Can you hear me?
I have one announcement before the introduction.
The next poetry reading, under the auspices of the Ruth
Stephan Poetry Center, will be performed
by Mr Peter Wild, December 10, 8:30, in this auditorium.
We have among us tonight one of our own to read to us.
Bill Roecker has been one of us for three years.
I don't mean that he has been all of our friends,
but he's lived here, he's grown here, he's written here.
Some of you out there have been his students, and some of you
have been his friends.
I think it's one thing to be able to praise
great people that have been passed down to us through time,
it's another thing to recognize greatness
when it sits among us.
I know it's been an exciting thing for me
to be around Bill Roecker.
I was able to room with him and be an office mate with him
for one year, and watch him begin to write poetry.
And it was an exciting thing to watch other people recognize
his creative abilities.
Some of the people who have recognized his ability
are The Nation, McCall's magazine, The Northwest Review,
Prairie Schooner, Trace, and many others.
I could go on for another two or three minutes.
This is a particularly noteworthy evening,
because today his first chatbook Willamette,
was introduced by the Baleen Press in Phoenix.
And if I may put in a commercial note,
it's available in the bookstores.
His fiction has also appeared in many literary quarterlies,
and he has one national story in Intro Number One, published
by Bantam.
He has also been the editor of a short story anthology,
Stories That Count.
And if I think of one phrase that
represents his poetry, if I may use the phrase,
it's poetry that counts.
For our pleasure and our enlightenment,
Mr William Roecker.
Thank you.