Neutral Zone presents “I Wore My Blackest Hair,” Carlina Duan’s hometown release party: reading and book signing.
Dexter poet Kathy Edgren was first published at age 17 and her poems have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Oracle, Birmingham Poetry Review and many other journals. She will read from her latest book, The Grain Beneath the Gloss.
Jennifer Burd teaches writing and literature. Her poetry appears in two books along with numerous print and online journals, and she has also written a play for children and a book of creative nonfiction. Her most recent book of poetry is Day’s Late Blue.
The event begins with an Open Mic session when area poets can read their own work or share a favorite poem by another author in a welcoming atmosphere.
This series occurs on the second Thursdays of most months in partnership with Les Go Social MM&T.
Please note: Open Mic & Share will be on hiatus in January 2018. We will return on Thursday, February 8 at 7pm. Details TBA.
Poetry open mike.
Ann Arbor Poetry. Poetry open mike. 7-9 p.m. (sign-up begins at 6:30 p.m.), Espresso Royale, 324 S. State. $5 suggested donation. facebook.com/AnnArborPoetry.
Nicola’s Books presents author Chris VanAllsburg, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Please join us for this special author signing of Jumanji in conjunction with the premiere of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle to benefit the Jo Elyn Nyman Anchors Programs for Children.
Ticketing Information:
This will be a ticketed event, with tickets available via BrownPaperTickets.com beginning at 10am on Friday, December 1st. Each ticket includes a signed copy of Jumanji. Presentation of ticket will be required to claim your book. Signing line will begin in ticket number order; lower ticket numbers mean an earlier place in the signing line.
Signing details:
· Signing will occur in ticket number order
· Jumanji may be personalized
· Ticket holders may bring up to 2 more items to be signed only, either from home or other books purchased on site
· Unstaged photos will be allowed
About Jumanji
Over thirty years ago, Peter and Judy first found the game–Jumanji–with the instructions that once the game is started, it must be finished or it will go on forever–and it was then, with this same wonderment, readers found Jumanji, too.
Since its original publication, Jumanji has been honored with many awards, including the Caldecott Medal, and in 1996, the surreal story was adapted to fit the big screen.
This special edition of Jumanji contains a CD of the renowned actor Robin Williams reading the timeless tale.
About the Author
Chris VanAllsburg is the winner of two Caldecott Medals, for Jumanji and The Polar Express, as well as the recipient of a Caldecott Honor Book for The Garden of Abdul Gasazi. The author and illustrator of numerous picture books for children, he has also been awarded the Regina Medal for lifetime achievement in children’s literature. In 1982, Jumanji won the National Book Award and in 1996, it was made into a popular feature film. Chris Van Allsburg was formerly an instructor at the Rhode Island School of Design. He lives in Rhode Island with his wife and two children.
About the Jo Elyn Nyman Anchors Programs for Children at Hospice Of Michigan and Ann Arbor Hospice:
With a focus on maximizing the quality of life for every child in its care, Jo Elyn Nyman Anchors Programs for Children is privileged to offer a wide range of pediatric services to families throughout Michigan. The Anchors Programs for Children, funded through a generous gift from the Samuel & Jean Frankel Foundation, includes Compass Support Services, The James B. Fahner MD Pediatric Hospice Program and The Anchors Perinatal Program. For more, visit http://www.hom.org/our-services/anchors-pediatric-programs/.
This Washtenaw International High School English teacher and forensics coach has competed in several regional poetry slams. Her most famous poem, “Credentialed Casualty,” recounts her experience receiving active shooter training and the ethical implications of making split-second life and death decisions about the students supposedly in her care. Preceded by a poetry open mike.
7 p.m. Espresso Royale, 324 S. State. $5 suggested donation. facebook.com/AnnArborPoetry.
Local short story writer Alex Kourvo and young adult novelist Bethany Neal discuss the complicated relationship between plot and character development. 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 Jan. 29.
7-8:45 p.m., AADL Westgate Branch. Free. 327-8301
Literati is thrilled to welcome journalist Jason Fagone whose new book The Woman Who Smashed Codes explores the life of brilliant codebreaker Elizabeth Smith.
About The Woman Who Smashed Codes:
Joining the ranks of Hidden Figures and In the Garden of Beasts, the incredible true story of the greatest codebreaking duo that ever lived, an American woman and her husband who invented the modern science of cryptology together and used it to confront the evils of their time, solving puzzles that unmasked Nazi spies and helped win World War II
In 1916, at the height of World War I, brilliant Shakespeare expert Elizebeth Smith went to work for an eccentric tycoon on his estate outside Chicago. The tycoon had close ties to the U.S. government, and he soon asked Elizebeth to apply her language skills to an exciting new venture: code-breaking. There she met the man who would become her husband, groundbreaking cryptologist William Friedman. Though she and Friedman are in many ways the “Adam and Eve” of the NSA, Elizebeth’s story, incredibly, has never been told.
In The Woman Who Smashed Codes, Jason Fagone chronicles the life of this extraordinary woman, who played an integral role in our nation’s history for forty years. After World War I, Smith used her talents to catch gangsters and smugglers during Prohibition, then accepted a covert mission to discover and expose Nazi spy rings that were spreading like wildfire across South America, advancing ever closer to the United States. As World War II raged, Elizabeth fought a highly classified battle of wits against Hitler’s Reich, cracking multiple versions of the Enigma machine used by German spies. Meanwhile, inside an Army vault in Washington, William worked furiously to break Purple, the Japanese version of Enigma—and eventually succeeded, at a terrible cost to his personal life.
Fagone unveils America’s code-breaking history through the prism of Smith’s life, bringing into focus the unforgettable events and colorful personalities that would help shape modern intelligence. Blending the lively pace and compelling detail that are the hallmarks of Erik Larson’s bestsellers with the atmosphere and intensity of The Imitation Game, The Woman Who Smashed Codes is page-turning popular history at its finest.
Jason Fagone is a journalist who covers science, sports, and culture. Named one of the “Ten young Writers on the Rise” by the Columbia Journalism Review, he is a contributing writer to the Huffington Post Highline, and writes for a number of outlets, including GQ, Esquire, The Atlantic, the New York Times, Mother Jones, and Philadelphia magazine. He is the author of Ingenious and Horsemen of the Esophagus, and lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Literati is excited to partner with our neighors at the Arbor Brewing Company to welcome author William Rapai who will be sharing his new book on craft beer Brewed in Michigan.
About Brewed in Michigan
Brewed in Michigan: The New Golden Age of Brewing in the Great Beer State is William Rapai’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn”-a discussion of art and art’s audience. The art in this case is beer. Craft beer. Michigan craft beer, to be exact. Like the Great Lakes and the automobile, beer has become a part of Michigan’s identity. In 2016, Michigan ranked fifth in the number of craft breweries in the nation and tenth in the nation in craft beer production. Craft brewing now contributes more than $1.8 billion annually to the state’s economy and is proving to be an economic catalyst, helping to revive declining cities and invigorate neighborhoods.
This book is not a beer-tasting guide. Instead, Rapai aims to highlight the unique forces behind and exceptional attributes of the leading craft breweries in Michigan. Through a series of interviews with brewmasters over an eighteenth-month sojourn to microbreweries around the state, the author argues that Michigan craft beer is brewed by individuals with a passion for excellence who refuse to be process drones. It is brewed by people who have created a culture that values quality over quantity and measures tradition and innovation in equal parts. Similarly, the taprooms associated with these craft breweries have become a conduit for conversation-places for people to gather and discuss current events, raise money for charities, and search for ways to improve their communities. They’re places where strangers become friends, friends fall in love, and lovers get married. These brewpubs and taprooms are an example in resourcefulness-renovating old churches and abandoned auto dealerships in Michigan’s biggest cities, tiny suburbs, working-class neighborhoods, and farm towns. Beer, as it turns out, can be the lifeblood of a community.
William Rapai lives in Grosse Pointe, Michigan and is the author of two other books: Lake Invaders: Invasive Species and the Battle for the Future of the Great Lakes (Wayne State University Press, 2016) and The Kirtland’s Warbler: The Story of a Bird’s Fight Against Extinction and the People Who Saved it.
Literati is excited to host author and Oylmpian Casey Barnett to read from and discuss his new novel Under Water.
About Under Water:
Duck Darley should have been a winner. Once a competitive swimmer destined for Olympic gold, he drank away his gilded youth and followed his fraudster father’s footsteps into prison. Barely scraping by as an unlicensed private investigator, Duck now chases down cheating spouses for the same Manhattan elite who once viewed him as equal, and drowns bitter memories with whatever fills his glass.
Duck’s lost glory days resurface when he’s tasked with finding the teenaged sister of a former teammate turned Olympic champion. Privileged Madeline McKay vanished over Labor Day weekend, leaving behind a too-perfect West Village apartment and a promising athletic career of her own. Duck thinks he’s hunting for a self-destructive runaway–until Madeline’s film student ex is savagely murdered, and the media spins her as the psycho who killed him.
As Duck searches for Madeline, he’s plunged back into the dark underbelly of Olympic swimming–a world rife with wild lies and terrible violence. And he soon learns that no matter how hard he tries to escape his past, demons still lurk beneath every surface . . .
CASEY BARRETT is a Canadian Olympian and the co-founder and co-CEO of Imagine Swimming, New York City’s largest learn-to-swim school. He has won three Emmy awards and one Peabody award for his work on NBC’s broadcasts of the Olympic Games in 2000, 2004, 2006, and 2008. Casey lives in Manhattan and the Catskill mountains of New York with his wife, daughter, and hound. He can be found online at caseybarrettbooks.com.
All invited to read and discuss their poetry or short stories. Bring about 6 copies of your work to share.
7-9 p.m., Crazy Wisdom, 114 S. Main. Free. 665-2757
