OK.
I'm Cybele.
And I'm very honored to introduce Aurelie Sheehan.
I met Aurelie first in 2005 when I joined the MFA program.
Aurelie was my teacher, and I was a fiction MFA student.
And I don't know if you know this about me,
but as an MFA student, I was kind of feeble.
I was like one of those houseplants
that you find at the garden section at Home Depot.
And you buy it on a whim because it's really cheap.
And it's not until you get back home and you realize--
this plant is sick.
It has a disease.
Maybe its leaves are coated with powdery mildew,
or its stems are rotting slowly from the inside out.
And the best thing to do, at this point with a plant,
is throw it away, just throw it, get rid of it.
But because you spent $5.99 plus tax on it, you want to save it.
So you buy it sprays and give it food.
And you move it around from place
to place-- sunny, shady, trying to figure out what it likes
and what it needs.
And with love and care, you keep it going--
although it never completely recovers from its illness.
And that's what Aurelie was like to me.
She definitely kept me alive through the MFA program.
And I'm sure she's been that way to many other MFA students,
as well--
both the hardy, flourishing ones,
and us stumpy, semi-blighted ones.
She keeps us going not only through individualized care
and deep attention, but also through her intelligence,
grace, and the example she sets for us as a writer
and as a person.
Aurelie is a fiction writer.
Her latest book, Jewelry Box, is a collection
of short prose pieces.
What are those pieces, exactly?
A recent review of Jewelry Box that appeared in the journal
Inside Higher Ed perfectly describes, I think,
the form of the book as a collection of "micro-fictions,
flash memoirs, prose poems, incidents, anecdotes,
extended metaphors-- there's no differentiation
on the book's part, nor is there much need,
as most of the pieces are glittering little truths,
whether factual or not.
I think that the truth contained in Aurelie's fiction
very often has to do with a central paradox
of embodied life, its importance unimportance.
So vivid and dear, but so undeniably fleeting,
instantly forgotten, and translucent,
that we must somehow both hold tight and let go.
This necessary dynamism moves in and through all of Aurelie's
beautiful prose work."
Her other books include a short story
collection titled Jack Kerouac Is Pregnant, and two novels--
History Lesson for Girls and The Anxiety of Everyday
Objects-- she's really good with titles.
A new novella titled This Blue will
be issued in January as a Ploughshares Solo e-book,
and then later anthologized in print.
And also, Aurelie just found out that the UA Press
will be publishing her collection of linked
short stories.
The book comes out in 2014.
The stories are set in Tucson, and the book
has a great title--
Demigods on Speedway.
I know, I can't wait.
Help me welcome Aurelie.
[APPLAUSE]