Two weeks before his college graduation, Kelley Clink’s younger brother Matt hanged himself. Though he’d been diagnosed with bipolar disorder as a teenager and had attempted suicide once before, the news came as a shock―and it sent Kelley into a spiral of guilt and grief. After Matt’s death, a chasm opened between the brother Kelley had known and the brother she’d buried. She kept telling herself she couldn’t understand why he’d done it―but the truth was, she could. Several years before he’d been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she’d been diagnosed with depression. Several years before he first attempted suicide by overdose, she had attempted suicide by overdose. She’d blazed the trail he’d followed. If he couldn’t make it, what hope was there for her? A Different Kind of Same traces Kelley’s journey through grief, her investigation into the role her own depression played in her brother’s death, and, ultimately, her path toward acceptance, forgiveness, resilience, and love.
Kelley Clink is a full-time writer with degrees in literature from the University of Alabama and DePaul University. Her work has appeared in magazines and literary journals including Under the Sun, South Loop Review, Gettysburg Review, Colorado Review, and Shambhala Sun. She lives in Chicago with her husband and son.
All poets invited to compete in a poetry slam judged by a randomly chosen panel from the audience. The program begins with a poetry open mike and (occasionally) a short set by a featured poet.
8-11 p.m. (sign-up begins at 7:30 p.m.), $5 suggested donation. A2poetry.com.
All poets invited to compete in a poetry slam judged by a randomly chosen panel from the audience. The program begins with a poetry open mike and (occasionally) a short set by a featured poet.
8-11 p.m. (sign-up begins at 7:30 p.m.), $5 suggested donation. A2poetry.com.
Reading by Warren Wilson College (Asheville, NC) creative writing professor Matthew Olzmann, a widely published Detroit-bred poet whose collection Mezzanines won the Kundiman Prize. The program begins with open mike readings.
Crazy Wisdom Poetry Series at Crazy Wisdom Tearoom , hosted by Joe Kelty and Ed Morin • Second and Fourth Wednesdays of each month, 7-9 p.m. • Free. Call Ed at 668-7523; eacmorso@sbcglobal.net or cwpoetrycircle.tumblr.com.
Fourth Wednesdays: Featured Reader for 50 minutes, Open Mic Reading for one hour • All writers welcome to share their own or other favorite poetry. Sign up begins at 6:45 p.m.
July 22 • Zen Master Ikkyu (1394-1481) • Ikkyu turned the eye of enlightenment to politics, pine trees, meditation, sex, and wine. He influenced Japanese calligraphy, Noh theater, tea ceremony, and rock gardening. Kidder Smith (scholar) and Sarah Messer (poet) present their translations from Having Once Paused, Poems of Zen Master Ikkyu.
Paul Thompson will present from his latest, From Field to Fork: Food Ethics for Everyone. Thompson has been a leading scholar in food ethics for over thirty years. He was present at the founding of three professional societies for food ethics and has served in an advisory capacity for the U.S. National Research Council, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, Genome Canada, and Wageningen University and Research Institute in the Netherlands, among others. He edited the Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics (Springer) and writes a blog for Thornapple Community Supported Agriculture in Lansing.
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Tom Clynes will read from his latest, The Boy Who Played with Fusion: Extreme Science, Extreme Parenting, and How to Make a Star.
Clynes writes regularly for National Geographic and Popular Science, where he is a contributing editor. His work has also appeared in Men’s Journal, Nature, New York, The Sunday Times Magazine (London), the Washington Post, and many other publications. He is also the author of the book Wild Planet!
Recent contributors to Pacifica Literary Review will read: Cody Walker, Caitlin Johnson, Yma Johnson, and Ben Alfaro. Copies of the latest issue of Pacifica Literary Review will be available for sale.
Pacifica Literary Review is a small literary arts magazine based in Seattle, WA, with print editions are published biannually in winter and summer.
Elizabeth Pilar, an award-winning short-story author, reads from her memoir A Blue Moon in China about the two months she traveled through Communist China in 1988. Question and answer session follows. Free. (310) 924-9587; elizabeth@elizabethpilar.com; http://www.abluemooninchina.com
