WEBVTT

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[CHEERING]

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It is such an honor for me to
be here introducing Ander Monson

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and his newest book Predator.

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If you don't know,
Monson's Predator,

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which, fittingly,
anagrams to nontrad poems,

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pays a personal
and critical homage

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to the action movie
of the same name.

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At the time he wrote
this book, Ander

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had watched Predator
a total of 146 times,

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a feat which, back-to-back,
would take nearly 11 full days

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without sleeping.

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[LAUGHTER]

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And by the way, in the
same amount of time,

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one could also listen to
another of Ander's favorites

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"Spice Up Your Life" by the
Spice Girls 9,704 times,

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which I hope is the
premise of his next book.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Oftentimes, our desire
to rewatch or reread

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a piece of art is
driven by our desire

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to recreate the sense
of joy or discovery

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in that initial experience,
to feel transported back

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in time to the magic we
found and felt belonged to us

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and us to it from
first encounter.

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The first time I
encountered Ander's work,

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I was a college sophomore
in Eula Biss's intro

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to creative nonfiction class,
and I was so far convinced

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that nonfiction was just
fiction's boring ugly sibling.

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[LAUGHTER]

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It wasn't until Eula handed
us Ander's infamous Harvard

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outline essay that I understood
the secret and beautiful

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underworld concealed
within that non

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that a truly great
essayist has the capacity

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to break apart seemingly
solid structures

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and make a mind of the self.

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Every subsequent
project of Ander's

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that I've read since
Predator much included

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has felt to me like
a perfect sequel,

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loyal to this endeavor's
original mission,

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yet always reinventing itself.

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But it was that
first encounter which

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changed forever the person who
I am as a reader and writer.

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Just as for Ander,
Predator served

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as a paradigm of a certain
genre of '80s action movies.

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Ander's writing for me became
the epitome and pinnacle

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of a genre that I grew to love.

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In a literary way, Ander
was my Schwarzenegger.

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[LAUGHTER]

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While I'm up here today
to honor Ander's writing,

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I'd be remiss not to also
mention and celebrate

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what Ander himself means
to the MFA program,

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to the Tucson writing community,
to the Assessment Matters,

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or Ass Matters, Institute--

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[LAUGHTER]

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And to so many of us
who are gathered here.

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He is a writer, mentor, and
teacher of the highest caliber.

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Last year I was lucky to
have Ander advise my MFA

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thesis, which was about the
ending of one of my best

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friendships.

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I would have killed over
and died, very literally,

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if someone had told
me in undergrad

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that the author of the
Harvard outline essay

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would one day be sliding
bunches of Jimmy John's napkins

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across the table
to me on a day when

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I was weeping in our meeting.

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[CHUCKLING]

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And in almost identical
fashion, reading

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Predator feels like a sacred
offering of friendship,

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or at least feels
to me like the gift

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of watching a movie alongside
a close friend of yours,

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who has seen the movie
a thousand times,

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and whose deep knowledge,
generous praise,

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and occasionally brutal
and thoughtful criticism

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actually outshines
the movie itself.

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Ander is the author
of nine books,

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including most recently
The Gnome Stories,

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I Will Take The Answer, and
Letter to a Future Lover,

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all out from Graywolf
in addition to Predator.

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He also edits Diagram, Essay
Daily, New Michigan Press,

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and March Xness.

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Please help me welcome
to the mic, Ander Monson.

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[APPLAUSE]

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