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Tonight, I'm especially
pleased to bring you a reading

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by an esteemed poet, a scholar,
and a gentleman Carl Dennis.

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First, as usual though, a
couple of announcements.

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This Friday, it's February 9th.

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We are co-sponsoring with
the College of Humanities

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and the Department
of English a reading

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by an exciting new
novelist Lois-Ann Yamanaka.

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She's on tour with her new
book and coming to Tucson

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from her home in Honolulu.

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The reading is at 8:00
PM in the AME Auditorium,

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across the street here.

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Also, this weekend is a reading
by Eileen Myles, sponsored

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by POG, and that's Saturday
night, February 10th

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at Antigone Books.

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Once again, let me remind
you of the Tucson Poetry

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Festival, which is coming up
in April on the theme of poetry

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and food.

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Festival folks have
a table in the lobby.

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Jami is out there, I believe
and can show you the brochures.

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A little thanks, pro forma,
for their support

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of this reading series.

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Thanks to the Arizona Humanities
Council, also to the University

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of Arizona Foundation.

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Thanks to the Arizona
Commission on the Arts

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and to the National
Endowment for the Arts

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from which we get our
own funding for this.

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Now, Carl Dennis.

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Carl Dennis in his own sure,
humane and unmistakably

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original way has created
a great body of work

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since the publication
of his first book,

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A House Of My Own in the '70s.

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Since then have come five
other volumes of poetry.

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His new book, Practical
Gods, is forthcoming

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from Viking Penguin.

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And he also has coming
out from the University

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of Georgia Press, a book that
some of you in the MFA program

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may be interested
in a book called

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Poetry And Persuasion,
which is practical essays

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on the art of poetry.

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And as Carl says, more ethos
than logos, an interesting way

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of proceeding based
in part on Carl's work

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at the Warren Wilson
College residency program.

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Thinking of Carl's
work, I'm reminded

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of what Keats said
about violence, how

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they would lose their beauty.

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He said, "Were they to throng
into the roadway crying out,

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admire me, I am a violet!"

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Carl's poetry has steadily
won him a wider audience

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and praise from the critics,
not with sensational means

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or subjects, but with
its technical surety,

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its gentleness, its
crisp depiction of people

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who are clear eyed
and compassionate,

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patient and smart,
ironic without cruelty,

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rather like Carl himself.

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His is a poetry that
enlarges us as readers

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and brings us to a more
generous universe, song

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without artifice, learnedness
without obscurity.

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Carl Dennis lives in
Buffalo, New York.

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At the moment,
he's in Cambridge.

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He teaches with the State
University of New York

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at Buffalo, literature
and creative writing.

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In 1970, Carl taught me American
Literature 1865 to 1914,

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including--

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we were just talking about --

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Samuel Clemens, William
Dean Howells, and others.

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Carl's work has been
included in Best American

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Poetry for '92, '93, and '97.

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He's been awarded a
Guggenheim Fellowship,

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National Endowment for the
Arts grant, and a residency.

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This is the dreamiest
residency of all time, folks,

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at the Rockefeller Study
Center in Bellagio, Italy.

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Most recently, he's a
recipient of the Ruth Lilly

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Prize, which is given by
Poetry Magazine, a very

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distinguished award.

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And we have no question and
answer in these readings.

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But I'd especially like you
to come tomorrow and talk

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to Carl in person at
his colloquium, which

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is over there in the Swede
Johnson Building, 111 North

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Cherry.

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That's the odd octagonal
brick thing in room 205.

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That's 11 o'clock
in the morning.

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And I think you'd be
well-advised to come.

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Let me tell you--

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10:45, Jim.

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11:45?

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10:45.

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10:45 tomorrow.

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We're a little early because
Carl's on a plane right

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at noon.

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Let me tell you a
personal story about Carl.

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When I was a
sophomore in college--

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this is at UB, as
we call it, SUNY UB.

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I ventured for the first
time into a poetry workshop,

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which was incidentally run by
another fine poet at Buffalo,

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Irving Feldman.

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I was totally freaked
out by it, terrified,

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and went into one
class, and came out

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convinced that I would never
be able to write poems,

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and to hold them up to critiques
in that kind of setting.

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And I didn't know what to do,
but I'd had this Professor Carl

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Dennis, who taught
me, as I said,

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Huckleberry Finn, Sister Carrie,
some other things, and also

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a Shakespeare class
once upon a time.

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And I went to see him.

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I think he was an Assistant
Professor at the time.

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And I said I didn't
think I could do workshop

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and asked if he'd consider
tutoring me in poetry writing.

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And Carl said sure,
and that went on

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for three years, that
independent study, every term.

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We worked in his own
exacting and really precise

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intelligent way on the
mechanics of the line,

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on meter and music, and on the
larger questions of poetry,

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what its function in the
culture is, what it should be,

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and what it does.

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But the big thing, and
I want to give this

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to you as perhaps
students of this,

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was that Carl accepted me
as a young guy, as a writer,

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and without question.

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And I think this is the most
important thing for people

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starting out, not any
particular lesson in technique,

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but simple acceptance so
that one may afterwards

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begin to accept one's
own work as valid.

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Technique can follow this sense
of self-worth and validity,

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but will not precede it.

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So it's the foundation, I
think, for good teaching

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and for becoming a writer.

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So I think Carl as
giving me my true start

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in this work, which has now
going on for a long time.

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And it was a lucky
break for me to find

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a teacher as patient and
generous and gifted as Carl

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Dennis.

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And so I tell you outright that
I'm here tonight paying homage

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to my teacher and doing a little
to repay this deep debt that I

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owe him.

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I'm confident also
that his effect

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will enable you to
carry on as it has me,

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and to accept your own
voice, and to continue

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to pursue larger questions
in poetry and in life.

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So will you welcome please a
good man and a great poet, Carl

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Dennis.

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[APPLAUSE]

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