Thank you all for coming out.
So I'm Ander Monson.
And I'm directing the prose series.
And this is the last of our events for the year.
So thank you so much for your support
and for coming out to see what probably going to be the best.
It's odd actually that Mary Ruefle
doesn't count as the prose series
because you could definitely call her a prose writer
or can call her a poet.
I don't think she cares, as long as you call her.
So I will say a reminder, time to silence your cell
phone in case it's not obvious.
It's pretty embarrassing when it goes off
and your ringtone is "Take My Breath Away" by Berlin.
If it's not, then feel free to leave it on.
So I'd like to say thanks to the English department,
the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences,
and the Poets and Writers grant that's
helped to partially underwrite this evening.
I don't have a lot else to say except that I'm really excited.
These are two of my favorite writers
who will be reading here tonight.
And we're going to read in alphabetical order.
If you are interested in asking questions afterwards,
we'll have a brief Q and A, no obligation.
But if you have questions, they'll
happily answer a couple of them.
And of course they have books.
First, we'll have Elena Passarello
introduced by Caleb Klitzke.
And then, we'll have David Shields
introduced by Dorian Rolston.
So I'll hand it over to Caleb with that, the hype-man.