WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.900 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.900 --> 00:00:03.780 align:middle line:84% OK, this is, like, my one contribution to sustainability, 00:00:03.780 --> 00:00:06.240 align:middle line:84% and I brought my own water bottle. 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:08.910 align:middle line:90% You just know, just know. 00:00:08.910 --> 00:00:10.440 align:middle line:90% I drove my car here. 00:00:10.440 --> 00:00:16.200 align:middle line:84% I turned the heat up when I left my house, but no water bottles. 00:00:16.200 --> 00:00:21.120 align:middle line:84% This place is sacred to me, the Poetry Center. 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:24.870 align:middle line:84% I read here once when Quench Your Thirst With Salt came out, 00:00:24.870 --> 00:00:27.272 align:middle line:84% and I've been here for other readings. 00:00:27.272 --> 00:00:29.730 align:middle line:84% And it's particularly important to me because of the people 00:00:29.730 --> 00:00:31.080 align:middle line:90% who come. 00:00:31.080 --> 00:00:34.560 align:middle line:84% So I want to think Ander and Manuel and Alison 00:00:34.560 --> 00:00:35.610 align:middle line:90% for being here. 00:00:35.610 --> 00:00:37.980 align:middle line:84% And Karen Brennan is at the back. 00:00:37.980 --> 00:00:39.922 align:middle line:90% Karen-- there's Karen Brennan. 00:00:39.922 --> 00:00:41.880 align:middle line:84% She was my professor at the University of Utah, 00:00:41.880 --> 00:00:43.230 align:middle line:90% and now she lives in Tucson. 00:00:43.230 --> 00:00:45.450 align:middle line:84% And it means so much to me that she's here. 00:00:45.450 --> 00:00:47.790 align:middle line:84% And Jesse Sensibar, who came down from Flagstaff, 00:00:47.790 --> 00:00:51.030 align:middle line:84% and [? Haley ?] [? Wetzel, ?] who's my student from NAU. 00:00:51.030 --> 00:00:53.340 align:middle line:84% But not just the people I can name, 00:00:53.340 --> 00:00:55.170 align:middle line:84% and Simmons Buntin, who published, 00:00:55.170 --> 00:00:58.950 align:middle line:84% I think, the first essay in this book and the first essay 00:00:58.950 --> 00:01:01.723 align:middle line:84% that was published from this book in Terrain. 00:01:01.723 --> 00:01:03.390 align:middle line:84% But it's not just the people I can name, 00:01:03.390 --> 00:01:07.470 align:middle line:84% but this place is high bar for me. 00:01:07.470 --> 00:01:11.100 align:middle line:84% This is the place where I feel, when I'm writing, 00:01:11.100 --> 00:01:13.590 align:middle line:84% that this is my audience, that these are the people who 00:01:13.590 --> 00:01:19.260 align:middle line:84% will get what I'm doing and will forgive my flaws 00:01:19.260 --> 00:01:23.670 align:middle line:84% and I hope embrace the humor and embrace the seriousness 00:01:23.670 --> 00:01:26.670 align:middle line:84% and embrace the sort of devastating elements 00:01:26.670 --> 00:01:29.070 align:middle line:84% of this book and then also the way that I'm flippant 00:01:29.070 --> 00:01:31.680 align:middle line:90% and sort of sarcastic to boot. 00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:34.345 align:middle line:84% If there's one people that I feel like I'm writing for, 00:01:34.345 --> 00:01:35.220 align:middle line:90% it's the people here. 00:01:35.220 --> 00:01:41.970 align:middle line:84% So I hope that works out as I actually begin reading. 00:01:41.970 --> 00:01:44.190 align:middle line:84% It worked out well when I read from my last book, 00:01:44.190 --> 00:01:46.635 align:middle line:84% but I read a lot of sex parts, and there's not 00:01:46.635 --> 00:01:48.510 align:middle line:84% as much sexiness in this book, although Ander 00:01:48.510 --> 00:01:49.470 align:middle line:90% says there's some. 00:01:49.470 --> 00:01:51.030 align:middle line:84% And I'll try to, like, sex it up. 00:01:51.030 --> 00:01:54.480 align:middle line:84% When we're talking about otters, I'll be like, ooh, sexy otters! 00:01:54.480 --> 00:01:55.590 align:middle line:90% And Aurelie's here. 00:01:55.590 --> 00:01:56.520 align:middle line:90% Hello, Aurelie. 00:01:56.520 --> 00:01:57.810 align:middle line:90% I'm so happy to see you. 00:01:57.810 --> 00:02:00.612 align:middle line:84% And Patri, who is so well hosting me 00:02:00.612 --> 00:02:02.820 align:middle line:84% at the Poetry Center, and I'm staying in the cottage. 00:02:02.820 --> 00:02:04.153 align:middle line:90% And it's such a beautiful space. 00:02:04.153 --> 00:02:07.100 align:middle line:90% 00:02:07.100 --> 00:02:10.289 align:middle line:84% Also, my ice in this-- this is not a Hydro Flask. 00:02:10.289 --> 00:02:11.580 align:middle line:90% It's a different brand. 00:02:11.580 --> 00:02:12.955 align:middle line:84% I don't know what happened to it, 00:02:12.955 --> 00:02:15.300 align:middle line:84% but I filled it up with ice, and I took it down 00:02:15.300 --> 00:02:18.780 align:middle line:84% from the top of the Grand Canyon down to the Colorado River. 00:02:18.780 --> 00:02:20.190 align:middle line:90% There was still ice in it. 00:02:20.190 --> 00:02:23.085 align:middle line:84% And everyone was like, Nicole, can I have some of your ice? 00:02:23.085 --> 00:02:25.410 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:25.410 --> 00:02:29.520 align:middle line:84% I will not say whether I shared or not. 00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:34.110 align:middle line:84% Perhaps if they had whiskey, I did. 00:02:34.110 --> 00:02:36.078 align:middle line:90% So I'm going to read. 00:02:36.078 --> 00:02:38.370 align:middle line:84% OK, so this is what happened last time I did a reading. 00:02:38.370 --> 00:02:39.900 align:middle line:84% I was, like, I'm going to read one-- 00:02:39.900 --> 00:02:40.770 align:middle line:90% or two essays. 00:02:40.770 --> 00:02:42.810 align:middle line:84% And then I just sensed that there was, like, 00:02:42.810 --> 00:02:43.730 align:middle line:90% that's enough, Nicole. 00:02:43.730 --> 00:02:44.537 align:middle line:90% We're good. 00:02:44.537 --> 00:02:46.620 align:middle line:84% So if I sense that that's enough, we're good, we-- 00:02:46.620 --> 00:02:47.820 align:middle line:90% I will stop. 00:02:47.820 --> 00:02:50.490 align:middle line:84% But I'm going to read-- my goal is to read two essays. 00:02:50.490 --> 00:02:54.450 align:middle line:84% Plus, I would like to read just a section of one of the essays 00:02:54.450 --> 00:02:57.120 align:middle line:84% because Ander Monson and New Michigan Press 00:02:57.120 --> 00:02:58.358 align:middle line:90% made this broadside. 00:02:58.358 --> 00:03:00.150 align:middle line:84% And it's from an essay in here that I'm not 00:03:00.150 --> 00:03:02.317 align:middle line:84% going to read the whole of because it's pretty long, 00:03:02.317 --> 00:03:06.360 align:middle line:84% but it's about whale poop and McDonald's hamburgers. 00:03:06.360 --> 00:03:09.090 align:middle line:84% And you think, oh, maybe those things don't go together. 00:03:09.090 --> 00:03:12.420 align:middle line:84% But you will see by the end of the essay that they kind of do. 00:03:12.420 --> 00:03:14.160 align:middle line:84% And even if they don't, Ander made 00:03:14.160 --> 00:03:17.460 align:middle line:84% it seem like they do by putting a piece of krill, 00:03:17.460 --> 00:03:20.250 align:middle line:84% which is what the whales eat, and a hamburger. 00:03:20.250 --> 00:03:21.870 align:middle line:84% Krill, hamburger, krill, hamburger. 00:03:21.870 --> 00:03:26.790 align:middle line:84% And illustratively, if not linguistically, 00:03:26.790 --> 00:03:29.520 align:middle line:90% the essay holds together. 00:03:29.520 --> 00:03:30.360 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:03:30.360 --> 00:03:31.680 align:middle line:90% Also, I've been very-- 00:03:31.680 --> 00:03:33.338 align:middle line:84% I've been-- since this book came out, 00:03:33.338 --> 00:03:35.130 align:middle line:84% I've been working on this saying this word, 00:03:35.130 --> 00:03:38.730 align:middle line:84% even though REM have an album called this-- 00:03:38.730 --> 00:03:40.880 align:middle line:90% "eponymous."