Literati is pleased to welcome Amy Thielen in support of her debut memoir, Give a Girl a Knife.
Before Amy Thielen frantically plated rings of truffled potatoes in some of New York City’s finest kitchens—for chefs David Bouley, Daniel Boulud, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten—she grew up in a northern Minnesota town, home to the nation’s largest French fry factory, with a mother whose generous cooking pulsed with joy, family drama, and an overabundance of butter.
Give a Girl a Knife, Amy Thielen’s coming-of-age account, pulses with energy, a cook’s eye for intimate detail, and a dose of dry Midwestern humor. Inspired by her grandmother’s tales of cooking on the family farm, Thielen moves with her artist husband to the rustic off-the-grid cabin he built in the woods in northern Minnesota. There, standing at the stove three times a day, she finds the seed of a growing food obsession that sends her on a wild ride through diverse kitchens and eras—from her mother’s 1970s suburban electric range to a turn-of-the-century farmhouse to a hot plate in an illegal warehouse squat—and finally to the sensory madhouse of New York’s top haute cuisine brigades. When she returns to her rural cabin, she comes face-to-face with her past and its veritable cellar of taste memories, discovering that good food can be made anywhere—and that beneath every foie gras sauce lies a rural foundation of potatoes and onions.
Give a Girl a Knife offers a fresh, vivid view into New York’s high-end restaurant scene before returning Thielen to her roots, where she realizes that the marrow running through her bones is not demi-glace at all, but gravy—honest, irresistible, and thick with the complications of home.
Amy Thielen is a chef, TV cook, and two-time James Beard Award–winning writer. She is the author of The New Midwestern Table (2013), hosted Heartland Table on Food Network, and worked for celebrated New York City chefs David Bouley, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and Daniel Boulud before moving back home to the Midwest. Amy speaks widely about home cooking and contributes to radio programs and magazines, including Saveur, where she’s a contributing editor. She lives with her husband, visual artist Aaron Spangler, their son, his dog, and a bunch of chickens, in Park Rapids, Minnesota. She can be found athttp://www.amythielen.com/ and @amyrosethielen on Instagram and Twitter.
All invited to read and discuss their poetry or short stories. Bring about 6 copies of your work to share. Hosted by local poets and former college English teachers Joe Kelty and Ed Morin.
7-9 p.m., Crazy Wisdom, 114 S. Main. Free. 665-2757
Every Thurs-Sun., June 8-25. U-M Residential College drama lecturer Kate Mendeloff directs students and local actors an alfresco production of Shakespeare’s culminating work, a visionary romance set on a magical island ruled by the enigmatic but benevolent sorcerer Prospero and his beautiful daughter Miranda. Prospero is in fact the exiled duke of Milan, who conjures a storm that shipwrecks his old enemies upon his island. He takes the opportunity to teach them a lesson before bestowing forgiveness, abandoning his magical powers, and preparing to return to the world. The Tempest is filled with verse and song (including the famous “Full fathom five”) and contains some of Shakespeare’s most gorgeously haunting poetry. The RC’s annual Shakespeare in the Arb productions have become a hugely popular local summer tradition. Director Mendeloff takes special care to make the shifting Arb environments an active force in the performance. Bring a blanket or portable chair to sit on; dress for the weather.
6:30 p.m., meet at the Peony Garden entrance at 1610 Washington Heights. $15 (students, seniors, & Friends of Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Nichols Arboretum, $10; kids under 5, free) at the gate only. Tickets go on sale at 5:30 p.m. Space limited; come early. 998-9540.
At 6pm, we will hear from Ellen Stone & Jill Halpern at Cardamom Restaurant.
At 7pm, we will move across the courtyard to Bookbound Bookstore where David Pratt & Monica Rico will share their work.
Ann Arbor author David Pratt will be reading from his recent coming-of-age novel Wallaçonia. Previous works include Lambda Award winner Bob the Book, Looking After Joey and My Movie, a short story collection.
Monica Rico is a second generation Mexican American feminist and poet who will read from her upcoming chapbook Twisted Mouth of the Tulip. Sample her work at slowdownandeat.com.
This event is part of the Ann Arbor Book Festival which features a variety of book-related events from June 15 to June 17. Bookbound Bookstore will also have a booth at the Street Fair from 12pm – 5pm on June 17 (Washington Street between 4th Ave. and 5th Ave). Click here for more information about the festival.
Literati is pleased to welcome Keith Lesmeister in support of his debut short story collection, We Could’ve Been Happy Here. Keith will be joined in reading by Markin Jenkins, a graduate of the Helen Zell Writers’ Program, and Alexander Weinstein, author of Children of the New World.
In his first collection of short fiction, Keith Lesmeister plows out a distinctive vision of the contemporary Midwest. These stories peer into the lives of those at the margins-the broken, the resigned, the misunderstood. Hopeful and humorous, tender and tragic, these stories illuminate how we are shaped and buoyed by our intimate connections.
Keith Lesmeister was born in North Carolina, raised in Iowa, and received his M.F.A. from the Bennington Writing Seminars. His fiction has appeared in American Short Fiction, Slice, Meridian, Redivider, Gettysburg Review, and many other print and online publications. His nonfiction has appeared in Tin House Open Bar, River Teeth, The Good Men Project, and elsewhere. He currently lives in northeast Iowa where he teaches at Northeast Iowa Community College. We Could’ve Been Happy Here is his first book.
Alexander Weinstein is the Director of The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing and the author of the short story collection Children of the New World (Picador 2016). His fiction and translations have appeared in Cream City Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Notre-Dame Review, Pleiades, PRISM International, World Literature Today, and other journals. He is the recipient of a Sustainable Arts Foundation Award, and his fiction has been awarded the Lamar York, Gail Crump, Hamlin Garland, and New Millennium Prize. His stories have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, and appear in the anthologies 2013 New Stories from the Midwest, and the 2014 & 2015 Lascaux Prize Stories. He is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing and a freelance editor, and leads fiction workshops in the United States and Europe.
Marlin M. Jenkins was born and raised in Detroit. A poetry graduate from University of Michigan’s MFA program, his work has been given homes by The Collagist, The Offing, The Journal, and Bennington Review, among others. He has worked with students in Detroit Public Schools through the Inside Out Literary Arts program and received a fellowship from the Vermont Studio Center. He is also a runner and a dancer.
Every Thurs-Sun., June 8-25. U-M Residential College drama lecturer Kate Mendeloff directs students and local actors an alfresco production of Shakespeare’s culminating work, a visionary romance set on a magical island ruled by the enigmatic but benevolent sorcerer Prospero and his beautiful daughter Miranda. Prospero is in fact the exiled duke of Milan, who conjures a storm that shipwrecks his old enemies upon his island. He takes the opportunity to teach them a lesson before bestowing forgiveness, abandoning his magical powers, and preparing to return to the world. The Tempest is filled with verse and song (including the famous “Full fathom five”) and contains some of Shakespeare’s most gorgeously haunting poetry. The RC’s annual Shakespeare in the Arb productions have become a hugely popular local summer tradition. Director Mendeloff takes special care to make the shifting Arb environments an active force in the performance. Bring a blanket or portable chair to sit on; dress for the weather.
6:30 p.m., meet at the Peony Garden entrance at 1610 Washington Heights. $15 (students, seniors, & Friends of Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Nichols Arboretum, $10; kids under 5, free) at the gate only. Tickets go on sale at 5:30 p.m. Space limited; come early. 998-9540.
5:00pm – Blackstone Bookstore & Cultural Center
214 W. Michigan Ave, Ypsilanti
Featuring: John Darryl Winston & Vanessa Marr
6:00pm – Ypsilanti District Library
229 W. Michigan Ave, Ypsilanti
Featuring: Whittaker Road Works anthology launch, plus kids’ activities
Karen Dionne signs her new novel, The Marsh King’s Daughter, which is set in the UP.
Literati is thrilled to welcome Roxane Gay to Ann Arbor for an exclusive reading and signing in support of her new book Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body.
Tickets are $30 plus service fees, reserved seating, and are available through the Michigan Union Ticketing Office by calling (734) 763-8587, visiting online, or in-person at the Michigan Union, 530 South State St.
Ticket includes a hardcover copy of the book to be picked up at the venue the night of the event. Literati will have a limited number of tickets available in store for in-person purchase only. No refunds and no exchanges.
“I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe. I buried the girl I was because she ran into all kinds of trouble. I tried to erase every memory of her, but she is still there, somewhere. . . . I was trapped in my body, one that I barely recognized or understood, but at least I was safe.”
New York Times bestselling author Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and bodies, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. As a woman who describes her own body as “wildly undisciplined,” Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care. In Hunger, she casts an insightful and critical eye on her childhood, teens, and twenties—including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life—and brings readers into the present and the realities, pains, and joys of her daily life.
With the bracing candor, vulnerability, and authority that have made her one of the most admired voices of her generation, Roxane explores what it means to be overweight in a time when the bigger you are, the less you are seen. Hunger is a deeply personal memoir from one of our finest writers, and tells a story that hasn’t yet been told but needs to be.
Roxane Gay is the author of the essay collection Bad Feminist, which was a New York Times bestseller; the novel An Untamed State, a finalist for the Dayton Peace Prize; and the short story collections Difficult Women and Ayiti. A contributing opinion writer to the New York Times, she has also written for Time, McSweeney’s, the Virginia Quarterly Review, the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The Rumpus, Bookforum, and Salon. Her fiction has also been selected for Best American Short Stories 2012, Best American Mystery Stories 2014, and other anthologies. She is the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. She lives in Lafayette, Indiana and sometimes Los Angeles.
Every Thurs-Sun., June 8-25. U-M Residential College drama lecturer Kate Mendeloff directs students and local actors an alfresco production of Shakespeare’s culminating work, a visionary romance set on a magical island ruled by the enigmatic but benevolent sorcerer Prospero and his beautiful daughter Miranda. Prospero is in fact the exiled duke of Milan, who conjures a storm that shipwrecks his old enemies upon his island. He takes the opportunity to teach them a lesson before bestowing forgiveness, abandoning his magical powers, and preparing to return to the world. The Tempest is filled with verse and song (including the famous “Full fathom five”) and contains some of Shakespeare’s most gorgeously haunting poetry. The RC’s annual Shakespeare in the Arb productions have become a hugely popular local summer tradition. Director Mendeloff takes special care to make the shifting Arb environments an active force in the performance. Bring a blanket or portable chair to sit on; dress for the weather.
6:30 p.m., meet at the Peony Garden entrance at 1610 Washington Heights. $15 (students, seniors, & Friends of Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Nichols Arboretum, $10; kids under 5, free) at the gate only. Tickets go on sale at 5:30 p.m. Space limited; come early. 998-9540.
