University of Arizona Poetry Center: 'A Memorial Tribute to David Foster Wallace' (event listing, May 1, 2009)
TL;DR
The University of Arizona Poetry Center's own event listing for its May 1, 2009 memorial to David Foster Wallace, the program's 1987 MFA graduate. It pins the bare facts the tribute's surviving audio could not: a single Friday of three sessions at the Helen S. Schaefer Building — an afternoon panel on reading Wallace, a second on Wallace and his influences, and an evening of readings by panelists and friends — sponsored by the UA Prose Series and Sonora Review. The page carries no panelist names and advances no reading of Infinite Jest; its value is documentary, fixing the date and shape of the event.
Key claims
- The event was "A Memorial Tribute to David Foster Wallace", held Friday, May 1, 2009, at the Helen S. Schaefer Building (the Poetry Center), "Sponsored by the UA Prose Series" and Sonora Review.
- Three sessions on the day: a 2:00 p.m. panel, "Reading David Foster Wallace: Panel Discussion"; a 3:30 p.m. panel, "David Foster Wallace and his Influences: Panel Discussion"; and an 8:00 p.m. event, "The Work of David Foster Wallace: Readings by panelists and friends".
- The page's Wallace blurb records the Arizona connection: he "received his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona in 1987 and went on to become one of the most critically acclaimed authors of the twentieth century" — "A MacArthur Fellow," author of Infinite Jest and the rest.
Themes
Institutional memory of the apprentice years; the Arizona MFA and Sonora Review connection. No Infinite Jest interpretation is engaged.
Cross-references
- voca-arizona-poetry-center-dfw-remembrance-2009 — the recorded montage FROM this event (the archive's audio note); this listing supplies its date, venue, and session structure.
- bock-tribute-report-2009 — Charles Bock's first-person report from the same weekend, which supplies the panelist roster this page omits.
- dtmax-every-love-story — the fuller record of the Tucson MFA years and Sonora Review.
Notable passages
- "Reading David Foster Wallace: Panel Discussion"
- "David Foster Wallace and his Influences: Panel Discussion"
- "The Work of David Foster Wallace: Readings by panelists and friends"
- "received his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona in 1987 and went on to become one of the most critically acclaimed authors of the twentieth century."