Everyone is invited to this special event

The University of Arizona Press, Special Collections, and the University of Arizona Poetry Center present: Celebrating Light As Light: A Poetry Reading by Simon J. Ortiz, with University of Arizona Regents Professor Ofelia Zepeda.

Join us to commemorate Ortiz’s first collection of poems in 20 years: Light As Light. Ortiz will read from his latest book, followed by a conversation with fellow poet Zepeda. A book signing and reception will take place with books available for purchase.

Details

• Tuesday, Jan. 30
• 6-8pm
• Special Collections Reading Room
• Free and open to the public, but seating is limited. REGISTRATION IS FULL

About 'Light As Light'

Light As Light's poems celebrate the wonders and joy of love in the present while also looking back with both humorous and serious reflections on youth and the stories, scenes, people, and places that shape a person’s life. The collection brims with giddy, wistful long-distance love poems that offer a dialogue between the speaker and his beloved.

Written in Ortiz’s signature conversational style, this volume claims poetry for everyday life as the poems find the speaker on a morning run, burnt out from academic responsibilities, missing his beloved, reflecting on sobriety, walking the dog, and pondering the act of poem making. The collection also includes prayer poems written for the speaker’s son; poems that retell traditional Acoma stories and history; and poems that engage environmental, political, and social justice issues—making for a well-rounded collection that blends the playful and the profound.

Simon J. Ortiz

Simon J. Ortiz (Acoma Pueblo) is a poet, fiction writer, essayist, and storyteller, and a retired Regents Professor of English and American Indian Studies at Arizona State University. Ortiz is the author of Out There Somewhere, Men on the Moon: Collected Short Stories, After and Before the Lightning, Woven Stone, and from Sand Creek. He is also the editor of Beyond the Reach of Time and Change: Native American Reflections on the Frank A. Rinehart Photograph Collection and Speaking for the Generations: Native Writers on Writing, as well as the author of the children’s book, The Good Rainbow Road. I

n 1982, Ortiz won a Pushcart Prize for from Sand Creek. He is also the recipient of the Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Writer’s Award, the New Mexico Humanities Council Humanitarian Award, the National Endowment for the Arts Discovery Award, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and he was an Honored Poet at the 1981 White House Salute to Poetry. In 1993, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Returning the Gift Festival of Native Writers (the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers) and the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas.

The University of Arizona Press

The University of Arizona Press (UA Press) is the premier publisher of academic, regional, and literary works in the state of Arizona. UA Press disseminates ideas and knowledge of lasting value that enrich understanding, inspire curiosity, and enlighten readers. UA Press advances the University of Arizona’s mission by connecting scholarship and creative expression to readers worldwide.