Hello everyone, and welcome.
Welcome to tonight's event where we
will hear from two distinguished faculty in the University
of Arizona's MFA program, Aurelie Sheehan and Farid
Matuk.
I'm Tyler Meier, and I work as the executive director
at the University of Arizona Poetry Center.
On behalf of the Center, I welcome everyone
who's here this evening.
Thanks for coming.
I have a couple of quick announcements before we begin.
There are books available for purchase
after tonight's reading up at the front.
You will note that the holidays are coming very soon,
and who among us does not like to give a signed book
to a person that we love?
Such an act is a sign of order in the world, much
like having a small hummingbird pause in your hand,
or recognizing that a field of timothy grass
could be a thousand small, vintage, tiny microphones
recording the sky.
May our world have such order as this in it.
Sam Ace will introduce Farid, and Cybele Knowles
will introduce Aurelie.
Cybele Knowles is the program coordinator
at the Poetry Center.
She oversees the Reading and Lecture Series,
the Classes and Workshops program, and the Closer Look
Book Club.
She sometimes oversees me.
She holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Arizona,
and an MA in English from UC Berkeley.
Her poetry and prose have appeared
in the Destroyer, Spiral Orb, Diagram, Pindeldyboz,
the Asian Pacific American Journal, Faucheuse,
and The Prose Poem.