Good evening.
I'm Alison Deming, director of the Poetry Center.
I'd like to make a few announcements
before tonight's event.
First of all, Among Other Things is
sponsoring their first annual poetry and fiction contest.
They're wanting submissions by November 1.
And they're actually giving cold hard cash.
Well, cold hard checks as awards, $150 in prize money.
They'll be giving out materials after the readings
about the stipulations of submissions.
They do say that they encourage but do not require that entries
challenge the issue of content restriction
as established by the NEA.
But that the works have literary merit.
You can receive more details on their contest guidelines
after the reading.
Also after the reading, there will be refreshments
and there will be copies of John Ashbery's April Galleons,
Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror,
and Selected Poems for sale, and there's a 10% discount
for faculty and students.
The books won't last long but there are a few copies.
I'd just like to ask people who are coming in
if you'd keep the aisles open.
Just spread yourselves along the edges as best you can.
Thanks.
Tonight, we are indeed fortunate to have John Ashbery with us.
He's been acclaimed as the great original of his generation.
And the sphere of his influence on other poets
touches by now several subsequent generations.
His first book Some Trees was selected by W.H. Auden
for the Yale series of younger poets.
In 1975, Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror
won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award,
and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
He's twice received Guggenheim fellowships in 1985,
received the MacArthur, to name a few of his distinctions.
His most recent publications are Selected Poems in 1985
and his 12th volume April Galleons in 1987.
We're looking forward to the forthcoming book--
why have I lost the title of the new book Flow Chart, which
has been in my mind all day.
Is such a wonderful title, it flew through.
The forthcoming book of poetry Flow Chart,
which is a book length poem which will be published
by Knopf in the spring.
In addition to his work as a poet,
he's published extensively in art criticism,
as well as publishing a novel and some plays.
John Malcolm Brinnin said about his work,
John Ashbery's dazzling orchestrations of language
open up whole areas of consciousness
no other American poet has even begun to explore.
Please welcome, John Ashbery.
[APPLAUSE]