[APPLAUSE]
Thank you.
I'm really happy to be here.
I'm losing my voice.
I'm going to keep it short.
I'm so honored to be sharing this evening
with my good friends in one of my favorite cities.
It's truly an honor to be in Tucson for a reading from
Hormone of Darkness by Tilsa Otta and translated by Farid
Matuk as Graywolf celebrates its 50th anniversary.
This milestone is a testament to the power of poetry
and its ability to connect us across time, culture
and distance.
Over the past five decades, we have committed ourselves
to publishing writers who widen our understanding
of the human experience.
And translation reminds us that literature transcends
borders and active cultural stewardship
and as an act of empathy.
This collection is drawn from four poetry collections
across Otta's career.
About Hormone of Darkness, Brandon Shimoda
writes, "This hormone is pulling me at last out of the darkness
and toward an optimism I thought long since burned out.
The Hormone of Darkness is a brand new lightning old slow
motion perreo play everlasting planetarium tattooed on the body
of the angel of intimate futurity."
And I want to just say that Tilsa's work was--
she was one of the very first authors
that I knew that I wanted to bring to Graywolf when
I took the position.
So I was very honored to have the opportunity.
And I knew that Farid was the one
person I wanted to be in conversation
with about this work as well.
Tilsa has published five collections of poems
and the queer novel Lxs niñxs de oro de la alquimia sexual,
which is also over there.
A multimedia artist, Otta works across video, illustration,
and text, and lives in Mexico and Peru.
Farid Matuk, our beloved Farid Matuk
has authored several books, and their translations
have appeared in Kadar Koli, Bombay Gin, Translation Review,
and Mandorla.
They have received fellowships from the Headlands
Center for the Arts in the United States artists.
The Tucson community, and especially the Poetry Center,
such a key partner to Graywolf's success.
This anniversary is not just a celebration of our past,
but a commitment to translating the unspoken
and ensuring that stories are shared far beyond their origins.
So I want to thank everyone in the room who
has been part of this journey into the poets,
translators, and readers who make this work possible.
Here's to the next 50 years of fearless publishing
and boundless storytelling.
Thank you and enjoy the evening, and I can't wait to hear--
this is the first time I'll be hearing these two together.
And I think this is actually the first time you'll
be reading together in general.
So we're very lucky tonight.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]