WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.240 align:middle line:84%
I'm Mark Wunderlich, the acting
director of the University

00:00:03.240 --> 00:00:04.650 align:middle line:90%
of Arizona Poetry Center.

00:00:04.650 --> 00:00:07.980 align:middle line:84%
And I want to thank you all
for coming here tonight.

00:00:07.980 --> 00:00:09.520 align:middle line:90%
I have a few announcements.

00:00:09.520 --> 00:00:13.950 align:middle line:84%
First, I would like to announce
the winners of the 1996 Poetry

00:00:13.950 --> 00:00:17.370 align:middle line:84%
Center student writing awards
presented in collaboration

00:00:17.370 --> 00:00:20.730 align:middle line:84%
with the Academy of American
Poets and the student activities

00:00:20.730 --> 00:00:24.030 align:middle line:84%
boards, student
activities board.

00:00:24.030 --> 00:00:27.780 align:middle line:84%
First prize goes to
Anthony Madrid followed

00:00:27.780 --> 00:00:32.820 align:middle line:84%
by Luke Shanahan, Matt Copeland,
Chris Weidenbach, and Hope

00:00:32.820 --> 00:00:34.320 align:middle line:90%
Vilsick Greenwell.

00:00:34.320 --> 00:00:38.610 align:middle line:84%
And winners were chosen by
the poet Agha Shahid Ali.

00:00:38.610 --> 00:00:40.710 align:middle line:84%
And I want to
congratulate those winners

00:00:40.710 --> 00:00:43.710 align:middle line:84%
and let you all know that you
can hear these poets reading

00:00:43.710 --> 00:00:46.180 align:middle line:84%
from their work at our
annual awards reading,

00:00:46.180 --> 00:00:49.020 align:middle line:84%
which will take place here in
Modern Languages on April 3.

00:00:49.020 --> 00:00:59.780 align:middle line:90%


00:00:59.780 --> 00:01:03.320 align:middle line:84%
The next reading in our series
will be the poet Pat Mora,

00:01:03.320 --> 00:01:07.460 align:middle line:84%
and will take place next
Wednesday, March 27 at 8:00 PM.

00:01:07.460 --> 00:01:11.030 align:middle line:84%
That event is co-sponsored by
the Academy of American Poets.

00:01:11.030 --> 00:01:15.000 align:middle line:84%
In conjunction with
Pat's reading on Tuesday,

00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:17.990 align:middle line:84%
March 26 in the Modern
Languages auditorium,

00:01:17.990 --> 00:01:19.610 align:middle line:84%
the Women's Studies
program will be

00:01:19.610 --> 00:01:22.940 align:middle line:84%
screening the film The
Desert Is No Lady, which

00:01:22.940 --> 00:01:26.330 align:middle line:84%
features southwestern women
writers, including Pat Mora.

00:01:26.330 --> 00:01:28.700 align:middle line:84%
And for more information
on that screening,

00:01:28.700 --> 00:01:32.450 align:middle line:84%
you can call the
Women's Studies program.

00:01:32.450 --> 00:01:34.550 align:middle line:84%
Copies of Terry
Tempest Williams' book

00:01:34.550 --> 00:01:38.810 align:middle line:84%
are for sale in the lobby
compliments of ASUA bookstore.

00:01:38.810 --> 00:01:42.530 align:middle line:84%
And they are available
at a 10% discount.

00:01:42.530 --> 00:01:45.080 align:middle line:84%
Terry will be unable to sign
books after the reading.

00:01:45.080 --> 00:01:48.260 align:middle line:84%
But there are a limited
number of signed copies

00:01:48.260 --> 00:01:49.550 align:middle line:90%
available for sale.

00:01:49.550 --> 00:01:54.680 align:middle line:84%
And those are for sale on a
first come, first served basis.

00:01:54.680 --> 00:01:57.920 align:middle line:84%
This reading was made
possible by grant support

00:01:57.920 --> 00:02:00.290 align:middle line:84%
from the University
of Arizona Foundation

00:02:00.290 --> 00:02:04.070 align:middle line:84%
and the Arizona
Commission on the Arts.

00:02:04.070 --> 00:02:05.960 align:middle line:84%
Terry Tempest
Williams is the author

00:02:05.960 --> 00:02:09.560 align:middle line:84%
of five books of nonfiction,
the most recent of which

00:02:09.560 --> 00:02:12.470 align:middle line:84%
is Desert Quartet:
an Erotic Landscape

00:02:12.470 --> 00:02:15.980 align:middle line:90%
issued by Pantheon in 1995.

00:02:15.980 --> 00:02:20.510 align:middle line:84%
Her other books include An
Unspoken Hunger; Refuge:

00:02:20.510 --> 00:02:24.260 align:middle line:84%
An Unnatural History
of Family and Place;

00:02:24.260 --> 00:02:28.190 align:middle line:84%
Coyote's Canyon; and
Pieces of White Shell:

00:02:28.190 --> 00:02:31.040 align:middle line:90%
a Journey to Navajo Land.

00:02:31.040 --> 00:02:34.580 align:middle line:84%
Williams was identified by
Newsweek as someone who will

00:02:34.580 --> 00:02:38.580 align:middle line:84%
make, quote, "a considerable
impact on the political,

00:02:38.580 --> 00:02:42.770 align:middle line:84%
economic, and environmental
issues facing the Western states

00:02:42.770 --> 00:02:45.060 align:middle line:90%
in this decade."

00:02:45.060 --> 00:02:47.960 align:middle line:84%
She is the recipient of a
Lannan Fellowship in creative

00:02:47.960 --> 00:02:52.760 align:middle line:84%
nonfiction and was chosen by
the Utne Reader as a visionary,

00:02:52.760 --> 00:02:58.040 align:middle line:84%
one of the, quote, "Utne 100
who could change your life."

00:02:58.040 --> 00:03:00.740 align:middle line:84%
She is naturalist in
residence at the Utah

00:03:00.740 --> 00:03:05.780 align:middle line:84%
Museum of Natural History
in Salt Lake City.

00:03:05.780 --> 00:03:09.170 align:middle line:84%
In a letter written to
a friend in the 1870s,

00:03:09.170 --> 00:03:13.820 align:middle line:84%
Emily Dickinson wrote, quote,
"nature is a haunted house,

00:03:13.820 --> 00:03:18.920 align:middle line:84%
while art is a house
trying to be haunted."

00:03:18.920 --> 00:03:23.480 align:middle line:84%
These lines link for the reader
the realms of nature and art,

00:03:23.480 --> 00:03:27.320 align:middle line:84%
indicating what separates
them, but illustrating

00:03:27.320 --> 00:03:30.890 align:middle line:84%
that both art and
nature are haunted,

00:03:30.890 --> 00:03:35.240 align:middle line:84%
possessing at their
center a spirit.

00:03:35.240 --> 00:03:38.480 align:middle line:84%
Over 100 years later,
Terry Tempest Williams

00:03:38.480 --> 00:03:41.570 align:middle line:84%
has written five books
whose poetic prose

00:03:41.570 --> 00:03:46.790 align:middle line:84%
blurs the distinctions imposed
upon the personal, political,

00:03:46.790 --> 00:03:50.750 align:middle line:84%
spiritual, and aesthetic
realms of the psyche,

00:03:50.750 --> 00:03:53.270 align:middle line:84%
stressing for her
readers that there

00:03:53.270 --> 00:03:57.200 align:middle line:84%
is no distinction between
exterior and interior

00:03:57.200 --> 00:04:03.290 align:middle line:84%
landscapes, that these
borders are fluid, not fixed.

00:04:03.290 --> 00:04:06.260 align:middle line:84%
Dickinson's poetry
about the natural world

00:04:06.260 --> 00:04:10.580 align:middle line:84%
is remarkable for its keen
eye and naturalist's tools

00:04:10.580 --> 00:04:12.080 align:middle line:90%
of observation.

00:04:12.080 --> 00:04:14.360 align:middle line:84%
Dickinson studied
the natural sciences

00:04:14.360 --> 00:04:16.100 align:middle line:90%
throughout her lifetime.

00:04:16.100 --> 00:04:19.079 align:middle line:84%
And the same is
true of Williams.

00:04:19.079 --> 00:04:22.070 align:middle line:84%
She is among our finest
naturalist writers,

00:04:22.070 --> 00:04:26.960 align:middle line:84%
from Emerson, and Thoreau, to
Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson,

00:04:26.960 --> 00:04:31.280 align:middle line:84%
and Edward Abbey, articulating
that which does not easily

00:04:31.280 --> 00:04:34.370 align:middle line:84%
transform itself into
language and helping

00:04:34.370 --> 00:04:37.040 align:middle line:84%
us remember what we
through confusion,

00:04:37.040 --> 00:04:41.660 align:middle line:84%
or ignorance, or pain
may have forgotten.

00:04:41.660 --> 00:04:46.310 align:middle line:84%
In her book Refuge: An Unnatural
History of Family and Place,

00:04:46.310 --> 00:04:51.470 align:middle line:84%
Williams writes, and I quote,
"if the desert is holy,

00:04:51.470 --> 00:04:55.010 align:middle line:84%
it is because it is a
forgotten place that allows

00:04:55.010 --> 00:04:57.770 align:middle line:90%
us to remember the sacred.

00:04:57.770 --> 00:05:01.520 align:middle line:84%
Perhaps that is why every
pilgrimage to the desert

00:05:01.520 --> 00:05:04.710 align:middle line:90%
is a pilgrimage to the self.

00:05:04.710 --> 00:05:06.860 align:middle line:90%
There is no place to hide.

00:05:06.860 --> 00:05:09.620 align:middle line:90%
And so we are found."

00:05:09.620 --> 00:05:12.770 align:middle line:84%
It is my great pleasure
to introduce Terry Tempest

00:05:12.770 --> 00:05:14.320 align:middle line:90%
Williams.

00:05:14.320 --> 00:05:32.174 align:middle line:90%