Fanny Howe read for the Poetry Center
for the first time in the spring of 2003.
It was my first year as director of the Poetry Center,
and my first exposure to Howe's work.
She had recently won the Lenore Marshall prize
from the Academy of American Poets for her Selected Poems,
and her next book of poetry entitled Gone
had just come out.
I read these books and others prior to her visit
and I don't mind telling you, I was astonished.
Her work demanded a quality of attention
that was distinct from other work I'd read.
Her poems are taut with inventive sound lines.
She invites you to glimpse the words behind the words,
navigating the suffering and wonder of the here and now,
and landing always on uncertain ground.
For as she says in her essay, Bewilderment,
"The human heart doesn't want answers to questions
so much as to lengthen the resonance of those questions."
Fanny Howe's devoted readers, and there are many of them,
can't seem to help but give themselves
over to this journey, and willingly, gratefully, reside
in her resounding inquiry.
Poet Anne Lauterbach writing in The Nation
at the time of the Lenore Marshall award
describes the force of Howe's poetry this way.
This is one of the most succinct and accurate descriptions
I've ever read of Fanny's work.
Quote, "A spare tonality moves against the density
and complexity of her vision, where a classic lyric voice
is annealed to a spiritual quest,
buffeted and embattled by resisting
political and social realities.
This tension is what gives the poems their power."
Since 2003, Fanny Howe has gone on to produce three more
books of poetry, most recently Come and See,
three works of fiction and a book of essays, The Winter Sun,
Notes on a Vocation.
Johanna Skibsrud reviews this book
on the Poetry Center's website, figuratively
unfolding the work, all of the essays and their many parts.
With over 30 books to her credit and numerous awards,
including the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize,
Fanny Howe has made a necessary and lasting mark
on the trajectory of contemporary poetry,
and we are fortunate to have her with us tonight.
Please welcome Fanny Howe.
[APPLAUSE]