduction by Rick Moody. 00:06:33.800 --> 00:06:36.230 align:middle line:84% I can't say enough about Joy as a writer and person. 00:06:36.230 --> 00:06:40.190 align:middle line:84% She makes great margaritas, builds great bonfires, 00:06:40.190 --> 00:06:41.630 align:middle line:84% and her writing actually makes you 00:06:41.630 --> 00:06:44.297 align:middle line:84% feel like you're drunk and maybe in some kind of beautiful hell. 00:06:44.297 --> 00:06:47.990 align:middle line:84% So margaritas and bonfires make sense. 00:06:47.990 --> 00:06:51.290 align:middle line:84% Kathryn Davis, who's going to read next, lives in Vermont 00:06:51.290 --> 00:06:53.750 align:middle line:84% and is the senior fiction writer in the writing 00:06:53.750 --> 00:06:56.690 align:middle line:84% program in Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. 00:06:56.690 --> 00:06:57.380 align:middle line:90% Louis. 00:06:57.380 --> 00:06:59.720 align:middle line:84% She is a recipient of the Kafka prize, 00:06:59.720 --> 00:07:02.330 align:middle line:84% the Morton Darwin Zobel Award from the American Academy 00:07:02.330 --> 00:07:04.670 align:middle line:84% of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, 00:07:04.670 --> 00:07:06.860 align:middle line:84% and a Lannon Foundation Literary Award. 00:07:06.860 --> 00:07:08.540 align:middle line:90% She's the author of six novels-- 00:07:08.540 --> 00:07:11.990 align:middle line:84% Labrador, The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf, Hell-- 00:07:11.990 --> 00:07:12.890 align:middle line:90% a theme here-- 00:07:12.890 --> 00:07:16.280 align:middle line:84% The Walking Tour, Versailles, and The Thin Place. 00:07:16.280 --> 00:07:19.700 align:middle line:90% I've seen her sing to hippos. 00:07:19.700 --> 00:07:22.550 align:middle line:84% And she has a very particularly close relationship 00:07:22.550 --> 00:07:25.670 align:middle line:84% with one hippo in St. Louis named Maria. 00:07:25.670 --> 00:07:28.100 align:middle line:84% And so this reading tonight, I want 00:07:28.100 --> 00:07:30.332 align:middle line:90% to dedicate to the lovely Maria. 00:07:30.332 --> 00:07:31.790 align:middle line:84% She really does talk to the hippos. 00:07:31.790 --> 00:07:32.870 align:middle line:90% They come over to her. 00:07:32.870 --> 00:07:35.000 align:middle line:90% She's that supernatural. 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:36.200 align:middle line:90% It's pretty special. 00:07:36.200 --> 00:07:40.250 align:middle line:84% And Lydia Millet is the author of seven books, most recently 00:07:40.250 --> 00:07:42.680 align:middle line:84% a story collection called "Love In Infant Monkeys," 00:07:42.680 --> 00:07:45.740 align:middle line:84% which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and a novel, 00:07:45.740 --> 00:07:48.260 align:middle line:84% How the Dead Dream, that was named in LA Times 00:07:48.260 --> 00:07:50.420 align:middle line:90% best book of 2008. 00:07:50.420 --> 00:07:56.120 align:middle line:84% An earlier novel, My Happy Life, won the 2003 pen USA award 00:07:56.120 --> 00:07:57.560 align:middle line:90% for fiction. 00:07:57.560 --> 00:08:00.260 align:middle line:84% Lydia lives in the Arizona desert. 00:08:00.260 --> 00:08:01.670 align:middle line:84% This is from an old bio, I think, 00:08:01.670 --> 00:08:02.970 align:middle line:90% that I must have printed out. 00:08:02.970 --> 00:08:05.328 align:middle line:84% Lydia lives in the Arizona desert with her family 00:08:05.328 --> 00:08:07.370 align:middle line:84% and works as a writer and editor for a group that 00:08:07.370 --> 00:08:08.630 align:middle line:90% protects wildlife. 00:08:08.630 --> 00:08:12.740 align:middle line:84% Her writing is always expansive, apocalyptic, hilarious, 00:08:12.740 --> 00:08:15.200 align:middle line:90% poignant, and new-- 00:08:15.200 --> 00:08:18.170 align:middle line:84% not always hilarious when a character is an homage to you 00:08:18.170 --> 00:08:20.060 align:middle line:90% in a rather unflattering light. 00:08:20.060 --> 00:08:22.930 align:middle line:90% But it's wonderful.