Talk by freelance journalist Kerry Myers, whose reporting on the death penalty during his tenure as editor of the Louisiana State Penitentiary news magazine won a 2007 Thurgood Marshall Journalism Award.
4 p.m., Pierpont Commons East Room. Free. 615-3204, 647-6771.
NYC-based writer Grady Hendrix reads from his humorous history on the horror paperback boom of the 1970s and 80s, which tor.com calls a “gorgeous, lurid deep-dive into horror’s heyday and a must-read for any self-respecting horror fan.” Hendrix’s 1st novel, Horrorstör, a comic-horror tale about a haunted IKEA store, was one of NPR’s best books of 2014.
7-9 p.m., Live, 102 S. First. Free. 327-4555.
The RC RAs are proud to host a Moth Story Slam, open to all!
The theme will be “The Caveat” — do with that what you will 
🙂
Find out more about the moth here: https://themoth.org/about
We will be having a workshop on March 22nd, 7-8pm in the Greene Lounge, open to anyone who wants to come listen to some stories, talk to other storywriters, bounce off ideas, be inspired by prompts, or practice their stories!
Literati is honored to welcome back poet Tarfia Faizullah who will be sharing her latest collection Registers of Illuminated Villages. She will joined by poet Keith Taylor for a post-reading conversation.
About Registers of Illuminated Villages:
Registers of Illuminated Villages is Tarfia Faizullah’s highly anticipated second collection, following her award-winning debut, Seam. Faizullah’s new work extends and transforms her powerful accounts of violence, war, and loss into poems of many forms and voices–elegies, outcries, self-portraits, and larger-scale confrontations with discrimination, family, and memory. One poem steps down the page like a Slinky; another poem responds to makeup homework completed in the summer of a childhood accident; other poems punctuate the collection with dark meditations on dissociation, discipline, defiance, and destiny; and the near-title poem, “Register of Eliminated Villages,” suggests illuminated texts, one a Qur’an in which the speaker’s name might be found, and the other a register of 397 villages destroyed in northern Iraq. Faizullah is an essential new poet whose work only grows more urgent, beautiful, and–even in its unsparing brutality–full of love.
Tarfia Faizullah is the author of Seam, winner of a VIDA Award and a Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award. She teaches at the University of Michigan and lives in Detroit.
Join us for a special event as we celebrate the release of Notes from a Public Typewriter!
About Notes from a Public Typewriter:
When Michael Gustafson and his wife Hilary opened Literati Bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan, they put out a typewriter for anyone to use. They had no idea what to expect. Would people ask metaphysical questions? Write mean things? Pour their souls onto the page? Yes, no, and did they ever.
Every day, people of all ages sit down at the public typewriter. Children perch atop grandparents’ knees, both sets of hands hovering above the metal keys: I LOVE YOU. Others walk in alone on Friday nights and confess their hopes: I will find someone someday. And some leave funny asides for the next person who sits down: I dislike people, misanthropes, irony, and ellipses … and lists too.
In Notes from a Public Typewrite Michael and designer Oliver Uberti have combined their favorite notes with essays and photos to create an ode to community and the written word that will surprise, delight, and inspire.
Michael Gustafson is the co-owner of Literati Bookstore, an independent bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He lives in Ann Arbor with his wife and Literati Bookstore co-owner, Hilary.
Oliver Uberti is an award-winning graphic designer and was Senior Design Editor at National Geographic before turning to books. He is the co-author and designer of two books published by Penguin in the UK, London: The Information Capital (2014) and Where the Animals Go (2016). He lives in Los Angeles.
This year’s Story Slam is quickly approaching! Using this year’s theme, “In search of a home: Home and belonging,” we are now accepting written submissions of prose, poetry, narratives, personal essays and more (900 words or less) for our Story Slam to be held March 30 at 7 p.m. in the newsroom at 420 Maynard.
A panel of judges will select a winner to receive a prize!
Guests and participants can enjoy food during the event, and all are welcome to attend!
Submit online to tinyurl.com/TMDstoryslam. You will be notified if your piece is selected to present! There may also be time for an open mic portion of the evening.
Meet long-time Detroit Free Press sports writer Keith Gave as he presents his fascinating book The Russian Five: A Story of Espionage, Defection, Bribery, and Courage, a gripping story featuring our beloved Detroit Red Wings! Five former Soviet hockey players who wound up in Detroit in the 1990s and helped to catapult a beleaguered hockey franchise to the top of the summit played a pivotal role in that city’s celebrated comeback. They are The Russian Five, and while they changed their sport forever they also helped bridge rival cultures with their unique style of diplomacy. This is their remarkable story of espionage, defection, heartbreak and triumph – and remarkable courage after a fateful limo crash nearly killed one of them. Mitch Albom calls The Russian Five “a whirlwind story that is at times fantastical, gripping, emotional and even humorous.”
Praise for The Russian Five
“Keith Gave, always a terrific reporter, had a front row seat to the most fascinating and colorful chapter of Red Wings history – the Russian Five. At times, he was smack in the middle of it, as an envoy, Russian-speaker and secret-keeper. No one could write this story with the detail, depth and understanding that Gave delivers. The result is a whirlwind story that is at times fantastical, gripping, emotional and even humorous. This book was a long time in the making, but well worth the wait.” ─Mitch Albom, columnist, Detroit Free Press
“The ultimate inside story” – Doc Emrick, Hall of Fame broadcaster
“Part thriller, part memoir, part Russian fairytale come true, this is an important book” – Dan Milstein, best-selling author and NHL player agent.
About The Russian Five
When the Detroit Red Wings were rebooting their franchise after more than two decades of relative futility, they knew the best place to find world-class players who could help turn things around more quickly were conscripted servants behind the Iron Curtain. All they had to do then was make history by drafting them, then figure out how to get them out. That’s when the Wings turned to Keith Gave, the newsman whose clandestine mission to Helsinki, Finland, was the first phase of a of a years-long series of secret meetings from posh hotel rooms to remote forests around Europe to orchestrate their unlawful departures from the Soviet Union. One defection created an international incident and made global headlines. Another player faked cancer, thanks to the Wings’ extravagant bribes to Russian doctors, including a big American car. Another player who wasn’t quite ready to leave yet felt like he was being kidnapped by an unscrupulous agent. Two others were outcast when they stood up publicly against the Soviet regime, winning their freedom to play in the NHL only after years of struggle. They are the Russian Five: Sergei Fedorov, Viacheslav Fetisov, Vladimir Konstantinov, Vyacheslav Kozlov and Igor Larionov. Their individual stories read like pulse-pounding spy novels. The story that unfolded after they were brought together in Detroit by the masterful coach Scotty Bowman is unforgettable.
About the Author
Keith Gave spent six years in the United States Army as a Russian linguist working for the National Security Agency during the Cold War. Nothing could have better prepared him for a career as a sports writer covering hockey for the Detroit Free Press. His 15 years with the newspaper were the highlight of a career spanning nearly four decades in the news industry. He also served as writer/producer for the soon-to-be-released documentary film, “The Russian Five.” He lives in Roscommon, Michigan, where he continues to write when he’s not sneaking off to cast a fly to the trout on his home waters of the Au Sable River.
In celebration of Literati Bookstore’s Fifth Birthday, please join us for a reading of poetry and prose by booksellers past and present!
Neutral Zone literary arts director and award-winning local slam poet Molly Raynor discusses writing poetry from initial idea through final revisions. For adult and teen (grade 6 & up) fiction and nonfiction writers. Also, 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 at 7 p.m. on Apr 16.
7-8:45 p.m., AADL Westgate. Free. 327-8301.
Literati is pleased to welcome author Simon Jacobs who will be sharing his latest novel Palaces.
About Palaces:
John and Joey are a young couple immersed in their local midwestern punk scene, who after graduating college sever all ties and move to a perverse and nameless northeastern coastal city. They drift in and out of art museums, basement shows, and derelict squats seemingly unfazed as the city slowly slides into chaos around them. Late one night, forced out of their living space, John and Joey are driven to take shelter in a chain pharmacy before emerging to a city in full-scale riot. They find themselves the only passengers on a commuter train headed north, and exit at the final stop to discover the area entirely devoid of people. As John and Joey negotiate their future through bizarre, troubling manifestations of the landscape and a succession of abandoned mansions housing only scant clues to their owners’ strange and sudden disappearance, they’re also forced to confront the resurgent violence and buried memories of their shared past.
Simon Jacobs is the author of Saturn (Spork Press), a collection of David Bowie stories, and of Masterworks (Instar Books), a short story collection. His other fiction has appeared in Tin House, Black Warrior Review, Joyland, and Paper Darts. He lives in New York City. Palaces is his first novel.
