WEBVTT

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Thank you, and thank you
everyone for coming tonight.

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And bear with me because this
is only the second introduction

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I've ever done for a writer.

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And the first one, for some
of you who know, it was Ander.

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But I'm also doing it for
a personal hero, which is

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a little strange and humbling.

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But I hope you'll bear with me.

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I hope that tonight's
guest, Joan Silber,

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doesn't mind if I bring
up the 2004 National Book

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awards in the context of
the controversy it inspired.

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For those of you who
don't know, the 2004 slate

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was the first, and
so far the only time

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that all five
finalists were women.

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Saying bad things about
prize-winning books

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is nothing new, of course,
but that year, the venom

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was particularly potent, and
it came from all corners, book

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critics and writers both.

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I was living in New
York at the time,

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and I spent a lot of
Saturday mornings browsing

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through bookstores looking
for new things to read.

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What struck me about
the vitriol was

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that it came from people who
had clearly not read the books,

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or if they had, read
them in such a rush

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that their judgment was suspect.

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That all five
finalists were women

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did not escape my attention.

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This was the year that I
began to respect book prizes,

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actually.

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If only for the clear message
I was getting about who

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is read with respect
and open-mindedness.

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The controversy made me
a better reader insofar

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as it pointed out
how essential it

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was to be fair before
casting judgment.

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In order to not be
like those critics,

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I had to read those books.

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And this is how I was lucky
enough to encounter Joan Silber

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and how many more readers
came to understand

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the prize nomination was
a confirmation that she

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was indeed an American master.

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In my undergraduate
workshops, I urge

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students to be very
cautious in saying

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that a work doesn't
agree with them

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because they can't relate to it.

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Our experiences are so
individual that to look

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for mirrors of our
true selves in fiction

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is a foolhardy thing to do.

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Or as I put it to my
students, please tell me

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if you know a book about a
39-year-old gay man in Tucson

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because I need
something to relate to.

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And yet in ideas of heaven, I
ran across the story, The High

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Road, about a middle-aged
gay dance instructor

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in New York whose
bitterness about life

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is broken by his infatuation
with a young singer.

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I'll say nothing here
about identifying

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with middle-aged gay
dance instructors,

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and saying more about how
someone like Joan Silber

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knows so much about them.

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Or how she knows so much about
a strong willed and intelligent

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Italian woman in
15th century Italy,

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or a doubtful missionary
in early 1900s China.

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In each of these characters
and in many others,

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so it brings to the fore not
identities but complexities.

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The excavation of
desires, longings,

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wants, urges, ambitions, ideas,
directions, and misdirection.

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In short, all the
frustrations of being alive.

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This is the key to
her work, I think.

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Her willingness to approach
her characters with questions

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and an open-mindedness
about the potential answers,

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not what you are--

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gay, man, heart broken poet, or
rebellious teenage daughter--

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but who you are--

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Duncan, Gaspara Stampa, Suzanne.

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Anyone who has read
Silber knows already

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that she's handy
with an adjective,

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often pairing or tripling them
in ways that instantly give us

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a picture of the person we're
about to meet the preparation

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for the story about to unfold.

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We see them not
only as the world

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sees them, but also how they
see themselves, sometimes

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with an acute and
piercing honesty.

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That's a generous writer.

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A writer who is willing
to see and hear and render

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the world in a way that may
not even be close to her own,

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but in doing so, issues
the open invitation

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to experience what we wish
of the very best in fiction.

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We live in an era in which
history will not leave us

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alone, says Joan Silber
on the back cover

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flap of The Size of the World.

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And that too should
give us an indication

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of the care by which she places
her characters in both time

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and place.

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Her character seemed
to nearly always arrive

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at a point and
understanding that they

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are small specks in the
overwhelming march of time,

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and yet the dignity of
their small dramas always,

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always remains intact.

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But back to that
American master label,

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you tell me, her first
book, Household Words

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won the PEN/Hemingway
Foundation Award.

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And Ideas of Heaven
was a finalist

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for the National Book Award and
the prestigious story prize.

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And I have cracked open
this book so many times,

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the binding is gone.

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I can't open it anymore.

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Her latest book, The
Size of the World

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was a finalist for the Los
Angeles Times Book Prize.

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And her contribution to
the Graywolf Craft series,

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The Art Of Time
in Fiction, which

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is an amazing little book.

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It's becoming a favorite tool
to both professional writers

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and everyday readers alike.

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She has received a Guggenheim
Grants from the National

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Endowment for the
Arts in the New York

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Foundation for the
Arts and Academy Award

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in literature from the American
Academy of Arts and Letters.

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And she's twice
received recognition

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from the PEN/O. Henry Awards.

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How grateful we
are then to welcome

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to our stage, Joan Silber.

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