The following article is written by A Closer Look Book Club organizers Mary Myers and Dorothy Blake as a preview of upcoming events.

A Closer Look Book Club at the University of Arizona Poetry Center has an annual theme, and this year we will be reading mainly books of fiction around the theme CULTURAL SHIFTS, NEW THINKING. The books were chosen to lead us beyond our comfort zones and into the zeitgeist of the twenty-first century.  Each discussion is introduced and moderated by a guest presenter.

The first discussion of the year, on Wednesday September 14 at 5 pm, considers Mexican author Yuri Herrera’s novel Signs Preceding the End of the World (128 pgs), translated by Lisa Dillman. This book is a simple story of a young woman crossing the border between Mexico and the US that gives a universal view of transition and change.  The New York Times called it, "Short, suspenseful….outlandish and heartbreaking." El Pais continued to praise the novel by saying, "This book amazes with the precise and persuasive beauty of its words." It is winner of the Best Translated Book Award 2016.   Our guest presenter is Wendy Burk: Poetry Center librarian, poet, and translator.

All of the other selections for next year are posted in our Calendar.  On Oct. 19, we will discuss Ta-Nehisi Coates and his book Between the World and Me (176 pgs), and on Nov. 9, we will dive into The Door (288 pgs) by Hungarian author Magda Szabo. On Jan. 11 we will consider two short books: The Meursault Investigation (160 pgs)  by Algerian author Kamal Daoud and The Stranger (123 pgs) by French Colonial Albert Camus. On Feb. 8, the focus is on Neapolitan author Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend (331 pgs), while on Mar. 8, Indian  author Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger (304 pgs) takes the spotlight. The final Book Club meeting on Apr. 12 features Vietnamese-American author Viet Thanh Nguyen and his book The Sympathizer (384 pgs).

Closer Look Book Club is a project of the Poetry Center Docents, led this year by  one of our founders, Colleen Burns.  Her vision and leadership have been seminal. 

There are good reasons for the Poetry Center to sponsor a book club that reads mainly fiction.  It is a community beacon for a wide and varied literary public. Good writing is tonic for the heart and mind in all its many forms.  A Closer Look Book Club offers books which have been carefully selected around a theme with  discussion leaders who provide introduction and discussion questions.  Our meetings are free, open to the public, and are comfortably casual.

To participate in A Closer Look Book Club, just read the book and join us on the red couches in the lobby of the Poetry Center.  No sign-up is necessary.  You’re welcome to participate in as many or as few meetings as you like. For more information, contact poetry@email.arizona.edu.

Mary Myers is a long time Poetry Center docent, an almost-native Tucsonan, known to friends as stained-glass-Mary.

Dorothy Blake moved from California about 4 years ago, and was introduced to the magnificent  Poetry Center, where she became a docent last year.