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I'm Mark Wunderlich, the acting
director of the University

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of Arizona, Poetry Center.

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And I want to thank you all
for coming here this evening.

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First, I have a
few announcements.

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The next reading in our series
will be the Poetry Center

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contest awards reading,
featuring winners

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of the Academy of American
Poets Prizes and the University

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Activities Board awards.

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That reading will take place on
Wednesday, April 3, at 8:00 PM

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here in Modern Languages.

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Also, the final event in the
Primavera Women in the Arts

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celebration will be an open
studio at the Kore Press, which

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will feature demonstrations of
letterpress printing and works

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in progress, which include a
new edition of Gertrude Stein's

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Tender Buttons and broadsides
by local authors such as Nancy

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Mendoza and Barb Cully.

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That event will be this coming
Saturday, March 30, from 1:00

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to 5:00 PM.

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And you can speak to
Karen Falkenstrom,

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who is here in the second
row for more information.

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Copies of Pat Mora's books are
for sale in the lobby, courtesy

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of ASUA Bookstore, and they are
available at a discount of 10%.

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And I'm sure Pat would
be happy to sign books

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after the reading.

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Tonight's reading is
co-sponsored by the Arizona

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State University, Prescott
and Yavapai colleges,

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and the Academy of
American Poets, who

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provide a generous funding
to make this event possible.

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For more information about the
Academy's national and regional

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programs, I would direct you
to information in the lobby.

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Pat Mora is the author of
four collections of poetry,

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the most recent of which is Agua
Santa, Holy Water, which was

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issued by Beacon Press in 1995.

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Her other collections include
Communion, Borders, and Chants,

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all published by
Arte Publico Press.

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Mora is the author
of Nepantla, Essays

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from the Land in the Middle, and
a forthcoming memoir entitled

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Voces del Jardin,
Voices from the Garden,

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and a number of award-winning
children's books.

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She is the recipient of
a 1994 Creative Writing

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Fellowship from the National
Endowment for the Arts, three

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Southwest Book Awards,
and a Kellogg National

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Fellowship for the study of
cultural conservation issues

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nationally and internationally.

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She is originally from El
Paso and currently lives

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in Cincinnati.

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In her fourth book,
Agua Santa, Holy Water,

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Pat Mora speaks to her readers
in poetic voices transformed

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by the poet's intense lyricism
and poetic exactitude, which

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has merged with
the storyteller's

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love of the mythic.

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Mora is a chronicler of
the tension and passion,

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both physical and
spiritual, that

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exists throughout the
Southwest borderlands,

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and her imaginative world is
full of celestial advisors.

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Whether she is channeling
the voice of an Aztec goddess

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or that of the
Virgin of Guadalupe,

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Mora's poetics braids the
practical and the otherworldly

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to create poems of enduring
wit, acute perception,

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and tender-heartedness.

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In one poem, we are
given a tip, quote,

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"Remember, monolinguals
know about linguistics,

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the way atheists
know about theology."

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And bilingualism is at the
heart of Mora's poetic vision.

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Unfolding in two
languages, Mora's poems,

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as part of the dynamic body
of literature documenting

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the Latina experience
in the United States,

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acknowledges poetic traditions
and helps to renew them.

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It is my great pleasure
to introduce Pat Mora.

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[APPLAUSE]

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