WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.310 align:middle line:90% 00:00:03.310 --> 00:00:07.910 align:middle line:84% So now we're moving into the question and answer period. 00:00:07.910 --> 00:00:10.720 align:middle line:84% So they've asked us to do a Q and A. 00:00:10.720 --> 00:00:11.950 align:middle line:90% How much time do we have? 00:00:11.950 --> 00:00:15.550 align:middle line:90% 00:00:15.550 --> 00:00:16.310 align:middle line:90% 10 minutes. 00:00:16.310 --> 00:00:16.810 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:00:16.810 --> 00:00:19.750 align:middle line:84% So questions for any of the writers? 00:00:19.750 --> 00:00:23.350 align:middle line:90% Anybody that you heard tonight? 00:00:23.350 --> 00:00:26.117 align:middle line:84% you can raise a hand and pass a mic. 00:00:26.117 --> 00:00:26.950 align:middle line:90% I have a microphone. 00:00:26.950 --> 00:00:27.940 align:middle line:90% OK great. 00:00:27.940 --> 00:00:28.755 align:middle line:90% It's a little loud. 00:00:28.755 --> 00:00:29.180 align:middle line:90% I can just turn it down. 00:00:29.180 --> 00:00:30.513 align:middle line:90% Shall we take this one off, too? 00:00:30.513 --> 00:00:32.470 align:middle line:84% And just pass them to the writer and the-- 00:00:32.470 --> 00:00:33.220 align:middle line:90% we could do that? 00:00:33.220 --> 00:00:35.120 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:00:35.120 --> 00:00:36.140 align:middle line:90% Just yank it. 00:00:36.140 --> 00:00:39.520 align:middle line:90% 00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:40.180 align:middle line:90% Questions? 00:00:40.180 --> 00:00:41.223 align:middle line:90% Anybody. 00:00:41.223 --> 00:00:45.610 align:middle line:90% 00:00:45.610 --> 00:00:46.110 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:00:46.110 --> 00:00:50.910 align:middle line:90% 00:00:50.910 --> 00:00:53.700 align:middle line:84% I was wondering if you and Sherwin could talk a little bit 00:00:53.700 --> 00:00:57.390 align:middle line:84% more about the festival you mentioned in Colombia? 00:00:57.390 --> 00:01:00.300 align:middle line:84% That was the inspiration for this. 00:01:00.300 --> 00:01:04.319 align:middle line:90% That sort of can you talk-- 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:07.020 align:middle line:84% elaborate a little bit more on that? 00:01:07.020 --> 00:01:11.790 align:middle line:84% Well, he invited me to go, so I'll let him talk first. 00:01:11.790 --> 00:01:13.770 align:middle line:84% It's like 2005, I gave a reading with-- 00:01:13.770 --> 00:01:16.170 align:middle line:84% here on the University, and I'm not sure 00:01:16.170 --> 00:01:18.990 align:middle line:84% if it was the University of Arizona, 00:01:18.990 --> 00:01:20.640 align:middle line:84% or if it was a Poetry Center thing. 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:24.630 align:middle line:84% But I was still a student, and I had just published Shapeshift. 00:01:24.630 --> 00:01:26.770 align:middle line:84% And I read some poems and there were 00:01:26.770 --> 00:01:33.540 align:middle line:84% some international professors of literature from-- 00:01:33.540 --> 00:01:34.890 align:middle line:90% I get they were Italian? 00:01:34.890 --> 00:01:39.900 align:middle line:84% And after I gave a reading, I read with N. Scott Momaday, 00:01:39.900 --> 00:01:44.010 align:middle line:84% and I think, Luci Tapahonso, and Ofelia Zepeda. 00:01:44.010 --> 00:01:46.140 align:middle line:84% and after, one of them came up to me, 00:01:46.140 --> 00:01:49.500 align:middle line:84% she says there's this festival in South America, 00:01:49.500 --> 00:01:50.820 align:middle line:90% I'm going to pass your name on. 00:01:50.820 --> 00:01:56.070 align:middle line:84% And then so, maybe about two years later, I got this invite. 00:01:56.070 --> 00:01:58.913 align:middle line:84% So then they asked me to come and it's 00:01:58.913 --> 00:02:00.330 align:middle line:84% the international poetry festival. 00:02:00.330 --> 00:02:03.580 align:middle line:84% So it's the largest poetry festival in the Americas, 00:02:03.580 --> 00:02:05.130 align:middle line:90% in the Western hemisphere. 00:02:05.130 --> 00:02:07.170 align:middle line:84% And you go there and actually there's 00:02:07.170 --> 00:02:11.760 align:middle line:84% about 4,000 people in the audience, cheering, wave-- 00:02:11.760 --> 00:02:16.050 align:middle line:90% I mean, like you're a rock star. 00:02:16.050 --> 00:02:19.410 align:middle line:84% They have big old banners, and they have big old signs 00:02:19.410 --> 00:02:21.670 align:middle line:90% it has big old hearts on it. 00:02:21.670 --> 00:02:24.330 align:middle line:90% We love you poets. 00:02:24.330 --> 00:02:25.980 align:middle line:84% And then if they really love you, 00:02:25.980 --> 00:02:27.840 align:middle line:84% they give you a bouquet of flowers. 00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:29.400 align:middle line:90% And you just feel loved. 00:02:29.400 --> 00:02:31.440 align:middle line:84% And you're there with international poets 00:02:31.440 --> 00:02:33.665 align:middle line:84% from all over the world, and I'll 00:02:33.665 --> 00:02:35.040 align:middle line:84% let her explain a little bit more 00:02:35.040 --> 00:02:36.510 align:middle line:84% with the intent of that festival, 00:02:36.510 --> 00:02:39.750 align:middle line:84% but it brought us together with some indigenous poets 00:02:39.750 --> 00:02:41.580 align:middle line:84% from South America, who we probably 00:02:41.580 --> 00:02:43.600 align:middle line:90% wouldn't have met otherwise. 00:02:43.600 --> 00:02:45.030 align:middle line:84% And then that's where we met Hugo. 00:02:45.030 --> 00:02:48.250 align:middle line:84% And then the first year we met Artie-- 00:02:48.250 --> 00:02:51.480 align:middle line:84% Ariruma Kowii, who was a Quechua poet. 00:02:51.480 --> 00:02:53.280 align:middle line:84% And then the following-- several years 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:55.650 align:middle line:84% later we ran into Hugo again, and then we 00:02:55.650 --> 00:02:58.230 align:middle line:90% met Fredy Chicangana. 00:02:58.230 --> 00:02:59.130 align:middle line:90% Good. 00:02:59.130 --> 00:03:01.120 align:middle line:90% You can stay up if you want to. 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:01.650 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:03:01.650 --> 00:03:08.910 align:middle line:84% So we got down there and Ariruma and Hugo Jamioy, 00:03:08.910 --> 00:03:13.090 align:middle line:84% approached us and said that they had been waiting for us. 00:03:13.090 --> 00:03:16.600 align:middle line:84% And we got very close, very quickly. 00:03:16.600 --> 00:03:17.100 align:middle line:90% And-- 00:03:17.100 --> 00:03:17.910 align:middle line:90% 10 days. 00:03:17.910 --> 00:03:18.600 align:middle line:90% 10 minutes, OK. 00:03:18.600 --> 00:03:20.580 align:middle line:90% We'll make it really quick. 00:03:20.580 --> 00:03:23.190 align:middle line:84% We were there for ten days, but I think we were close 00:03:23.190 --> 00:03:26.610 align:middle line:84% after the first day and a half, I. Think we were pretty close, 00:03:26.610 --> 00:03:32.220 align:middle line:84% and at one point in time, we went out in the country 00:03:32.220 --> 00:03:36.900 align:middle line:84% together, some things happened that were very personal, 00:03:36.900 --> 00:03:41.460 align:middle line:84% to us and to them, and we were told, or I was told by Hugo, 00:03:41.460 --> 00:03:44.580 align:middle line:84% that they were told that I would be the one to unite 00:03:44.580 --> 00:03:46.500 align:middle line:90% the poets in the Americas. 00:03:46.500 --> 00:03:50.550 align:middle line:84% And I was like, OK, and I got to think about this. 00:03:50.550 --> 00:03:53.010 align:middle line:84% And the next morning I got that email from Oregon State 00:03:53.010 --> 00:03:56.670 align:middle line:84% asking me to collect for the international edition To Topos 00:03:56.670 --> 00:03:58.170 align:middle line:84% and that's when I said, OK, well, 00:03:58.170 --> 00:03:59.590 align:middle line:84% we want to do Western hemisphere. 00:03:59.590 --> 00:04:01.213 align:middle line:84% So that was the first effort there. 00:04:01.213 --> 00:04:02.880 align:middle line:84% And I thought, OK, that's what that was. 00:04:02.880 --> 00:04:04.530 align:middle line:84% All right, so we'll get started there, 00:04:04.530 --> 00:04:08.010 align:middle line:84% and we've been working on it ever since. 00:04:08.010 --> 00:04:12.540 align:middle line:84% I brought up Hugo, I facilitate and nominate a panel 00:04:12.540 --> 00:04:15.090 align:middle line:84% for the UN, it's the only Indigenous panel 00:04:15.090 --> 00:04:18.550 align:middle line:84% on native literature during the people's forum, 00:04:18.550 --> 00:04:20.910 align:middle line:84% an indigenous peoples forum in the spring. 00:04:20.910 --> 00:04:23.380 align:middle line:84% I've been involved with that for several years. 00:04:23.380 --> 00:04:25.200 align:middle line:84% And so I brought up Hugo and Ariruma 00:04:25.200 --> 00:04:26.580 align:middle line:90% both to speak at the UN. 00:04:26.580 --> 00:04:30.180 align:middle line:84% Afterward, I also then went to Venezuela and read, 00:04:30.180 --> 00:04:32.010 align:middle line:90% and to Argentina and read. 00:04:32.010 --> 00:04:33.600 align:middle line:84% And then I went back to Colombia asked 00:04:33.600 --> 00:04:34.870 align:middle line:90% Sherwin to come back with me. 00:04:34.870 --> 00:04:36.605 align:middle line:84% So the second time I asked him to go. 00:04:36.605 --> 00:04:37.980 align:middle line:84% So he kind of returned the favor. 00:04:37.980 --> 00:04:42.202 align:middle line:84% And we then met Fredy Chicangana and some other poets 00:04:42.202 --> 00:04:43.410 align:middle line:90% there that we got close with. 00:04:43.410 --> 00:04:44.220 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] 00:04:44.220 --> 00:04:45.460 align:middle line:90% Yeah too. 00:04:45.460 --> 00:04:47.550 align:middle line:84% And also brought it to the UN to speak 00:04:47.550 --> 00:04:49.980 align:middle line:84% and started kind of touring around bring him up 00:04:49.980 --> 00:04:50.730 align:middle line:90% to see the cranes. 00:04:50.730 --> 00:04:52.560 align:middle line:84% Brought them up to Monument Valley. 00:04:52.560 --> 00:04:55.890 align:middle line:84% And kept going back and forth and meeting more people. 00:04:55.890 --> 00:04:57.360 align:middle line:90% And reading with other people. 00:04:57.360 --> 00:04:59.790 align:middle line:84% There were some Mayan poets who read with me in Venezuela, 00:04:59.790 --> 00:05:02.730 align:middle line:84% but they were from Mexico, there and there. 00:05:02.730 --> 00:05:05.760 align:middle line:84% Some Mapuche poets from the Chile, 00:05:05.760 --> 00:05:08.340 align:middle line:84% Patagonia region were there, and we brought them up. 00:05:08.340 --> 00:05:09.840 align:middle line:90% And they're in the book. 00:05:09.840 --> 00:05:11.340 align:middle line:84% So a lot of these poets are people 00:05:11.340 --> 00:05:12.990 align:middle line:84% that I have read with over time or have 00:05:12.990 --> 00:05:14.610 align:middle line:90% come to know very personally. 00:05:14.610 --> 00:05:16.830 align:middle line:84% There's actually very few people in the collection 00:05:16.830 --> 00:05:20.730 align:middle line:84% that I haven't worked with in some way, shape, or form. 00:05:20.730 --> 00:05:22.680 align:middle line:84% Although, there was an open submission 00:05:22.680 --> 00:05:25.660 align:middle line:84% call both for this, and for the original edition. 00:05:25.660 --> 00:05:28.720 align:middle line:84% So some of the poets I have not been that familiar with. 00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:31.260 align:middle line:84% However, I want to get back to the one point 00:05:31.260 --> 00:05:35.640 align:middle line:84% that the festival's intent is to bring peace 00:05:35.640 --> 00:05:37.260 align:middle line:90% into a place of war. 00:05:37.260 --> 00:05:39.270 align:middle line:84% And so a lot of the times you're reading, 00:05:39.270 --> 00:05:41.670 align:middle line:84% you're reading on places where there's been mass murders. 00:05:41.670 --> 00:05:43.837 align:middle line:84% Where things have happened that are really critical. 00:05:43.837 --> 00:05:46.515 align:middle line:84% And the first year we went down and it was very tense. 00:05:46.515 --> 00:05:47.890 align:middle line:84% The year before, there were notes 00:05:47.890 --> 00:05:49.720 align:middle line:84% left under the poets pillows, that they 00:05:49.720 --> 00:05:52.370 align:middle line:84% could be kidnapped at any moment and this kind of thing. 00:05:52.370 --> 00:05:54.370 align:middle line:84% And there had been a bomb, at one time, 00:05:54.370 --> 00:05:57.910 align:middle line:84% placed in a Botero sculpture, during the poetry reading that 00:05:57.910 --> 00:05:59.920 align:middle line:84% exploded and killed 40 people, and it 00:05:59.920 --> 00:06:02.140 align:middle line:90% was replaced with 40 doves. 00:06:02.140 --> 00:06:05.050 align:middle line:84% So a lot of the places we were reading, it was very tenuous. 00:06:05.050 --> 00:06:08.380 align:middle line:84% You didn't know who was what, and in the states, 00:06:08.380 --> 00:06:10.870 align:middle line:84% they like to pound these things off as left, right, 00:06:10.870 --> 00:06:13.030 align:middle line:84% and they get money from both of those communities 00:06:13.030 --> 00:06:16.060 align:middle line:84% and the states, and what it turns into for Indigenous 00:06:16.060 --> 00:06:19.412 align:middle line:84% people is you have one group on one side of the village, 00:06:19.412 --> 00:06:21.370 align:middle line:84% and one group on the other side of the village, 00:06:21.370 --> 00:06:22.930 align:middle line:84% and they're mowing through Indigenous people 00:06:22.930 --> 00:06:23.710 align:middle line:90% to take the land. 00:06:23.710 --> 00:06:25.960 align:middle line:84% So left, right, in-between, they're 00:06:25.960 --> 00:06:27.670 align:middle line:90% all killing Native people. 00:06:27.670 --> 00:06:30.940 align:middle line:84% And so coming down there and seeing that for ourselves 00:06:30.940 --> 00:06:33.640 align:middle line:84% was a big eye opener because it's professed very differently 00:06:33.640 --> 00:06:35.630 align:middle line:90% in this country and elsewhere. 00:06:35.630 --> 00:06:38.230 align:middle line:84% And so seeing it for ourselves and getting to the Indigenous 00:06:38.230 --> 00:06:40.900 align:middle line:84% people going through that was a real eye opener. 00:06:40.900 --> 00:06:42.610 align:middle line:84% Much like the American Revolution 00:06:42.610 --> 00:06:45.220 align:middle line:84% in the Northeast and Southeast part of the United States, 00:06:45.220 --> 00:06:47.980 align:middle line:90% that same type of thing. 00:06:47.980 --> 00:06:52.210 align:middle line:84% So it's a very dangerous period of time for a lot of people 00:06:52.210 --> 00:06:53.748 align:middle line:90% in the world still. 00:06:53.748 --> 00:06:54.790 align:middle line:90% Things have lightened up. 00:06:54.790 --> 00:06:58.780 align:middle line:84% When we went back in 2007, it was not nearly as tenuous. 00:06:58.780 --> 00:07:00.890 align:middle line:84% However, there is still a lot of killing going on, 00:07:00.890 --> 00:07:04.293 align:middle line:84% a lot of people disappearing, so this continues. 00:07:04.293 --> 00:07:05.710 align:middle line:84% Some of the children are kidnapped 00:07:05.710 --> 00:07:09.080 align:middle line:84% from the village at a very young age and used as child soldiers. 00:07:09.080 --> 00:07:12.010 align:middle line:84% And they are told that if they tried to escape, 00:07:12.010 --> 00:07:13.810 align:middle line:84% entire families will be killed, and they 00:07:13.810 --> 00:07:16.210 align:middle line:90% have been for generations now. 00:07:16.210 --> 00:07:19.640 align:middle line:84% So these poets that we work with don't know a time without war. 00:07:19.640 --> 00:07:22.780 align:middle line:84% They've been raised in this ever since McCarthyism and the CIA 00:07:22.780 --> 00:07:25.630 align:middle line:84% sent down hitmen to take out would-be political leaders, 00:07:25.630 --> 00:07:27.650 align:middle line:84% that the US did not want in place. 00:07:27.650 --> 00:07:30.040 align:middle line:84% And so they've grown up in the aftermath of that. 00:07:30.040 --> 00:07:32.500 align:middle line:84% And up here it's become, oh, it's a drug war, 00:07:32.500 --> 00:07:34.060 align:middle line:90% and it's a war against drugs. 00:07:34.060 --> 00:07:36.910 align:middle line:84% It's anything but, and it's got a very long history. 00:07:36.910 --> 00:07:39.520 align:middle line:84% And we really need to come together as Indigenous people 00:07:39.520 --> 00:07:41.830 align:middle line:84% and stand up for our brothers and sisters to the South, 00:07:41.830 --> 00:07:42.820 align:middle line:90% in my opinion. 00:07:42.820 --> 00:07:45.730 align:middle line:84% And this work in the collection, is 00:07:45.730 --> 00:07:47.680 align:middle line:84% that work for peace and for that effort, 00:07:47.680 --> 00:07:50.020 align:middle line:84% but also, bringing those voices to attention. 00:07:50.020 --> 00:07:55.090 align:middle line:84% We did-- the press was very gracious with leaving us 00:07:55.090 --> 00:07:57.580 align:middle line:84% more page count for the Indigenous voices 00:07:57.580 --> 00:07:59.200 align:middle line:90% from war torn areas. 00:07:59.200 --> 00:08:01.160 align:middle line:90% And I'm very thankful for that. 00:08:01.160 --> 00:08:03.950 align:middle line:84% And the two middle sections are all multilingual. 00:08:03.950 --> 00:08:06.790 align:middle line:84% So Indigenous language, Spanish, and English. 00:08:06.790 --> 00:08:09.130 align:middle line:84% And I hope you guys enjoy that part of the book. 00:08:09.130 --> 00:08:11.440 align:middle line:84% I think that's pretty great for that show. 00:08:11.440 --> 00:08:12.720 align:middle line:90% Do you want to add anything? 00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:13.480 align:middle line:90% No, thank you. 00:08:13.480 --> 00:08:14.355 align:middle line:90% You did really great. 00:08:14.355 --> 00:08:15.130 align:middle line:90% No, that's good. 00:08:15.130 --> 00:08:15.630 align:middle line:90% Good? 00:08:15.630 --> 00:08:16.360 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:08:16.360 --> 00:08:18.040 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:08:18.040 --> 00:08:20.170 align:middle line:84% Except they would tease us like crazy. 00:08:20.170 --> 00:08:21.470 align:middle line:90% They do tease us like crazy. 00:08:21.470 --> 00:08:23.195 align:middle line:90% He's mister down there. 00:08:23.195 --> 00:08:23.695 align:middle line:90% He's mister. 00:08:23.695 --> 00:08:26.680 align:middle line:84% They would look at a Botero painting, and then point at me, 00:08:26.680 --> 00:08:29.020 align:middle line:84% and put it the Botero painting because the little chubby 00:08:29.020 --> 00:08:30.786 align:middle line:90% guy with the big cheeks. 00:08:30.786 --> 00:08:32.510 align:middle line:84% Can I tell them the shopping story? 00:08:32.510 --> 00:08:33.010 align:middle line:90% No. 00:08:33.010 --> 00:08:33.590 align:middle line:90% No? 00:08:33.590 --> 00:08:35.429 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:08:35.429 --> 00:08:36.230 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:08:36.230 --> 00:08:37.030 align:middle line:90% We have-- we get 00:08:37.030 --> 00:08:38.179 align:middle line:90% No, not the shopping story. 00:08:38.179 --> 00:08:38.929 align:middle line:90% One more question? 00:08:38.929 --> 00:08:41.614 align:middle line:90% Another question? 00:08:41.614 --> 00:08:43.030 align:middle line:90% The shopping story's good. 00:08:43.030 --> 00:08:43.840 align:middle line:90% Hello. 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:44.380 align:middle line:90% Hi. 00:08:44.380 --> 00:08:45.372 align:middle line:90% Thank you so much. 00:08:45.372 --> 00:08:47.080 align:middle line:84% I really enjoyed everything this evening. 00:08:47.080 --> 00:08:48.460 align:middle line:90% Very inspiring. 00:08:48.460 --> 00:08:51.280 align:middle line:84% I wanted to ask you Allison, a little bit more about your role 00:08:51.280 --> 00:08:52.630 align:middle line:90% as editor. 00:08:52.630 --> 00:08:56.290 align:middle line:84% It must be really hard given so many wonderful poems and poets 00:08:56.290 --> 00:08:58.660 align:middle line:84% and writers, so I'd like to understand a little bit more 00:08:58.660 --> 00:09:00.350 align:middle line:90% about that process. 00:09:00.350 --> 00:09:04.000 align:middle line:84% Well, the book is choreographed to read as a volume. 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:08.680 align:middle line:84% So as a poet myself, and to approach 00:09:08.680 --> 00:09:11.590 align:middle line:84% poetry is always an honor and privilege 00:09:11.590 --> 00:09:12.790 align:middle line:90% of other people's work. 00:09:12.790 --> 00:09:16.180 align:middle line:84% So the way that I coordinated the book was 00:09:16.180 --> 00:09:20.050 align:middle line:84% to work with the individual poems repeatedly 00:09:20.050 --> 00:09:23.470 align:middle line:84% and laid them out, like you do your own book, 00:09:23.470 --> 00:09:27.310 align:middle line:84% trying to figure out how to orchestrate it, or choreograph 00:09:27.310 --> 00:09:30.550 align:middle line:84% the poems so that the read is intentional and purposeful 00:09:30.550 --> 00:09:31.520 align:middle line:90% throughout. 00:09:31.520 --> 00:09:37.330 align:middle line:84% And so that was a big, I guess, drive for me. 00:09:37.330 --> 00:09:40.930 align:middle line:84% There are some poems that I wish were still in the collection, 00:09:40.930 --> 00:09:42.610 align:middle line:84% but because the page count, we had 00:09:42.610 --> 00:09:45.760 align:middle line:84% to release some of the poems that I wanted to be in this, 00:09:45.760 --> 00:09:46.840 align:middle line:90% and that happens. 00:09:46.840 --> 00:09:50.050 align:middle line:84% It's just something that is par for the course 00:09:50.050 --> 00:09:51.190 align:middle line:90% with publication. 00:09:51.190 --> 00:09:53.500 align:middle line:90% You get in what you can. 00:09:53.500 --> 00:09:55.750 align:middle line:84% However, I think that the ones that are in here 00:09:55.750 --> 00:09:59.260 align:middle line:84% are really significant to our time. 00:09:59.260 --> 00:10:01.600 align:middle line:84% All of these voices are contemporary poets, 00:10:01.600 --> 00:10:04.090 align:middle line:84% everybody is writing today from Maurice Kenny, 00:10:04.090 --> 00:10:05.950 align:middle line:90% down to the youngest writer. 00:10:05.950 --> 00:10:09.760 align:middle line:84% And we had two deaths during the process of this book. 00:10:09.760 --> 00:10:12.100 align:middle line:84% One was Jack Forbes, and he always 00:10:12.100 --> 00:10:13.820 align:middle line:90% wanted to be known as a poet. 00:10:13.820 --> 00:10:17.125 align:middle line:84% And he was more known as a Native studies person, 00:10:17.125 --> 00:10:20.350 align:middle line:84% lit crit person, but he wanted to be known, 00:10:20.350 --> 00:10:21.940 align:middle line:90% first and foremost, as a poet. 00:10:21.940 --> 00:10:24.760 align:middle line:84% So I'm really happy that his last publication 00:10:24.760 --> 00:10:26.680 align:middle line:90% is with us in his poetry. 00:10:26.680 --> 00:10:28.960 align:middle line:84% And John Damon, who is a colleague of mine, 00:10:28.960 --> 00:10:32.140 align:middle line:84% who actually went to the University of Arizona, 00:10:32.140 --> 00:10:33.700 align:middle line:90% and was a linguist. 00:10:33.700 --> 00:10:37.570 align:middle line:84% And he was a big scholar of Ofelia's, and so he 00:10:37.570 --> 00:10:39.970 align:middle line:84% taught that language at the University of Nebraska. 00:10:39.970 --> 00:10:43.420 align:middle line:84% And when he was dying, he was having liver failure. 00:10:43.420 --> 00:10:45.450 align:middle line:84% Waiting for a transplant, I asked him 00:10:45.450 --> 00:10:47.553 align:middle line:90% what would be his birthday wish. 00:10:47.553 --> 00:10:49.220 align:middle line:84% What can I do for you for your birthday? 00:10:49.220 --> 00:10:50.392 align:middle line:90% I have this reading series. 00:10:50.392 --> 00:10:51.100 align:middle line:90% What do you want? 00:10:51.100 --> 00:10:53.060 align:middle line:84% And he said, if you could bring out Ofelia he said, 00:10:53.060 --> 00:10:53.810 align:middle line:90% I could just die. 00:10:53.810 --> 00:10:55.700 align:middle line:84% And I said, then I'm not bringing her. 00:10:55.700 --> 00:10:59.060 align:middle line:84% And he goes, no, I'll come to the reading, he said. 00:10:59.060 --> 00:11:02.300 align:middle line:90% And I did bring her, she came. 00:11:02.300 --> 00:11:05.600 align:middle line:84% It was very quick notice, I had very little funds to bring her. 00:11:05.600 --> 00:11:06.980 align:middle line:90% She said, of course I'll come. 00:11:06.980 --> 00:11:09.410 align:middle line:84% So she came out and did a brilliant reading for John, 00:11:09.410 --> 00:11:10.310 align:middle line:90% for his birthday. 00:11:10.310 --> 00:11:12.620 align:middle line:84% She asked him if he'd do the translations 00:11:12.620 --> 00:11:14.900 align:middle line:84% for this collection and make sure it was right. 00:11:14.900 --> 00:11:18.300 align:middle line:84% And so it was his last work, as well, before he passed away. 00:11:18.300 --> 00:11:20.270 align:middle line:90% So we did have two deaths. 00:11:20.270 --> 00:11:24.530 align:middle line:84% But I think for me as an editor, the most or the greatest 00:11:24.530 --> 00:11:29.720 align:middle line:84% privilege of the collection, the work in conveying what we were 00:11:29.720 --> 00:11:32.510 align:middle line:84% looking for, the identity of this volume, 00:11:32.510 --> 00:11:36.560 align:middle line:84% was to demonstrate the uniqueness and individuality 00:11:36.560 --> 00:11:40.820 align:middle line:84% of all of these poets and to ensure that the poetry is 00:11:40.820 --> 00:11:43.220 align:middle line:90% seen as poetry. 00:11:43.220 --> 00:11:46.970 align:middle line:84% I hope that answers it in some way. 00:11:46.970 --> 00:11:48.980 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:11:48.980 --> 00:11:49.490 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:11:49.490 --> 00:11:52.990 align:middle line:90% 00:11:52.990 --> 00:11:57.010 align:middle line:84% Cybele, do you want to tell them about the reception and such? 00:11:57.010 --> 00:11:58.000 align:middle line:90%