[APPLAUSE]
That was killer.
Thank you.
It's so nice to be here surrounded
by many of our alums, some of whom I taught, some of whom
I did not, and to be here celebrating this program, which
has been a big part of my life.
This is the place I've lived probably now
longer than any other place, which feels strange to say,
but it's true.
So it's really great to be with you all here tonight.
And shout out to all the people who
directed the program in the past, Susan Briante and Manuel
Muñoz, who can't be here tonight.
Kate, who's doing it now, Aurelie Sheehan,
who did it for many years and is in my mind with Alison
Deming, also a program director, the heart of the program,
shout out to you all.
You did well to build this thing.
But let's talk about Aisha.
I met Aisha Sabatini Sloan in 2008
in my campus interview for the job I now hold.
I don't know if you remember this.
Probably you do.
I didn't get to read any of her work
as part of the workshop I taught in my visit, which
didn't go super well.
But I met Aisha and a handful of other MFA students
over coffee to talk about the program, their experiences
in it, and what they most valued in the faculty and community.
Part of what I was trying to understand,
thinking about whether I wanted to enter
the long story of Arizona's MFA, was what kinds of students
were here, what kind of community this was,
and what they thought nonfiction was,
and more importantly, could be.
Of course, I remember the students
I met then that I would go on to work with closely, Beck
and Lisa and Kristin and Jennie.
Shout out to you all.
I remember you and your work often and fondly.
But of the Arizona students I never
got the chance to work with, I mostly
remember Aisha Sabatini Sloan.
Aisha's intelligent vision and empathy
were as obvious then in that conversation in 2008
as they are clear to me now as the engines that
drive her work.
I took the job.
Any program that had thinkers like this
seemed really going to be a good thing to invest in.
And unlike my Dogecoin, it's been a good investment.
[LAUGHTER]
Shout out to FDX.
[LAUGHTER]
With each of Aisha's four books so far,
her work has expanded in its ambition, formal intelligence,
its deviousness, its heart, and its execution.
I devoured each book as it came out,
each one teaching me something new about what
nonfiction is capable of doing.
I particularly love and often teach
an essay with a long title from Dreaming of Ramadi in Detroit,
the title is "Playlist for a Road Trip
with Your Father in Honor of his 74th Birthday," which
happens to coincide with the occasion of Prince's death
and the release of Lemonade.
This is always a hit when I teach it.
I taught it again this semester.
A couple of my students are here and remember that.
Like the book, this essay is beguiling and wise,
hilarious and weird, clear-seeing and clear-feeling.
And also for me, a great introduction
to her dad, who is I guess you'd have
to call him a collaborator.
Lester Sloan, who we meet in this essay, who
I met in this essay, is also one of her most memorable subjects
and a powerful influence, and occasionally, I
think even a bit of an antagonist, and clearly
a hell of a photographer and for sure an unforgettable guy.
I know this because in her most recent book
Captioning the Archives, out last year from McSweeney's,
Aisha and her dad go through his considerable photographic
archives and talk about the photographs and the stories
around them.
It's a fantastic and extremely entertaining read.
I audibly gasped often reading it
as we casually encounter some extremely famous people
in surprising and illuminating ways
and go deeper into his life and Aisha's and the relationship,
as it's described and performed in the back and forth.
One of the things I really like about the book is also like,
I cannot imagine writing this book with my dad.
But you are able to hold back so beautifully in there.
It's a wonderful performance.
And really it's a great book.
I've had such a blast reading it.
Captioning the Archives makes for a lovely pairing
with Borealis, a travelogue and meditation
on the meaning of place and being and blackness
in the Alaskan outdoors, that is as
much about the strangeness of the place as of being
and being in the place, and taught me something new
about looking.
Just this last week, I saw the news
that Aisha signed a contract for her next book of essays
with Graywolf.
And on behalf of the three of our faculty
who all have books out from Graywolf this fall, shout out
to Bojan and Manuel, I'd like to extend a formal welcome
to the pack.
I think I'm supposed to make a howling sound
but I'm not going to.
[LAUGHTER]
Aisha, it's been such a pleasure to read your work
and to know that it's such an important part of the Arizona
MFA story and to have you back here
tonight to help us celebrate that whole story.
So welcome Aisha Sabatini Sloan back to the U of A.
[APPLAUSE]