[APPLAUSE]
So good evening.
It's really great to be back at the Poetry Center, which
is such a fabulous place, and to be introduced
by Tyler, who is such a fabulous director of the Poetry Center.
I want to do some thanks to those
who made this evening possible.
I'm Fenton Johnson.
I'm an Associate Professor in the Creative Writing Program.
And as Tyler mentioned, tonight's reading
is part of the prose series.
It is also sponsored by the Religion, Secularism,
and Political Belonging Project, which
Dr. Lee Medovoi, the Head of the Department of English,
brought to us from Portland.
And I will read you the questions,
they're lengthy, so not that long,
but they're easier to read, that are
at the heart of this project.
The project's key research questions
are, how are we to understand the contemporary resurgence
of religious discourses--
I think they mean, particularly, fundamentalism in that phrase--
social practices and forms of cultural organization
in political arenas, civil society, and the public sphere?
I don't need to say to anyone here
about the relevance of looking at fundamentalism
in today's environment.
What light do these developments cast
on long-standing accounts of modernity
as a secular historical process?
How are current definitions of religious and secular shaping
local, national, transnational, and universal understandings
of political belonging?
And I'll say a word about that.
I was on the steering committee of that gathering of Dr.
Medovoi's.
And we were discussing the speakers
that were going to come.
And I said, how about bringing a creative writer?
And to his credit, Lee said, yes, of course.
And the first person that came to mind
was my fellow member of the Kentucky writer
mafia, Erik Reece, about whom I'll
say a little bit in a second.
Our other sponsors are the Institute of the Environment--
thank you to Dr. Diana Liverman, who's here tonight--
through its WEES Project, which provides travel and lodging
expenses to bring leading voices in the environmental movement
to campus; the College of Social and Behavioral Studies,
for its support of the Prose Reading Series;
Department of English; and Dr. Karen Seat, who,
in her position as Head of the Department of Religious
Studies and Classics, also came on board to help
make this evening happen.
And then, of course, the Poetry Center, the inimitable
and wonderful Poetry Center staff.
Tonight, to introduce Erik, will be
one of our star creative nonfiction graduate
students, Page Buono, who has a background
in environmental journalism.
And it was a delight to be able to see
the readiness with which she rose
to the cause of introducing Erik.
I'll leave that to her capable hands.
But I would be remiss if I did not say how pleased and happy
I am to have a fellow member of the writer, the Kentucky writer
mafia here.
There is something about Kentucky.
It is either the limestone in the ground or the bourbon
that comes as a result of the limestone in the ground.
But there are an extraordinary number of writers and readers
in that small green place.
And it's a real pleasure to bring Erik, for whose writing
I've had such admiration for so long.
So I'll leave the formal introduction to Page.
But it's great to see you all here.
And, Page-- where is Page?
Page, if you want to come on up.