[APPLAUSE]
Thank you, Julie.
Thank you for those stellar and lunar and planetary amazing
poems.
I'm going to do something real quickly.
I want to take a picture of you all for Derek who, as you know,
couldn't be here in person but is right behind me.
Hey, Derek.
And let me just--
I don't know if he can see you.
I'll send these to him.
Smiles, everyone.
Smiles.
Thank you.
It is my pleasure to introduce the very large Derek Sheffield.
As of three Derek--
[LAUGHTER]
As of three days ago-- actually, hold on.
Since Derek is not here in person,
I have his books to showcase as I introduce him.
As of three days ago, Derek Sheffield
is the winner of a 2024 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award
for Cascadia Field Guide--
Art, Ecology, Poetry, which I have right here
and which you can buy over there for $25.
[APPLAUSE]
Congrats, brother.
His other collections include Not
for Luck, selected by Mark Doty for the Wheelbarrow Books
Poetry Prize, and Through the Second Skin, which I have here.
And then, but wait, there's more, Dear America--
Letters of Hope, Habitat, Defiance,
and Democracy, which I must say is a really amazing book.
And I don't just say that because I'm
one of the coeditors.
I say that because you can buy it right over there.
[LAUGHTER]
He teaches in Western Colorado University's Low Residency MFA
program, edits poetry for some journal called terrain.org,
and can often be found in the woods along the eastern slopes
of the Cascade Range near Leavenworth, Washington.
Derek, thank you for being part of our celebration,
whether you are in person or not.