I have a few announcements to make before the reading.
First of all, as most of you know,
The Poetry Center sponsors a contest, a poetry contest,
every year for graduate students and undergraduate students.
And the first prize is a $100 prize
given by the Academy of American Poets.
I'm pleased to announce that this year's judge, Greg Pape,
has made the selections.
And the first prize winner is Luke Yelman.
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And we have four second prize winners, David Scott Penn,
Chris Sullivan, Chris Weidenbach, and Jack Wang.
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And two honorable mentions, Eric Burkholz and Maggie Golston.
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So our sincere congratulations go to those winners.
And you can hear them reading from their work
here on March 29.
A couple of other events I'd like
to announce that are coming up sooner than
that, Friday, the day after tomorrow,
there's a chance to hear three really
distinguished women writers who write
about the West in a kind of informal panel discussion.
The natural history writer, Ann Zwinger, Navajo poet Luci
Tapahonso, and rancher, poet, and fiction writer, Jane Candia
Coleman will be giving a panel discussion called Women,
Writing, the American West.
It's going to be Friday, March 3,
in the library in room A- 313, from 10:00 to 11:30 AM.
I should tell you, some of you have
been asking about whether Tony's book is available.
AUSA Bookstore is here tonight with Sweet Ruin.
So, I'm sure Tony would be very happy to sign
the book after the reading, if you haven't got a copy,
or even if you already have a copy.
As many of you know, Tony Hoagland
is an alumnus of our MFA program here.
He's received many other honors for his work,
including an NEA, an Arizona Commission on the Arts grant,
a fellowship from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown,
and other awards.
When his book, Sweet Ruin, won the 1992 Brittingham Prize
in Poetry from the University of Wisconsin,
it was no surprise to the many admirers
of his work, who had known that his poems deserved wide reading
and praise.
The book has become one of those talked about books,
the kind that gives words, through liquid and thoughtful
storytelling, to the real tensions and dilemmas of living.
The kind that reminds us what poetry
is good for, getting to the troubled heart of the matter
with bite and sweetness.
Please welcome back Tony Hoagland.
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