[INTERPOSING VOICES]
Tonight, instead of having a reception for Mr. Stafford,
at the Student Union, we'd like to invite
you to come to the Poetry Center for a reception on the South
Lawn.
There's all kinds of signs up over there, you can't get lost.
Beautiful handmade signs.
Mr. Stafford comes to us from Lewis and Clark
College in Portland.
He's been associated with Lewis and Clark since 1956.
He was born and educated in Kansas,
and at the University of Iowa.
His work has represented in many anthologies
and little magazines.
He has four volumes of poetry, Allegiances, The Rescued Year,
Traveling Through the Dark, West of Your City.
He's the author of two books of literary criticism,
The Achievement of Brother Antoninus,
and Friends to This Ground.
He has many honors and awards to his credit.
Among them, The National Book Award prize,
The Guggenheim Fellowship, Shelley Memorial Award.
1970, '71, he was the consultant in poetry
to the Library of Congress.
I'd like to read two sentences from the citation
when he received the National Book Award in 1963.
His poems are clean, direct and whole.
They are both tough and gentle.
Their music knows the value of silence.
Will you welcome please, Mr. William Stafford?
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you.