Thank you, Cybele.
I'm so excited for tonight's reading
and for the chance to introduce tonight's three rock
stars, Samuel Ace, Polly Rosenwaike,
there you are, and Dexter L. Booth.
For those of you who've been to the Poetry Center, who've
been to a reading before here at the Poetry Center,
I think you'll agree that it's a great opportunity
to hear poetry and to hear prose read
by amazing local, national, and international talent.
And these readings, these readers
are presented as poets, as writers,
and we listen to their poems, their writing.
But in addition to connecting to these poets and writers
through their work, through their presentations
and performances here tonight, I hope
that you'll also connect to them as people, because they
are indeed human, even though I heard
that Dexter likes to dress up like a robot
for costume parties.
So I did a little bit of Facebook investigation.
[LAUGHTER]
And Samuel Ace is a poet and writer
who is right here in Tucson.
He's the former principal at the Arizona School of the Blind,
and he's the author of three collections of poetry,
Normal Sex from Firebrand Books, Home in Three Days,
Don't Wash: A Hybrid Project of Poetry, Video and Photography,
also from Hard Press, and most recently
Stealth, which is co-authored with Maureen Seaton from Chax
Press.
He's the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant,
a two-time finalist for a Lambda Literary Award in Poetry,
winner of the Astraea Lesbian Writers Fund Prize in Poetry.
It's a long list.
The Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction and the Firecracker
Alternative Book in Poetry, and he was the 2012 finalist
for the National Poetry Series.
His work has been widely anthologized
and has appeared or is forthcoming from Ploughshares,
EOAGH.
Thanks, Sam, for helping me with that.
Spiral Orb, Kenyon Review.
Hollaback, Tyler!
Mandala, Rhino, 3:00 AM, Panhandler, Versal, The Volta,
and others.
Sam's books are available for sale
after tonight's reading right there,
and he will be sitting right there at the table
to sign your books and engage in some grade
A chit chat and banter.
Yeah, so I'd encourage you all to chat with our readers
tonight and to get to know them and to realize
what gems they are to Tucson, to Arizona, and to the larger
national and international writing community.
So the way the reading will work tonight
is that we'll have Samuel read first, followed by Polly,
and then followed by Dexter.
So please join me in welcoming Polly Rosenwaike, Dexter L.
Booth, and tonight's first reader, Samuel Ace.
[APPLAUSE]