Upcoming Events

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A tribute to Steve Orlen will be held at the University of Arizona Poetry Center on Saturday, Jan. 22nd (tomorrow), from 3 to 5 p.m.

One of the founders of the Creative Writing MFA Program, Steve Orlen, taught poetry at the University of Arizona for 37 years. His death in November was a great loss for Tucson and for the literary community at large. To recognize his many gifts as a teacher and poet, Steve Orlen’s former and present students, colleagues and friends will come together to read his poems and offer reminiscences, as well as raise a toast to his memory.

Steve Orlen was the author of six books of poetry, including The Elephant’s Child: New and Selected Poems 1978-2005, Kisses, and This Particular Eternity. He won fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the George Dillon Memorial Award from Poetry magazine. Besides teaching at the University of Arizona, Orlen served as a visiting faculty member over the years at the University of Houston, Warren Wilson College, Goddard College and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.

An archive of tributes and remembrances is being collected by the Poetry Center in conjunction with the event.