RC creative writing alumna and Detroit freelance journalist Anna Clark discusses her new book on the Flint water crisis.
7-8:30 p.m., AADL Downtown multipurpose rm., 343 S. Fifth Ave. Free. 327-4200.
Join us for a panel presentation featuring accomplished authors from the state of Michigan! Detroit author Michael Ferro is celebrating the release of his debut novel Title 13, named a “Most Anticipated Small Press Book of 2018” by literary blog Big Other. Kelly Fordon is a former writer-in-residence at InsideOut LIterary arts in Detroit, whose collection of interconnected stories, Garden for the Blind, was named a Michigan Notable book. Joining them will be University of Michigan creative writing professor Laura Hulthen Thomas, speaking about her acclaimed short story collection States of Motion
Michael A. Ferro‘s fiction and essays have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies. He won the Jim Cash Creative Writing Award for Fiction, received an Honorable Mention from Glimmer Train for their New Writers Award, and been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Born and bred in Detroit, Michael has lived, worked, and written throughout the Midwest; he currently resides in rural Ann Arbor, Michigan. TITLE 13 is his first novel.
Prior to writing fiction and poetry, Kelly Fordon worked at the NPR member station in Detroit and for National Geographic magazine. Her fiction, poetry, and book reviews have appeared in The Boston Review, The Florida Review, Flashquake, The Kenyon Review, and various other journals. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks, On the Street Where We Live, which won the 2011 Standing Rock Chapbook Contest, and Tell Me When It Starts to Hurt, which was published by Kattywompus Press in 2013. She received her MFA in fiction writing from Queens University of Charlotte and worked for InsideOut Literary Arts in Detroit as a writer-in-residence.
Laura Hulthen Thomas’s work has appeared in The Cimarron Review, Nimrod International Journal, Epiphany and Witness. She received her MFA in fiction writing from Warren Wilson College. She currently heads the undergraduate creative writing program at the University of Michigan’s Residential College, where she teaches fiction and creative nonfiction.
Shakespeare Scenes in the Arb has come again! Every year, veterans of Ann Arbor’s Shakespeare in the Arb come together for a free, casual performance of a variety of scenes from our favorite Shakespearean plays, in a tour of some less-seen spots in the beautiful Nichols Arboretum.
Shows begin at 6:30 PM on Friday, July 27th, and Saturday, July 28th. Audiences should collect outside the Arb’s Reader Center, and will be led on the path of the show. This year, we’ve got scenes from Julius Caesar, Richard III, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, and King Lear!
The show should run about an hour. Be prepared for some short walks, and standing or sitting on the ground to view various scenes. You are welcome to bring blankets to sit on, as long as you don’t mind carrying them from scene to scene!
Shakespeare Scenes in the Arb has come again! Every year, veterans of Ann Arbor’s Shakespeare in the Arb come together for a free, casual performance of a variety of scenes from our favorite Shakespearean plays, in a tour of some less-seen spots in the beautiful Nichols Arboretum.
Shows begin at 6:30 PM on Friday, July 27th, and Saturday, July 28th. Audiences should collect outside the Arb’s Reader Center, and will be led on the path of the show. This year, we’ve got scenes from Julius Caesar, Richard III, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, and King Lear!
The show should run about an hour. Be prepared for some short walks, and standing or sitting on the ground to view various scenes. You are welcome to bring blankets to sit on, as long as you don’t mind carrying them from scene to scene!
Readings by these 2 poets. An is a Thailand-based queer poet (and Midwest native) whose 2016 book, Naming the No-Name Woman, mythologizes her experiences as a Chinese-American woman with various overlapping identities. U-M social work grad student Kime writes freeform poetry with queer and activist themes. Kime is also an RC creative writing alum!
7 p.m. Espresso Royale, 324 S. State. $5 suggested donation. facebook.com/AnnArborPoetry.
Join us for a celebration of authors, books, art, and bratwurst.
Booktoberfest will feature industry experts from around the country, offering advice and insight for authors, as well as fun and educational activities for the whole family.
Authors can even pitch their books to a panel of experts for a chance to win a publishing package from Thomson-Shore! (Must sign up for the pitch contest ahead of time by visiting thomsonshore.com/booktoberfest.)
Enjoy a day of music, food, and fun, while learning about the ever-changing world of publishing and bookmaking. A portion of proceeds will benefit 826 Michigan.
The Kerrytown BookFest is held each September and is a celebration of books, those who create them and those who read them. Our primary goal is to highlight our area’s rich heritage in the book and printing arts and showcase local individuals, businesses, and organizations. The day will be filled with entertainment, education, and hands-on experiences.
We’ll have a booth setup at the festival throughout the day, so stop by and say hello!
For a complete schedule of events, please visit the Kerrytown Bookfest: ktbookfest.org
Poet and memoirist Carmen Bugan was born in Romania and emigrated to the United States in 1989. She earned a BA from the University of Michigan Residential College, an MA in creative writing from Lancaster University, and a MA and PhD, both in English Literature, from Oxford University. Bugan’s work reckons with the legacy of totalitarianism, including the crippling effects of the culture of surveillance that existed under Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
Her visit is co-sponsored by the LSA Honors Program and the Residential College.
Poet and memoirist Carmen Bugan was born in Romania and emigrated to the United States in 1989. She earned a BA from the University of Michigan Residential College, an MA in creative writing from Lancaster University, and a MA and PhD, both in English Literature, from Oxford University. Bugan’s work reckons with the legacy of totalitarianism, including the crippling effects of the culture of surveillance that existed under Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
Her visit is co-sponsored by the LSA Honors Program and the Residential College.
About Half-Gods:
A startlingly beautiful debut, Half Gods brings together the exiled, the disappeared, the seekers. Following the fractured origins and destines of two brothers named after demigods from the ancient epic the Mahabharata, we meet a family struggling with the reverberations of the past in their lives. These ten interlinked stories redraw the map of our world in surprising ways: following an act of violence, a baby girl is renamed after a Hindu goddess but raised as a Muslim; a lonely butcher from Angola finds solace in a family of refugees in New Jersey; a gentle entomologist, in Sri Lanka, discovers unexpected reserves of courage while searching for his missing son.
By turns heartbreaking and fiercely inventive, Half Gods reveals with sharp clarity the ways that parents, children, and friends act as unknowing mirrors to each other, revealing in their all-too human weaknesses, hopes, and sorrows a connection to the divine.
Akil Kumarasamy is a writer from New Jersey. Her fiction has appeared in Harper’s Magazine, American Short Fiction, Boston Review, and elsewhere. She received her MFA from the University of Michigan and has been a fiction fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and the University of East Anglia. Half Gods is her first book.
