U-M Judaic professor Zvi Gitelman, author of the recent Jewish Identities in Postcommunist Russia and Ukraine: An Uncertain Ethnicity, discusses Jewish dilemmas in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
Elli DeLing will be reading from her debut poetry collection Jitamo’s Poems, published by the Neutral Zone’s Red Beard Press. Elli is 80 years young and won her first poetry contest at age 17. She has been an editor, educator, mother, anthropologist and has worked with Great Lakes Indian tribes and social justice causes for many years.
The event begins with an Open Mic session when area poets can read their own work or share a favorite poem by another author. This is a monthly poetry series held on the second Thursday of each month.
Signing to follow.
Sonali Dev‘s novel A Bollywood Affair was published this October. Her first literary work was a play about mistaken identities performed at her neighborhood Diwali extravaganza in Mumbai. She was eight years old. Despite this early success, Sonali spent the next few decades getting degrees in architecture and writing, migrating across the globe, and starting a family while writing for magazines and websites. With the advent of her first gray hair her mad love for telling stories returned full force, and she now combines it with her insights into Indian culture to conjure up stories that make a mad tangle with her life as supermom, domestic goddess, and world traveler.
Sonali lives in the Chicago suburbs with her very patient and often amused husband and two teens who demand both patience and humor, and the world’s most perfect dog.
Comic actress Annabelle Gurwitch discusses her new memoir about turning 50, I See You Made an Effort: Compliments, Indignities, and Survival Stories from the Edge of 50.
Harry Dolan is the author of the mystery/suspense novels BAD THINGS HAPPEN (2009), VERY BAD MEN (2011), and THE LAST DEAD GIRL (2014). He graduated from Colgate University, where he majored in philosophy and studied fiction-writing with the novelist Frederick Busch. A native of Rome, New York, he now lives in Ann Arbor.
Robin Silbergleid is an associate professor of English at Michigan State University, where she directs the creative writing program. She is the author of the chapbook Pas de Deux: Prose and Other Poems (Basilisk Press 2006), the memoir Texas Girl (Demeter Press 2014), and the poetry collection Frida Kahlo, My Sister (Finishing Line Press 2014). Her poems, essays, and scholarship can be found in a number of journals and anthologies online and in print. She lives in East Lansing, Michigan, with her two children.
David Bezmozgis is an award-winning writer and filmmaker, and author of The Betrayers. His stories have appeared in numerous publications including The New Yorker, Harpers, Zoetrope All-Story, and The Walrus. His first book, Natasha and Other Stories, was published in 2004 in the US and Canada and was subsequently translated into fifteen languages. Natasha was a New York Times Notable Book, one of the New York Public Library’s 25 Books to Remember for 2004, and an Amazon.com Top 10 Book for 2004.
Literati will be on site with copies of The Betrayers for sale.
Talk and book signing with Lisa Viger, author of Affordable, Easy Raw: How to Go Raw on $10 a Day. Join Lisa as she discusses the benefits of a raw food diet and shares tips on how to transition to a raw food diet affordably. Free. Call 665-2757; rachel@crazywisdom.net.
Monthly open mike storytelling competition sponsored by The Moth, the NYC-based nonprofit storytelling organization that also produces a weekly public radio show. Each month 10 storytellers are selected at random from among those who sign up to tell a 3-5 minute story on the monthly theme. The 3 judges are recruited from the audience. Monthly winners compete in a semiannual Grand Slam. Space limited, so it’s smart to arrive early. November theme: Accident. $8. Doors open, and sign up start at 6.
John F. Buckley reads from Yankee Broadcast Network, his latest collaboration with Martin Ott.
Buckley is a recent graduate of the Helen Sell Writers’ Program at U-M. He has been writing poetry since an attempt at writing a self-help book went somewhat awry. After a twenty-year stint on and near the West Coast, he now lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with his wife. His website is johnfrancisbuckley.wordpress.com.
Martin Ott lives in Los Angeles, where he writes often about his misunderstood city. He is the author of three books of poetry and a novel, The Interrogator’s Notebook (Story Merchant Books). He blogs at writeliving.wordpress.com.
