WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.930 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.930 --> 00:00:03.330 align:middle line:90%
And now Elizabeth Evans.

00:00:03.330 --> 00:00:06.480 align:middle line:84%
It's nice for us at
the Poetry Center

00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:08.820 align:middle line:84%
to be presenting
a fiction writer,

00:00:08.820 --> 00:00:13.260 align:middle line:84%
gives us a chance to stretch the
definition of poetry to include

00:00:13.260 --> 00:00:17.370 align:middle line:84%
that which is in a
larger sense poetic.

00:00:17.370 --> 00:00:19.890 align:middle line:90%
And to relax into narrative.

00:00:19.890 --> 00:00:23.310 align:middle line:84%
Now, a narrative or a
story as you may have heard

00:00:23.310 --> 00:00:27.480 align:middle line:84%
is the distinct issue these
days in the world of poetry.

00:00:27.480 --> 00:00:31.450 align:middle line:84%
Poets who tell stories and
poets who, for various reasons,

00:00:31.450 --> 00:00:34.487 align:middle line:84%
some of them French,
defy to do so --

00:00:34.487 --> 00:00:37.290 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:00:37.290 --> 00:00:40.140 align:middle line:84%
These camps have squared off
now for a couple of decades

00:00:40.140 --> 00:00:42.510 align:middle line:84%
with the result that no
poet who has come anywhere

00:00:42.510 --> 00:00:45.150 align:middle line:84%
near this argument can
rivet into a good yarn

00:00:45.150 --> 00:00:48.930 align:middle line:84%
without looking over
her or his shoulder.

00:00:48.930 --> 00:00:51.510 align:middle line:84%
But we don't have to
worry about that tonight,

00:00:51.510 --> 00:00:54.270 align:middle line:84%
as we're going to
hear a bit of a novel

00:00:54.270 --> 00:00:58.660 align:middle line:84%
in which form a story is not
just allowed but essential.

00:00:58.660 --> 00:01:01.350 align:middle line:84%
We can surrender
to the spell, fall

00:01:01.350 --> 00:01:03.000 align:middle line:90%
into the arms of narrative.

00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:08.430 align:middle line:84%
As Elizabeth Evans takes us,
via her new book Rowing in Eden

00:01:08.430 --> 00:01:11.730 align:middle line:84%
into the lives of her characters
Frannie and Rosamund Wahl,

00:01:11.730 --> 00:01:16.680 align:middle line:84%
sisters living through a summer
of transformation in 1965

00:01:16.680 --> 00:01:19.530 align:middle line:90%
in Pynch Lake, Iowa.

00:01:19.530 --> 00:01:22.450 align:middle line:84%
Elizabeth Evans is an
accomplished fiction writer.

00:01:22.450 --> 00:01:23.190 align:middle line:90%
The Washington --

00:01:23.190 --> 00:01:24.667 align:middle line:84%
Washington Post
Book World called

00:01:24.667 --> 00:01:27.840 align:middle line:84%
her first book, The
Blue Hour very much

00:01:27.840 --> 00:01:30.150 align:middle line:90%
a great American novel.

00:01:30.150 --> 00:01:32.280 align:middle line:84%
Evans' second
novel, Carter Clay,

00:01:32.280 --> 00:01:34.440 align:middle line:84%
was selected by Los
Angeles Times as one

00:01:34.440 --> 00:01:37.650 align:middle line:90%
of the best books of 1999.

00:01:37.650 --> 00:01:40.770 align:middle line:84%
Elizabeth Evans has been a
fellow at MacDowell Colony,

00:01:40.770 --> 00:01:42.840 align:middle line:84%
an incredible
writers' conference,

00:01:42.840 --> 00:01:46.620 align:middle line:84%
she's won the James Michener
Fellowship for the novel,

00:01:46.620 --> 00:01:48.960 align:middle line:84%
and a fellowship from
the National Endowment

00:01:48.960 --> 00:01:52.860 align:middle line:84%
for the Arts, which helped
her write Rowing in Eden.

00:01:52.860 --> 00:01:56.580 align:middle line:84%
Elizabeth has been teaching here
at the University since 1987.

00:01:56.580 --> 00:01:58.800 align:middle line:84%
She's one of the reasons
for the stellar reputation

00:01:58.800 --> 00:02:00.990 align:middle line:84%
of the creative
writing program here,

00:02:00.990 --> 00:02:04.050 align:middle line:84%
and she has read under the
auspices of the Poetry Center

00:02:04.050 --> 00:02:09.570 align:middle line:84%
a couple of times previously
one in 1987 and one in 1995.

00:02:09.570 --> 00:02:12.030 align:middle line:84%
We're happy to bring
her back to the podium

00:02:12.030 --> 00:02:15.180 align:middle line:84%
for the debut of this new
book, which is published just

00:02:15.180 --> 00:02:18.450 align:middle line:90%
last month from Harper Collins.

00:02:18.450 --> 00:02:21.570 align:middle line:84%
Please, give a warm
welcome for one of our own,

00:02:21.570 --> 00:02:23.680 align:middle line:84%
the poet novelist
Elizabeth Evans.

00:02:23.680 --> 00:02:27.030 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:02:27.030 --> 00:02:34.000 align:middle line:90%