Tonight, we celebrate Marilyn Hacker's visit
as the 2016 Hannelore Quander-Rattee
Works-in-Translation Reader.
This is a donor-supported reading
that celebrates the work of translation
and the work of translators.
We annually offer the reading in the memory
of Hannelore Quander-Rattee.
Hannelore came to Tucson, Arizona
with her husband Michael in 1978 and quickly became
part of the poetry scene here in Tucson.
She was managing editor of Prickly Pear Tucson, a poetry
quarterly.
She co-directed the Mosaic Reading Series.
She served on the Tucson Poetry Festival committee.
She was a member of the Bethesda Players, a readers theater
group that performed Dylan Thomas's Under Milk
Wood several times.
During this time she wrote her own poems.
She translated work from and into German.
She was especially fond of the work of Günter Eich.
And working with the poet William Pitt Root,
she translated the poems of Heinrich Böll.
My job now is to introduce the introducer of Marilyn Hacker.
And it's my pleasure to welcome Mary Wildner-Bassett to all
of you, who's the dean of the College of Humanities.
Mary will return to the faculty in German studies
at the end of this academic year.
Over the past eight years, she served
admirably as the dean of the College of Humanities.
She's put up with people like me as employees--
impossible to manage, very difficult.
And under her leadership, the Poetry Center, in particular,
has consistently been put in a position
to thrive and to excel.
And before she returns to the faculty,
I was excited to ask her to introduce Marilyn, who she's
very interested in as a poet and as a translator.
but to give you all a chance to help me applaud her
for her leadership, for her friendship,
and for her ongoing support of the Poetry Center's mission
and work, please help me welcome Mary Wildner-Bassett
and thank her.
[APPLAUSE]