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.
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.
Reading by this Tacoma poet who draws on his family’s experiences as African Americans from the rural south living in a white northern city to create poetry that combines the intimately personal and intensely political. He’s best known for his emotional and theatrical readings, described as “part fire-and-brimstone preacher, part aggrieved literary nerd, and part Captain America.” His new book, Up South, continues his exploration of the folklore, rituals, and ceremonies of African Americans in Tacoma. Preceded by a poetry open mike.
Espresso Royale, 324 S. State. $5 suggested donation. facebook.com/AnnArborPoetry
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.
The presentation discusses three projects for social change based in Liverpool UK, Johannesburg South Africa, and with Chippewa communities of the Upper Peninsula and Canada. Two of the projects focus on activism against gender-based violence and one explores Black identities in international context. Gonzalez discussed how social activist interventions can manifest as performance-based projects, academic writings, or public scholarship. Community-based activism requires ongoing engagement with partner organizations working for common goals.
If you are a person with a disability who requires an accommodation to attend this event, please contact Center for World Performance Studies, at 734-936-2777, at least one week in advance of this event. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the University to arrange.
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.)
Nancy Pearl speaks about the pleasures of reading at library conferences, to literacy organizations and community groups throughout the world and comments on books regularly on KUOW FM in Seattle, as well as KWGS in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Wisconsin Public Radio. Born and raised in Detroit, she received her master’s degree in library science in 1967 from the University of Michigan. She also received an MA in history from Oklahoma State University in 1977. Among her many honors and awards are the 2011 Librarian of the Year Award from Library Journal; and the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association. She also hosts a monthly television show, Book Lust with Nancy Pearl. She lives in Seattle with her husband Joe.
Pre-order your copy in the store and receive a signing line ticket with each copy ordered. Tickets are for the signing line only and determine your place in line.
From “America’s librarian” and NPR books commentator Nancy Pearl comes an emotionally riveting debut novel about an unlikely marriage at a crossroads. George and Lizzie have radically different understandings of what love and marriage should be. George grew up in a warm and loving family–his father an orthodontist, his mother a stay-at-home mom–while Lizzie grew up as the only child of two famous psychologists, who viewed her more as an in-house experiment than a child to love. Over the course of their marriage, nothing has changed–George is happy; Lizzie remains…unfulfilled. When a shameful secret from Lizzie’s past resurfaces, she’ll need to face her fears in order to accept the true nature of the relationship she and George have built over a decade together. With pitch-perfect prose and compassion and humor to spare, George and Lizzieis an intimate story of new and past loves, the scars of childhood, and an imperfect marriage at its defining moments.
Literati is thrilled to welcome back Phil & Erin Stead for the launch of their new book The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine!
About The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine:
A never-before-published, previously unfinished Mark Twain children’s story is brought to life by Caldecott Medal winners Philip Stead and Erin Stead.
In a hotel in Paris one evening in 1879, Mark Twain sat with his young daughters, who begged their father for a story. Twain began telling them the tale of Johnny, a poor boy in possession of some magical seeds. Later, Twain would jot down some rough notes about the story, but the tale was left unfinished…until now.
Plucked from the Mark Twain archive at the University of California at Berkeley, Twain’s notes now form the foundation of a fairy tale picked up over a century later. With only Twain’s fragmentary script and a story that stops partway as his guide, author Philip Stead has written a tale that imagines what might have been if Twain had fully realized this work.
Johnny, forlorn and alone except for his pet chicken, meets a kind woman who gives him seeds that change his fortune, allowing him to speak with animals and sending him on a quest to rescue a stolen prince. In the face of a bullying tyrant king, Johnny and his animal friends come to understand that generosity, empathy, and quiet courage are gifts more precious in this world than power and gold.
Illuminated by Erin Stead’s graceful, humorous, and achingly poignant artwork, this is a story that reaches through time and brings us a new book from America’s most legendary writer, envisioned by two of today’s most important names in children’s literature.
PHILIP STEAD is the author of the Caldecott Medal–winning book A Sick Day for Amos McGee. With his wife, illustrator Erin Stead, he also created the acclaimed Bear Has a Story to Tell, Lenny & Lucy, and The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine, based on a previously-unpublished children’s story by Mark Twain. Philip has also written and illustrated his own books, including Hello, My Name Is Ruby; Jonathan and the Big Blue Boat; and A Home for Bird. Philip and Erin live in northern Michigan.
ERIN STEAD is the illustrator of eight picture books, including the Caldecott Medal–winning A Sick Day for Amos McGee; The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine, illustrated by Philip Stead and based on a previously-unpublished children’s story by Mark Twain; And Then It’s Spring, a 2012 Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor Book and a Best Children’s Book of 2012 by Kirkus and Publishers Weekly; Bear Has a Story to Tell, a Best Children’s Book of 2012 by Kirkus; and The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles, named a best book of the year by Time, People Magazine, the Boston Globe, and School Library Journal. She lives in northern Michigan with her husband, author/illustrator Philip Stead.
