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Joshua Marie Wilkinson was
born and raised in Seattle,

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and he's the author of two
book-length poems, "Suspension

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of a Secret in Abandoned
Rooms," published in 2005,

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and most recently,
"Lug Your Careless

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Body out of the Careful Dusk,"
which won the 2005 Iowa Poetry

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Prize.

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His work has appeared
in numerous journals,

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and he holds an MFA from
the University of Arizona

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and an MA in Film Studies from
University College Dublin.

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Presently, he works as an
editor for the Denver Quarterly

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and teaches courses in
Literature and Creative

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Writing at the University
of Denver, where he's

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completing a PhD in Literature.

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A new book of prose, poems, and
anthology, a documentary film,

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and a book of collaborations
with poet Noah Eli Gordon

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are all underway.

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The poems in "Lug Your Careless
Body out of the Careful Dusk"

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have a rhythmical suspension, a
constant postponing of closure,

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which has less to do
with the act of finishing

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than the act of perceiving.

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For Wilkinson, the
person perceiving

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is more changeable than
the object perceived.

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For instance, Wilkinson writes,
"here, where the poem begins,

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ladders again.

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The little girl ventured
with candy and a

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"nearly" on her lips.

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The ladder has more
permanence in the girl

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and offers the possibility not
of taking her to another place,

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but of bringing her to some
other incarnation of herself."

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When Wilkinson
re-enters a situation,

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he does it from the far side,
from an unexpected angle.

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He writes as though he were
traveling through a city

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by transposing himself into
its many bustling bodies.

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An appropriate vantage
point for Wilkinson,

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given that he writes,
"cities are for breaking you

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into several people at once."

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Please help me in
welcoming Joshua.

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[APPLAUSE]