Local short story writer Alex Kourvo and young adult novelist Bethany Neal host an open house for writers to connect with one another and/or work on their projects.
Readings by Kathleen McGookey, a widely published poet from the Grand Rapids area who recently published the prose poem collection Heart in a Jar, and Gregory Loselle, a Gabriel Richard English teacher (and former U-M Hopwood Award winner) who has published 4 chapbooks, including the recent About the House.Followed by a poetry and short fiction open mike.
7-9 p.m., Crazy Wisdom, 114 S. Main. Free. 665-2757
Sept. 28-30. A showcase of 7 short plays performed by local actors. Lili Bishop directs Alban’s Garden, Rich Espey’s drama about 2 neighbors in the aftermath of a murder in a gated community. Megan Wright directs The Creative Process, Dana Clark-Brock’s comedy about a writer struggling to find inspiration. David Galido directs Misfortune,Mark Harvey Levine’s dark comedy about a man who receives distressing news while at a Chinese restaurant with his wife. Michelle Weiss directs The Law Makers, Danielle Wirsansky’s drama that imagines a 1912 meeting of Emmeline Pankhurst and Millicent Garrett, the leaders of the British suffragette movement. Susan Morris directs Somewhere Between Lost and Found, Colby Halloran’s drama about the complex, fragile, and longstanding relationship between a well-intentioned woman and the homeless man she met on the street. Kelly Rose Voigt directs End Scene, Megan Baschak’s spirited comedy where the action is controlled by the narrator, until the characters he creates fight back. Peter Knox directs 940 Feathers, Tim Brennan’s drama about a memoirist with early onset Alzheimer’s and her husband who wants to help but would rather forget parts of their history.
8 p.m., Riverside Arts Center, 76 N. Huron, Ypsilanti. $12 in advance by emailing pencilpointtheatre@gmail.com and at the door. pencilpoint.org, 480-2787.
Laz joins poet Jennifer Burd in support of the release of her new book, “Day’s Late Blue.” Jennifer is an award-winning poet whose haiku and lyric poems have been widely published in print and on-line journals, as well as in three previous books. Laz has set to music a number of her poems and will sing them at this event. In addition Jennifer and Laz will present haiku / flute improvisations on solo and jointly written haiku. Book signing to follow.
Local short story writer Alex Kourvo and young adult novelist Bethany Neal are joined by children’s nonfiction author Virginia Loh-Hagan, who has published children’s books on everything from extreme mountain biking to starting a dog-walking business. She shares insights into writing aimed at young writers. For adult and teen (grade 6 & up) fiction and nonfiction writers. Also, Kourvo and Neal host an open house for writers to connect with one another and/or work on their projects at 7 p.m. on Oct. 16.
AADL Westgate Branch West Side Room, Westgate shopping center, 2503 Jackson. Free. 327-8301.
Local journalist Micheline Maynard interviews Bakehouse managing partners Frank Carollo and Amy Emberling about their new cookbook, which features 65 of their most popular recipes. Bakehouse treats and drinks.
4:30-6:30 p.m., Zingerman’s Greyline, 100 N. Ashley. $75 (includes one autographed copy of the book). Reservations required. 663-3663.
Open mike storytelling competition sponsored by The Moth, the NYC-based nonprofit storytelling organization that also produces a weekly public radio show. Each night 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.
7:30-9 p.m. (doors open and sign-up begins at 6:30 p.m.)
Literati is excited to welcome author Tiya Miles who will be discussing her new book Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Bondage and Freedom in the City of the Straits
About Dawn of Detroit:
Most Americans believe that slavery was a creature of the South, and that Northern states and territories provided stops on the Underground Railroad for fugitive slaves on their way to Canada. In this paradigm-shifting book, celebrated historian Tiya Miles reveals that slavery was at the heart of the Midwest’s iconic city: Detroit.
In this richly researched and eye-opening book, Miles has pieced together the experience of the unfree—both native and African American—in the frontier outpost of Detroit, a place wildly remote yet at the center of national and international conflict. Skillfully assembling fragments of a distant historical record, Miles introduces new historical figures and unearths struggles that remained hidden from view until now. The result is fascinating history, little explored and eloquently told, of the limits of freedom in early America, one that adds new layers of complexity to the story of a place that exerts a strong fascination in the media and among public intellectuals, artists, and activists.
A book that opens the door on a completely hidden past, The Dawn of Detroit is a powerful and elegantly written history, one that completely changes our understanding of slavery’s American legacy.
Tiya Miles is the recipient of a 2011 MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” and is a professor at the University of Michigan in the departments of American culture, Afro-American and African studies, history, women’s studies, and in the Native American Studies Program. She lives in Ann Arbor.
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
Literati is excited to welcome Katie Willingham who will be reading from her new poetry collection Unlikely Designs
About Unlikely Designs
A collection intent on worrying the boundaries between natural and unnatural, human and not, Unlikely Designs draws far-ranging source material from the back channels of knowledge-making: the talk pages of Wikipedia, the personal writings of Charles Darwin, the love advice doled out by chatbots, and the eclectic inclusions on the Golden Record time capsule. It is here we discover the allure of the index, what pleasure there is in bending it to our own devices. At the same time, these poems also remind us that logic is often reckless, held together by nothing more than syntactical short circuits—well, I mean, sorry, yes—prone to cracking under closer scrutiny. Returning us again and again to these gaps, Katie Willingham reveals how any act of preservation is inevitably an act of curation, an outcry against the arbitrary, by attempting to make what is precious also what survives.
Katie Willingham teaches writing at the University of Michigan.
