The Lamplight Reading Series is the first Sunday
of every month.
So this Sunday the 4th of February,
there are two readers, Amy Pence and Valerie Martinez.
And their readings are at the Albuquerque at 121 East
Congress just across from the Chicago store,
downtown in the arts district.
And that's at 7 o'clock.
And our next reading is one week from tonight.
And we are pleased to bring Li-Young Lee to the campus.
Some of you may have seen Li-Young on the Bill Moyers
series recently.
He was a former student here and we're very proud of his work.
And he's a wonderful young writer.
And two weeks from tonight, another special reading,
two members of the creative writing faculty,
novelist Mary Elsie Robertson and nonfiction writer Vivian
Gornick.
And both of those readings will be
in this auditorium on Wednesday nights at 8 o'clock.
If you are one of the few people in the county who
did not receive one of our notices, they're out there.
Some out on the table.
Gary Soto is associate professor of Chicano studies
and English at the University of California in Berkeley.
And this coming, this spring is serving as the Martin Luther
King Cesar Chavez Rosa Park, visiting professor of English
at Wayne State University.
His books of poetry are The Elements of San Joaquin,
The Tale of Sunlight, Where Sparrows Work Hard,
and Black Hair, and most recently A Fire in My Hands.
His prose recollections Living Up the Street
received a Before Columbus Foundation Award in 1985.
And he's published two books of occasional essays, Small Faces
and Lesser Evils.
His first short story collection is out now, isn't it?
It's not due out, it's more or less out.
His honor to include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation
and the National Endowment for the Arts and California Arts
Council.
It's a real pleasure to introduce to you Gary Soto.
[APPLAUSE]