OK.
And I'm now pleased to introduce Paul's introducer, Matthew
Conley.
Matthew is a poet, a teacher, a long-time Poetry Center front
desk volunteer, and the executive director
of the Tucson Poetry Festival.
The festival is an annual event that
brings poets to Tucson for readings, panel discussions,
and workshops.
And Matthew has created a truly killer lineup
for this year's festival, which takes place
in just a few weeks on April 6 and 7.
We have to look forward to Eduardo Corral, Karyna McGlynn,
Patricia Smith, and our very own Ander Monson.
Also-- speaking of Ander Monson--
if you haven't gotten a new DIAGRAM tee,
they're available on the DIAGRAM website.
OK, back to Matthew.
I just want to say also that he is a ray of sunshine.
He is my source for animal-related internet
funnies--
which is really important because it
gets me through the day, and allows me to do
my work for the Poetry Center.
He's one of Poetry Center's favorite people.
So please help me welcome Matthew Conley.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you.
Thank you to you all and to the Poetry Center for having me.
Just really quick--
Today, Cybele and I were exchanging emails about a site
that is-- if you're familiar with the L-O-L cats--
the LOLcats on the internet.
Apparently, someone has created a LOLcat site
that takes pictures of cats and combines them with quotes
from Richard Siken's poetry.
It's called icanhassikencats.tumblr.com.
Paul Guest is the author of three volumes
of poetry and one memoir--
My Index of Slightly Horrifying Knowledge
from Echo Press, Notes for My Body Double from Bison Books,
The Resurrection of the Body and the Ruin of the World from New
Issues, and One More Theory About Happiness--
A Memoir from Echo Press.
The recipient of a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship
and a 2007 Whiting Writers' Award,
guest teaches in the Creative Writing Program
at the University of Virginia.
His poetry is fierce, deceptively accessible,
unapologetic.
His tools are syntactic, anaphora, catalog--
Paul Guest is messing with you.
He knows you have a comfort level you can be divested of.
Here are your favorite characters
from our pop culture past.
They are monstrous, and we were having fun with them.
Let us meditate on that which makes
us squirm, that desire for connection
so secretive and human and frantic,
that desire which I will admit you all have,
tonight, has met its match.
Ladies and gentlemen, help me welcome Paul Guest.
[APPLAUSE]