Jill Darling is a writer and teacher and has published poetry, fiction, and creative and critical essays. Her books include a geography of syntax, Solve For, and begin with may: a series of moments as well as two collaborative chapbooks with Laura Wetherington and Hannah Ensor: at the intersection of 3, and The First Steps are the Deepest. Other work can be found online at sites such as Something on Paper, The Quint, Ethos Review, Hybrid Pedagogy, How2, Aufgabe, Horse Less Review, Two Serious Ladies, and Unlikely Stories. Darling has won awards from The Academy of American Poets, and the Mary Anderson Center for the Arts in Indiana. She lives in Ypsilanti with her partner and dog.
Stephanie Heit is a poet, dancer, and teacher of somatic writing, Contemplative Dance Practice, and Kundalini Yoga. She lives with bipolar disorder and is a member of the Olimpias, an international disability performance collective. The Color She Gave Gravity (The Operating System 2017) is her debut poetry collection, and her work most recently appeared in Midwestern Gothic, Lime Hawk, About Place, Dunes Review, Typo, Disability Studies Quarterly, Streetnotes, Nerve Lantern, Queer Disability Anthology, Theatre Topics, and Research in Drama Education. She lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan where she co-creates Turtle Disco, a community arts space, with her partner and collaborator, Petra Kuppers. www.stephanieheitpoetry.wordpress.com
Petra Kuppers is a disability culture activist, a community performance artist and a professor at the University of Michigan. Her most recent poetry collection is PearlStitch (Spuyten Duyvil: 2016). Poems and stories have appeared in PANK, The Sycamore Review, Adrienne, Visionary Tongue, Future Fire, Wordgathering, Beauty is a Verb: New Poetics of Disability, textsound, Streetnotes, Festival Writer, Accessing the Future: A Disability-Themed Anthology of Speculative Fiction, QDA: Queer Disability Anthology, and elsewhere. She is the Artistic Director of The Olimpias, an international disability culture collective, and lives with her partner Stephanie Heit in Ypsilanti where they co-create Turtle Disco, a community arts space.
Books:
Through reflective meditation and energetic word-play, a geography of syntax takes readers on a journey through landscape, contemporary culture, and language. The tour wanders among topographies of current events, memory, art, and loss among others, and points to ways meaning and understanding of phenomena in the world are constructed through, and altered by, language. The vivid description, color, and imagistic detail combine to create imaginative worlds, spaces within yet on the edge of the everyday, while showing the difficulty of articulating aspects of life that we struggle to even comprehend.
The Color She Gave Gravity traces longing for connection between women. An ecopoetics of the bodymind, these poems take us inside a dance inside an imaginary city inside sculpted spaces inside the insomniac body inside sister grief inside she. The work emerges from a landscape of somatic engagement and from experiences of psychiatric systems and multiple hospitalizations.
PearlStitch is about disability culture activism; feminist poetics history; collaborative practices of mourning, celebration and engagement; about love and transformation.
Literati is thrilled to welcome David Lagercrantz to Ann Arbor and Zingerman’s Greyline in support of The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye, a Lisbeth Salander novel, continuing Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Series. Tickets are general admission, each ticket type includes a hardcover copy of the novel. Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and snacks are available for purchase, courtesy of Zingerman’s Greyline.
From the author of the #1 international best seller The Girl in the Spiders Web: the new book in the Millennium series, which began with Stieg Larssons The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Lisbeth Salander, the girl with the dragon tattoo, the brilliant hacker, the obstinate outsider, the volatile seeker of justice for herself and otherseven she has never been able to uncover the most telling facts of her traumatic childhood, the secrets that might finally, fully explain her to herself. Now, when she sees a chance to uncover them once and for all, she enlists the help of Mikael Blomkvist, the editor of the muckraking, investigative journal Millennium. And she will let nothing stop hernot the Islamists she enrages by rescuing a young woman from their brutality; not the prison gang leader who passes a death sentence on her; not the deadly reach of her long-lost twin sister, Camilla; and not the people who will do anything to keep buried knowledge of a sinister pseudoscientific experiment known only as The Registry. Once again, Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist, together, are the fierce heart of a thrilling full-tilt novel that takes on some of the most insidious problems facing the world at this very moment.
David Lagercrantz was born in 1962 and is an acclaimed author and journalist. He has written numerous biographies (including the internationally best-selling I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovi, for which he was the ghostwriter) and four novels, including Fall of Man in Wilmslow, and the #1 best-selling The Girl in the Spiders Web.
Zingerman’s Greyline is Ann Arbor’s unique downtown venue for private events.
Literati is excited to welcome Robin Sloan in support of his new novel, Sourdough
About Sourdough:
In his much-anticipated new novel, Robin Sloan does for the world of food what he did for the world of books in Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore
Lois Clary is a software engineer at General Dexterity, a San Francisco robotics company with world-changing ambitions. She codes all day and collapses at night, her human contact limited to the two brothers who run the neighborhood hole-in-the-wall from which she orders dinner every evening. Then, disaster! Visa issues. The brothers close up shop, and fast. But they have one last delivery for Lois: their culture, the sourdough starter used to bake their bread. She must keep it alive, they tell her—feed it daily, play it music, and learn to bake with it.
Lois is no baker, but she could use a roommate, even if it is a needy colony of microorganisms. Soon, not only is she eating her own homemade bread, she’s providing loaves daily to the General Dexterity cafeteria. The company chef urges her to take her product to the farmer’s market, and a whole new world opens up.
When Lois comes before the jury that decides who sells what at Bay Area markets, she encounters a close-knit club with no appetite for new members. But then, an alternative emerges: a secret market that aims to fuse food and technology. But who are these people, exactly?
“Part love letter to books, part technological meditation, part thrilling adventure, part requiem… Eminently enjoyable, full of warmth and intelligence.” –The New York Times Book Review
“One of the most thoughtful and fun reading experiences you’re likely to have this year…There’s so much largehearted magic in this book.” –NPR
Robin Sloan grew up in Michigan and now splits his time between San Francisco and the Internet.
Reading by this GVSU creative writing professor, a widely published poet whose 2014 book The Dead Wrestler Elegies, is an acclaimed collection of illustrated poems about professional wrestling and the toll it has taken on its stars. “Todd Kaneko’s The Dead Wrestler Elegies is some kind of miracle,” says NMU English professor and poet Matthew Gavin Frank. “The book succeeds as … myth-making and intervention, … and a meditation on everything from gender politics to the points at which we all, eventually, submit. Rarely has a book of poetry (even illustrated poetry) managed to be so profound while being so entertaining.” The program begins with open mike readings.
7-8:30 p.m., Sweetwaters Coffee & Tea, 123 W. Washington. Free. 994-6663
A U-M Residential College creative writing alumna, Laura Hulthen Thomas heads the undergraduate creative writing program at the Residential College, where she teaches fiction and creative nonfiction.
A U-M Residential College creative writing alumna, Laura Kasischke’s book of poems, Space, in Chains, won the National Book Critics Circle Award. She teaches writing at U-M English and the Residential College.
Set in Michigan small towns both real and fictional, the stories in Laura Hulthen Thomas’s State of Motion take place against a backdrop of economic turmoil and the domestic cost of the war on terror. As familiar places, privilege, and faith disappear, what remains leaves these broken characters wondering what hope is left.
Laura Kasischke’s Where Now: New and Selected Poems showcases her probing vision that subverts the so-called “normal.” A lover of fairy tales, Kasischke’s command of the symbolic includes a keen attention to sound in her exploration of the everyday—whether reflections on loss or the complicated realities of childhood and family.
Literati is excited to welcome author Marta McDowell in support of her new book The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder
About The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s beloved Little House series is a classic coming-of-age story based on Wilder’s own family and the pioneer spirit of the time. Deeply rooted in the natural world, Wilder describes the plants, animals, and landscapes in such detail, they are practically their own characters. The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder, by New York Timesbestselling author Marta McDowell, explores Wilder’s deep relationship with the landscape. Follow the Wilder’s wagon trail starting in the Wisconsin setting of Little House in the Big Woods, through the Dakotas, and finally to Missouri. You’ll learn details about Wilder’s life and inspirations, discover how to visit the real places today, and even learn to grow the plants and vegetables featured in the series. The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder is a must-have treasure celebrating the American landscape through Laura Ingalls Wilder’s beautiful and wild life with original illustrations by Helen Sewell and Garth Williams and lush historical and contemporary photographs.
“This well-researched, sweeping book details the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder and those who came before her. It is clear that the different landscapes shaped them, particularly Laura and ‘Pa.’ The original are of Garth Williams and Helen Sewell deepens the poignancy and power of Laura’s prairie, since today only one percent of it survives. Laura’s work has preserved it for us. This book preserves it for us.” —Patricia MacLachlan, author of Sarah, Plain and Tall, winner of the Newbery Medal
“Lavishly illustrated with photographs, drawings, maps, and, notably, a selection of Helen Sewell and Garth Williams’ illustrations from the Little House books. . . . the book is a feast of opportunity for dedicated Wilder fans and enthusiastic gardeners everywhere.” —Booklist
Marta McDowell lives, gardens, and writes in Chatham, New Jersey. She teaches landscape history and horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden, where she studied landscape design. McDowell also consults for public gardens and private clients. Her particular interest is in authors and their gardens, the connection between the pen and the trowel.
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
Literati is thrilled to welcome Annie Spence in support of her new book Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks
About Fahrenheit 451:
A Gen-X librarian’s snarky, laugh-out-loud funny, deeply moving collection of love letters and break-up notes to the books in her life.
Librarians spend their lives weeding. Not weeds, but books! Books that have reached the end of their shelf life, both literally and figuratively. They remove the books that patrons no longer check out. And they put back the books they treasure. Annie Spence, who has a decade of experience as a Midwestern librarian, does this not only at her Michigan library but also at home, for her neighbors, at cocktail parties—everywhere. In Dear Fahrenheit 451, she addresses those books directly. We read her love letters to The Goldfinch and Matilda, as well as her snarky break-ups with Fifty Shades of Grey and Dear John. Her notes to The Virgin Suicides and The Time Traveler’s Wife feel like classics, sure to strike a powerful chord with readers. Through the lens of the books in her life, Annie comments on everything from feminism to culture to health to poverty to childhood aspirations. Hilarious, compassionate, and wise, Dear Fahrenheit 451 is the consummate book-lover’s birthday present, stocking stuffer, holiday gift, and all-purpose humor book.
“…perfect for any bibliophile and terrifically funny. This book should appeal to readers who are looking for the next Texts from Jane Eyre, or those who enjoyed that concept but don’t especially like texting. It will also attract anyone who, upon walking into someone’s house, first side-eyes the bookshelves and instantly judges. VERDICT Highly recommended.” —Starred Review, Library Journal
Annie Spence has spent the last decase as a librarian at public libraries in the Midwest. She lives in Detroit with her husband and son. Dear Fahrenheit 451 is her first book.
Tonight Literati is thrilled to welcome authors Sharon Harrigan and Rick Bailey in support of their new memoirs Playing with Dynamite and American English, Italian Chocolate
About Playing with Dynamite
Sharon Harrigan’s father was larger than life, a brilliant but troubled man who blew off his hand with dynamite before she was born and died in a mysterious and bizarre accident when she was seven. The story of his death never made sense. How did he really die? And why was she so sure that asking would be dangerous? A series of events compel her to find the answers, collecting other people’s memories and uncovering her own. Her two-year odyssey takes her from Virginia to Detroit to Paris and finally to the wilds of northern Michigan where her father died. There, she discovers the real danger and has to confront her fear.
Playing with Dynamite is about the family secrets that can distance us from each other and the honesty that can bring us closer. It’s about a daughter who goes looking for her father but finds her mother instead. It’s about memory and truth, grieving and growing, and what it means to go home again.
About American English, Italian Chocolate
American English, Italian Chocolate is a memoir in essays beginning in the American Midwest and ending in north central Italy. In sharply rendered vignettes, Rick Bailey reflects on donuts and ducks, horses and car crashes, outhouses and EKGs. He travels all night from Michigan to New Jersey to attend the funeral of a college friend. After a vertiginous climb, he staggers in clogs across the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. In a trattoria in the hills above the Adriatic, he ruminates on the history and glories of beans, from Pythagoras to Thoreau, from the Saginaw Valley to the Province of Urbino. Bailey is a bumbling extra in a college production of Richard III. He is a college professor losing touch with a female student whose life is threatened by her husband. He is a father tasting samples of his daughter’s wedding cake. He is a son witnessing his aging parents’ decline. He is the husband of an Italian immigrant who takes him places he never imagined visiting, let alone making his own. At times humorous, at times bittersweet, Bailey’s ultimate subject is growing and knowing, finding the surprise and the sublime in the ordinary detail of daily life
Sharon Harrigan has a B.A. in English from Columbia University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific University. She teaches memoir writing at WriterHouse in Charlottesville. She has published over four dozen essays, reviews, and short stories. Her work has appeared in Virginia Quarterly Review, Pleiades, Slice, Narrative, Pearl, Prime Number, Silk Road, Mid American Review, Louisiana Literature, Apercus Quarterly, Rain Taxi, Hip Mama, Fiction Writers’ Review, Streetlight Magazine, Passing Through Journal, The Nervous Breakdown, and The Rumpus. She is a contributing editor at The Nervous Breakdownand at Silk Road Review.
Ricky Bailey is a professor emeritus of English at Henry Ford College in Michigan. He is the author or editor of several books on writing, including The Creative Writer’s Craft.
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.
