WEBVTT

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Diana, I didn't know you had the
power to control the weather.

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[LAUGHTER]

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I knew you were very
extraordinary, but that's--

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I'm very impressed.

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We must talk.

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I'm actually not
introducing Joy Williams,

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I'm introducing the introducer
because this is the Poetry

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Center, and what would it
be without the introducer

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to the introducer, but
welcome to the University

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of Arizona MFA Programs
2022 Distinguished Visitor

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Series in Creative
Writing previously

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known as the Prose Series.

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I'm Kate Bernheimer, a
professor of English,

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and I coordinate the series.

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This event will last
around 45 minutes

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for those of you whose
first reading this is,

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and I know it is
for some of you,

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because I see students here.

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You've told me.

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So welcome to everyone.

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I hope you brought some hot
toddies, or hot chocolate,

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or blankets, this is great.

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I also want to thank tonight
the Poetry Center's staff,

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especially Diana and Paola
for their generous support

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of this event and the poetry--

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I mean, the MFA
students, I'm sorry.

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Dure, Lucia, Jeremy, and Aria,
and anyone else who showed up

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for helping set up and then
staying later and breaking down

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chairs for us.

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That's just really
incredible, thank you.

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And thanks to all
the other people.

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[CLAPPING]

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Oh, thank you.

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We really have just
an amazing community

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of graduate students here.

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You're so lucky.

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Thank you to the
Department of English

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for supporting this
little series that could

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and to the UA bookstore
staff whom I think

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are here with books for sale.

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Through the rituals
of storytelling,

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we connect to ancient
times and to each other.

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Staged readings like this
imitate the hearth side,

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imitate caves, whether in person
or over the ether tonight,

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because we're joined
from around the world

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by a number of
audience members you

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have made the bold old
move of cherishing wonder,

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so thank you.

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I am not only a professor
in the MFA program.

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I am a graduate of it.

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Around 30 years ago,
I moved to Tucson,

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because I loved
the desert, and I

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loved the work of Joy Williams,
and I wanted to study with her,

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and I've been
studying ever since.

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I've learned so much
from Joy Williams.

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I know for one thing, there
is no such thing as a vodka

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martini, because I made
the mistake of ordering one

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in her presence, to
her horror, and I

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know how to speak tortoise.

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I also know I would be too
nervous to introduce her

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to you tonight.

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And so it is my pleasure
that this honor goes

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to one of my current students.

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How strange it is that things
go full circle like this.

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Brian Randall is an MFA
candidate in fiction

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here at the University of
Arizona, and some of you

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may be enrolled in his courses,
because our graduate students

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have a really important
job as teachers,

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as well as coursework
as students.

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I'm proud to share that
Brian Randall's work has

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been published in the Penn
Review, among other places.

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I'm going to share with you two
brief passages from a haunting

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story of Brian's called The
Black Thread that I recently

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read, which reminds me
so much of Joy Williams.

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His work, like hers, is
quietly spirited, spiritual,

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cautious, and wise.

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She showed them to
me in the morning.

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The dry husks of their skin
picked from the brittle weeds

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below the kitchen window.

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I could hold them for a moment.

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Feel the sharp edges of
the diamond shaped scales

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and the smooth rungs
of the underbelly

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before they started to
disintegrate in my hands,

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leaving behind a flaky dust
that seemed to cling to my palms

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for the rest of the day.

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Gram kept them in the jar.

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One with a heavy glass lid.

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For what?

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I don't know.

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I think she just liked
to collect things,

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to keep whatever objects
she found that seemed

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just shy of ordinary.

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A vacant bird's nest
dry and brittle,

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a jewelry box
painted with parrots.

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Gram is in the sitting room.

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The black thread lays
in a tangled mess

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over her lap dangling from
her outstretched fingers

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in a frantic mockery
of a cat's cradle,

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trailing all the way
down to the floor.

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She looks down at it
puzzled, then up at me.

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Can you thread the
needle for me, dear?

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It's here somewhere.

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Oh, sometimes it
feels like my head

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has a hole in it for
everything to just slip

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in and out as it pleases.

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Grandma, maybe we should
put it away for tonight.

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How about some tea?

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It will help me sleep.

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When I go back,
Gram has a shoebox

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of photographs open on her lap.

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She's shuffling through
a stack of them.

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Look, she says.

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I remember it like
it was yesterday.

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Granny Edna with her
little dog, Chief.

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Please join me in welcoming
Brian Randall or Chief.

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