[APPLAUSE]
Thank you, Tyler, so much.
Superstar evening for a superstar.
Thank you, Natasha.
I have to bring this.
This is on my bookshelf.
The book that was in that moment.
And to think that I get a chance to say a few words
about the translator.
But we're going to close out the distinguished visitor series.
It's commencement time, and it's always a time of celebration.
In doing so, I want to acknowledge
that there is some continued good news
for our creative writing program.
There are a lot of first books that are coming.
There are some stories that are being accepted and published.
And the theses are being completed as we speak.
But there are some major recognitions
that I would like to mention.
Faculty member Bojan Louis, Bojan, I saw him here,
and MFA alum, Raquel Gutiérrez, Raquel is here as well,
were both named recipients of the United States Artists
Fellowships earlier this spring.
[APPLAUSE]
And just a few weeks ago, MFA alum Aisha Sabatini Sloan,
was awarded a Whiting Writers Award.
So there's a number of good things
that have been coming out for creative writing.
And I give you that good news because it's been
mostly bad news, to be honest.
The distinguished visitor series was very fortunate
this academic year to bookend the semester
with literary offerings because of the collaborations
with the Poetry Center, and notably, the Borchard Center
on Literary Arts.
Our funding was extremely limited this academic year.
But thanks to the Borchard Center and their mission
to, quote, create a community of literary artists
from across the Americas to foster meaningful connections
between people, culture, and the natural world,
we were able to host the writer, Brenda Lozano, last August
and tonight, Natasha Wimmer.
Now more than ever, fostering meaningful connections
is crucial to breaking past the cruelty
behind those forces trying to sever those connections.
To find common purpose and human connection,
it is necessary to hear how others render their hard times
or how others use art not as a receptacle for false hope,
but action and power.
History happens to all of us, is written by all of us worldwide.
But we are limited by our language,
and we count on the translators to help untangle the knots
of our limited knowledge.
They straighten us out, speak to a multitude of struggles,
illuminate multiple pasts.
They are, I think, our greatest literary practitioners.
Wimmer herself says that she is not a writer,
but is careful to illuminate the particular task
of the translator.
She's very much-- she's very much a carrier of wisdom,
as are all translators, blessed with the ability
to speak the intricate cadences of experience we all so
desperately need to hear and learn from.
We welcome Natasha from the East Coast, where she teaches
at both Princeton and Columbia.
She is renowned as a translator of books
by Roberto Bolaño, Mario Vargas Llosa, and most recently, Nona
Fernandez and Álvaro Enrique, whose novel,
You Dreamed of Empires, is over on that table, translated
by Natasha, was named one of the 10 best books of 2024
by The New York Times.
So I ask you to give a Tucson bienvenida to Natasha Wimmer.
[APPLAUSE]