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 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 Facebook investigation.
And while Polly lives in Michigan,
she's our current Summer resident in fiction
here at the Poetry Center.
She's living in right across the way in our guest cottage
until the end of August, so you can ring her doorbell, or not.
Polly says no, yes.
And she's also generously offered
to host some office hours while she's here,
and she's hosting her last session this upcoming Monday,
August, 26th from four to seven PM
in the Poetry Center's library.
And I brought her sign-up sheet for her last session,
and it's over at the reading table
right here, info table over there with the lamp.
And you can sign up for half-hour shifts
to talk to Polly.
This one-on-one time, you can talk to her,
get to know her as a writer.
You can talk about writing, book reviewing, teaching,
the MFA experience, submitting
work for publication, or just bitch about the heat
because Polly's visiting us from Michigan,
so I'm sure she'll be happy to commiserate about the heat
and other relatable stuff like monster-sized cockroaches
living in the guest cottage.
- Not anymore.
- Not anymore [INAUDIBLE].
But really, we're delighted to share this opportunity with you
all and hope that you'll take advantage
of this great opportunity.
As I said, Polly is visiting from Ann Arbor, Michigan,
and there, she teaches English and creative writing
at Eastern Michigan University.
And her stories have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Indiana
Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, and elsewhere.
And her story "White Carnations" will
be included in the PEN/O Henry Prize Stories later this year.
Yeah, so I 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.