Hey, everybody, welcome.
How are you all?
Woo!
Good.
More pointing to the sky.
Poetry on a Thursday night.
Glad you're here.
Thanks for coming, everybody.
My name is Tyler.
I work here as the Director at the Poetry Center.
It's a great gift to have a chance
to do these on Thursday nights, and it
takes the support of many people to make it happen.
And so really thrilled to be able to do this in Tucson
and to welcome Tilsa Otta here and Farid Matuk for the reading
that's happening this evening.
That's right.
Round of applause.
This reading is part of a series that we do annually
here at the Poetry Center that we
call the Hannelore Quander-Rattee works
in translation reading.
And it's an annual program that celebrates the life and work
of Hannelore Quander-Rattee by bringing practicing poets
and translators to participate and read in Tucson
and be part of what's happening here in the Tucson poetry scene.
Hannelore herself was a heartbeat
of the poetry scene in Tucson.
She was managing editor of the Prickly Pear Tucson, a poetry
quarterly.
She co-directed the Mosaic reading series
and served on the Tucson Poetry Festival committee
to build those festival adventures each time
they happened each year.
She worked on her own poems and translated work into German,
especially fond of the work of Günter Eich.
Her translation of his radio play
Tiger Jusuf was produced on Arizona Public Radio
and working with William Pitt Root, who's over here.
She also translated the poems of Heinrich Böll.
Hannelore's poems themselves and translations appeared
in the Sonora Review, Poetry International, Star Web Paper,
Prickly Pear Tucson, Brushfire, Turquoise Tears, Nucari,
Tucson Weekly, Fennel, Stock, Laundromat, and others.
So a round of applause for Hannelore and her memory.
[APPLAUSE]
So to celebrate tonight, Tilsa has traveled all the way
from Mexico City to be with us through flight delays, arriving
in Tucson late last night.
We're thrilled that Tilsa is here.
It's been a beautiful couple of days just getting
to know her a little bit.
And she's here with her translator, Farid Matuk,
the most recent translator of her work from Spanish.
And their book together, The Hormone of Darkness,
was published this year by Graywolf Press
and is available for sale on this table over here,
if you're lucky and in line first.
Come and buy those.
I'm really delighted to also share
that tonight is a collaboration with Graywolf Press itself,
one of our most important and vital literary presses.
Everyone's read books by Graywolf?
Good work, those hands, yeah.
Very good.
Executive Director and Publisher Carmen Giménez
is here to celebrate with us.
Graywolf is celebrating their 50th anniversary of doing
the work that they do, and it is a beautiful legacy and worth its
own applause to celebrate.
[APPLAUSE]
I think there's a pretty good chance
that we have most of the poetry books
that have been published in those 50 years across the way.
And it's a great gift to know the work that Graywolf has done
and that Graywolf continues to do for writers and for words
and for all of us.
And so before I welcome up Carmen
to tell us more about Farid and Tilsa,
just a couple of other quick housekeeping things.
Two more readings coming up in the next month.
Three more readings in this season, in the fall.
And we're excited to tell you more about the spring season,
which we're just finishing up.
And those materials will come out in our marketing
relatively soon.
This November, the two readings that are going to happen.
November 7, there's a reading from the poet Roger Reeves.
We're so excited about his visit.
His book, Best Barbarian, was a finalist for the National Book
Award, and it was a winner of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award.
So that's November 7, 7:00 o'clock back here at the Poetry
Center, same space.
Hope you'll come and join us and participate and help
welcome Roger to Tucson.
And then I also want to mention that on Thursday, November 21,
we have a reading from the poet Hala Alyan in collaboration
with the Center for Middle Eastern studies
here at the University of Arizona.
We're really excited about Hala's visit.
So please come back.
That's also at 7:00 o'clock back here at the Poetry Center.
So November 7, November 21, you'll
be all set on your Thursdays.
At least two of them in November.
We'll see you here.
I mentioned those books are for sale.
And just to say it again, those books are for sale.
So after the reading, you know what to do and go find those.
I know Tilsa and Farid will be happy to sign them
and to connect with you.
And with that, I just want to say it's my great pleasure
to welcome back to Tucson, but to also welcome up
to this podium, Carmen Giménez, and to celebrate her work
as Executive Director and Publisher of Graywolf
Press, their 50 years of operating most
beautifully and doing the incredible work that they
do with the press.
Giménez is the author of six collections of poetry herself.
And most recently, the terrific book Be Recorder.
Please help me welcome Carmen Giménez to tell us
more about Farid and Susan.
[APPLAUSE]