Join EMMY- award winning author and storyteller Jim May for a special hour of stories, with book sale and signing to follow.
Several Detroit writers discuss their contributions to this essay collection about Detroit neighborhoods, edited by Detroit native Aaron Foley, author of How to Live in Detroit Without Being a Jackass. Signing.
4 p.m., Nicola’s, Westgate shopping center. Free. 662-0600.
STORIES OF CONNECTION at Sandhill Crane Winery. 6-9 pm. Join EMMY-award winning storyteller Jim May and local storyteller Steve Daut for a special evening to benefit Saturday Morning Challengers (A bowling league for people with developmental disabilities). $40 fee includes dinner, stories, and book sales/signing. RESERVATIONS ONLY – space is limited.
Double bill. Currently getting his teacher education PhD at MSU, Harris was the 2005 Rustbelt Poetry Slam individual champion, and frequently publishes, performs, and teaches poetry. Ann Arbor native Zick recently received his MFA in poetry from Bowling Green State University and was one of the featured writers in HBO’s Brave New Voicesdocumentary series. “He cultivated a style that was at once simple and unadorned in its language, but also layered and transcendental in meaning,” says his former writing teacher Jeff Kass.
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 host an open house for writers to connect with one another and/or work on their projects.
Highland-based psychic medium and writer Kristy Robinett discusses her book.
7 p.m., SDL, 555 N. Maple, Saline. Free; preregistration required. 429-5450.
New America think tank CEO Anne-Marie Slaughter, a former U.S. State Department policy planning director, presents a talk adapted from her new book, The Chessboard and the Web: Strategies of Connection in a Dangerous World. Reception follows; signing.
4-5:30 p.m., 1010 Weiser, 500 Church. Free. 763-9200.
Literati is thrilled to welcome acclaimed novelist John Scalzi who will share his latest, Head On: A Novel of the Near Future
About Head On:
John Scalzi returns with Head On, the standalone follow-up to the New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed Lock In. Chilling near-future SF with the thrills of a gritty cop procedural, Head On brings Scalzi’s trademark snappy dialogue and technological speculation to the future world of sports.
Hilketa is a frenetic and violent pastime where players attack each other with swords and hammers. The main goal of the game: obtain your opponent’s head and carry it through the goalposts. With flesh and bone bodies, a sport like this would be impossible. But all the players are “threeps,” robot-like bodies controlled by people with Haden’s Syndrome, so anything goes. No one gets hurt, but the brutality is real and the crowds love it.
Until a star athlete drops dead on the playing field.
Is it an accident or murder? FBI agents and Haden-related crime investigators, Chris Shane and Leslie Vann, are called in to uncover the truth–and in doing so travel to the darker side of the fast-growing sport of Hilketa, where fortunes are made or lost, and where players and owners do whatever it takes to win, on and off the field.
John Scalzi is one of the most popular and acclaimed SF authors to emerge in the last decade. His massively successful debut Old Man’s War won him science fiction’s John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. His New York Times bestsellers include The Last Colony, Fuzzy Nation, and Redshirts; which won 2013’s Hugo Award for Best Novel. Material from his widely read blog, Whatever, has also earned him two other Hugo Awards. Scalzi also serves as critic-at-large for LA Times. He lives in Ohio with his wife and daughter.
New York Times bestselling author Rosalind Wiseman, whose book about teen girls, “Queen Bees and Wannabes,” inspired Tina Fey’s movie “Mean Girls,” visits Greenhills April 17 to speak with the public about the social dynamics that govern the lives of boys and girls. Wiseman, who also wrote “Masterminds and Wingmen” about the lives of boys, hopes to shift the way we think about the emotional and physical well-being of teens. The event, which includes a book signing, is free and open to the entire Ann Arbor community. We hope you’ll join us. Please RSVP at www.ghwiseman.eventbrite.com
Greenhills School, 850 Greenhills Dr. Free. 734-769-4010. www.greenhillsschool.org
Apr. 3 & 17. Open mike storytelling competition sponsored by The Moth, the NYC-based nonprofit storytelling organization that also produces a weekly public radio show. Each month 10 storytellers are selected at random from among those who sign up to tell a 3-5 minute story on the monthly theme. Apr. themes: “Awards” (Apr. 3) & “Mail” (Apr. 17). The 3-person judging teams 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 p.m.), Greyline, 100 N. Ashley. $8. 764-5118.
