WEBVTT

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- Hi, everyone.

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Very happy to be here.

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Thank you Becka.

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So I'm going to be
introducing Felicia Zamora.

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Felicia Zamora is the
author of the poetry

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collections "Of
Form and Gather" and

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was the winner of the
Andres Montoya Poetry Prize

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from the University of
Notre Dame, "And In,

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Open Marvel," and
"Instrument of Gaps",

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which was published
by Slope Editions.

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She won the 2015 Tomaž Šalamun
prize for "Verse from Verse".

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The education
programs coordinator

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for the Virginia C Piper center
for creative writing at Arizona

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State University, Zamora also
serves as an associate poetry

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editor for the Colorado Review.

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So this is the first time that
I've actually met Felicia.

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I first met her
through her work,

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through her three books that
I read through this past week.

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And one of the things
that struck me was her,

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which I'm going to talk
a little bit more about,

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was that her work is
almost like a magnet.

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It picks up so many
things around in the world

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that you kind of can't help
but finish reading those things

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and take them with you.

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So related to that,
one of the things

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that I thought about
reading Felicia's work

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is that sometimes after
walking through a field,

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you realize that some of the
things have come back with you.

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Pieces of the walk
stay with and on you.

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Sometimes you leave with
burrs on your socks.

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You might leave with
the little sunburn,

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so that at night
when you lay in bed,

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your body is pulsating a
little bit with the warmth

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from that afternoon.

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That's what reading a
Felicia Zamora poem is like.

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To quote her poem,
"A Lesson", so that

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later on our back
branches tickle the stars,

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rub fast their distant warmth.

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The last thing that I wanted to
say about Felicia Zamora's work

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is that not only can
you feel that she

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is this magnet for
the world, I also

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think that after reading her
work, there's an openness to it

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that I really, really enjoyed.

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So I just want to
welcome Felicia Zamora.

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Thank you.