WEBVTT

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I'm glad you could
come, and I hope

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you'll come over to the
Union for punch and cookies,

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and to meet Steven Orlen.

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Those of you who don't know
him, and for his friends to come

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greet him, I have a few
thousand announcements.

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Our new bookmark is out.

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We have five readings and five
weeks following spring recess.

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The first is WS
Merwin, who will be

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reading in this auditorium
on Tuesday, March 22.

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We have published a little
newsletter for creative writing

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students, which we
are happy to share

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with anyone who would
like one, and I'll

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have these at the reception.

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It has mainly
student news, listing

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of students who've had work
accepted for publication,

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or have received honors.

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And in it-- and I have several
thousand copies of this--

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we have prepared
a questionnaire.

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So that if you would like
to make suggestions of poets

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for us to invite for
next year, and novelists,

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books you'd like to see us order
that we might not have heard

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about, new poetry magazines
you'd like to see us order,

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we'd appreciate it if you'd fill
one out and give it back to us.

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If you are enrolled in a
creative writing class,

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your professor has copies.

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And I have plenty of
extra ones tonight too.

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Steven Orlen has been with
us for almost 10 years now.

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I can remember when he wore
a coat and tie to class.

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[LAUGHTER]

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I'm sorry.

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[LAUGHTER]

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He's published two
collections of poetry.

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The first, Sleeping on
Doors by Penumbra Press.

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And I'd like to read you a small
excerpt from a very fine review

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of that book, which appeared
in the most recent issue

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of the American Poetry Review.

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"Orlen demonstrates the
gifts of patience and timing.

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He knows how to wait a poem out,
and when to withhold or draw

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conclusions.

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His strong suit
is self-discovery

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tinged with self irony.

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Orlen is one of those rare
young poets interested in style,

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the way a thing gets said.

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Line by line, he
composes, selects

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for the tensile strength
of his sentences

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for their various abilities,
to simplify without reducing."

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His second collection,
Separate Creatures,

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published most recently
by Ironwood Press--

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and copies of that will be
available for sale following

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the reading.

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He's published in such magazines
as American Poetry Review,

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Kayak, Iowa Review, The
Blue Moon News, Ironwood,

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Massachusetts Review,
Antioch, Atlantic Monthly,

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and many others.

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His honors include
a National Endowment

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for the Arts Award in 1973,
first prize in the Hallmark

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Poetry Contest 1967, two awards
from the Atlantic Monthly,

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and a George Dylan
Memorial Prize from Poetry.

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We all have a treat for us
tonight with Steven Orlen.

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[APPLAUSE]

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I should remark that
it was a wool suit,

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and it lasted about two weeks.

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[LAUGHTER]

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I bought a new wool suit
to be a college teacher,

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and it didn't last
for very long.

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My Zen Buddhist wife told
me if I got uncomfortable,

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I should just laugh
incongruously.

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So if you hear funny
laughter, you'll--

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[LAUGHTER]