Literati is thrilled to welcome authors Bill Shapiro and Naomi Wax who will be sharing their new book What We Keep.
About What We Keep:
With contributions from Cheryl Strayed, Mark Cuban, Ta-Nahesi Coates, Melinda Gates, Joss Whedon, James Patterson, and many more–this fascinating collection gives us a peek into 150 personal treasures and the secret histories behind them.
All of us have that one object that holds deep meaning–something that speaks to our past, that carries a remarkable story. Bestselling author Bill Shapiro collected this sweeping range of stories–he talked to everyone from renowned writers to Shark Tank hosts, from blackjack dealers to teachers, truckers, and nuns, even a reformed counterfeiter–to reveal the often hidden, always surprising lives of objects.
Bill Shapiro co-wrote What We Keep. He is the former editor-in-chief of LIFE magazine, and his previous books include Other People’s Love Letters, and Gus & Me, which he co-wrote with Keith Richards. He serves on the Art Advisory Board of SXSW.
Naomi Wax co-wrote What We Keep. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Iowa Review, and many other publications. She works on the communications team at the Ford Foundation.
Brookings Institute fellow and CNN commentator Norman Eisen reads from his new book, which examines 20th-century European history through the lens of the families that lived in the Petschek house in Prague, the residence he occupied as the U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic, 2011-14.
Noon-1 p.m., Weill Hall Annenberg Auditorium, 735 S. State. Free. 764-3490
Former LA Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti reads from The Big Chair, his 2017 memoir which offers insights on being accountable to wealthy team owners, managing players’ illegal steroid use, negotiating for players, and second-guessing field managers without seeming to interfere. Refreshments.
4-5:30 p.m., Weill Hall Betty Ford Classroom, 735 S. State. Free. 764-3490.
Literati is thrilled to welcome back author R.J. Fox who will be sharing his new novel Awaiting Identification.
About Awaiting Identification:
Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office, Detroit, Michigan: October 31, 1999.
Five unidentified bodies lie in the Wayne County morgue on Halloween night. Although each character was on a separate journey, fate leads each of the five victims to cross paths on the streets of Detroit en route to their tragic demise. Set against the backdrop of a Devil’s Night party at legendary Detroit concert venue and nightclub, Saint Andrew’s Hall, Awaiting Identification details the final night on earth for five lost souls. NYC Girl: a former dancer arrives back home from New York City to make amends with her mother and begin to rebuild her life. Leaf Man: a musician and part-time DJ is on the cusp of his big break with one final, unexpected drug deal to complete before he can go totally straight. R.I.P.: a career criminal must come up with a large sum of money to pay for his father’s medical expenses, despite his yearning for a crime-free life. The Zealot: a religious fanatic on a mission from God to rid the city of filth. Cat Man: a kind and trusting homeless man wanders the city looking for new friends. Like the city in which it takes place, Awaiting Identification is a story of hope, identity, and above all, redemption.
R.J. Fox is an English and video production teacher who uses his own dream of making movies to inspire his students to follow their dreams. He has previously worked in public relations and as a journalist. He is the author of Love & Vodka. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
This native Detroiter, an acclaimed poet, playwright, performance artist, and producer, discusses her visual art and poetry. Her most recent poetry collection, Sunlight Through Bullet Holes, “mixes observation with passion and brevity,” says an Ebony review. “It’s black intelligence filtered through rhythm and blues.”
7-8:30 p.m., AADL Downtown multipurpose rm. Free. 327-4200.
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
ToastMasters at SweetWaters is an opportunity to practice your personal and/or professional speaking as well as Leadership in a fun friendly atmosphere.
The club is open to everyone. Attendees have the opportunity to speak, give and receive feedback about speaking, presentations and current events.
We typically have 2-4 prepared speeches followed by (Kind and constructive evaluations) to provide feedback and growth. Attendees will have an opportunity for impromptu speaking as well.
Sweetwaters Cafe, 123 W Washington. johnsonest121314@gmail.com.johnsonest121314@gmail.com
Literati is proud to be partnering with the Helen Zell Writers Program to host author Aimee Bender and poet Philip Metres at the University of Michigan Art Museum Helmet Stern Auditorium.
Philip Metres’s writing has appeared widely, including in Best American Poetry, and has garnered two NEA fellowships, two Arab American Book Awards, and the Lannon Literary Fellowship, among others. His work has been called “beautiful, powerful, magnetically original” (Cleveland Arts Prize citation). Lawrence Joseph has written that “Philip Metres’s poetry speaks to us all, in ways critical, vital, profound, and brilliant.” His poems have been translated into Arabic, Polish, Russian, and Tamil. He is a professor of English at John Carroll University in Cleveland, where he teaches literature and creative writing, and lives with his wife Amy and their two daughters. Were it not for the Ellis Island effect, his last name would be Abourjaili.
Aimee Bender is the author of five books: The Girl in the Flammable Skirt (1998) which was a NY Times Notable Book, An Invisible Sign of My Own (2000) which was an L.A. Times pick of the year, Willful Creatures(2005) which was nominated by The Believer as one of the best books of the year, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (2010) which won the SCIBA award for best fiction, and an Alex Award, and The Color Master, a NY Times Notable book for 2013. Her books have been translated into sixteen languages. Her short fiction has been published in Granta, GQ, Harper’s, Tin House, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, and more, as well as heard on PRI’s “This American Life”and “Selected Shorts”. She lives in Los Angeles with her family, and teaches creative writing at USC.
Literati is excited to welcome author Brad Felver and poet F. Daniel Rzicznek who will be reading and discussing their latest work The Dogs of Detroit and Settlers.
About The Dogs of Detroit:
Winner of the 2018 Drue Heinz Literature Prize for short fiction
The 14 stories of The Dogs of Detroit each focus on grief and its many strange permutations. This grief alternately devolves into violence, silence, solitude, and utter isolation. In some cases, grief drives the stories as a strong, reactionary force, and yet in other stories, that grief evolves quietly over long stretches of time. Many of the stories also use grief as a prism to explore the beguiling bonds within families. The stories span a variety of geographies, both urban and rural, often considering collisions between the two.
About Settlers:
Settlers inhabits the hidden, wild places of the American Midwestern landscape. The idea of “settling”-that a landscape can be tamed, that a human consciousness can fall back into immobility-is one these poems grapple with and resist, all the while charting the cathartic effects of the natural world on a collective imagination.
Brad Felver is a fiction writer, essayist, and teacher of writing. His honors include the O. Henry Award, a Pushcart Prize special mention, and the Zone 3 Fiction Prize. His fiction and essays have appeared widely in magazines such as One Story, New England Review, Hunger Mountain, and Colorado Review. Currently he serves as Lecturer and Associate Chair of the English Department at Bowling Green State University. He lives with his wife and kids in northern Ohio.
F. Daniel Rzicznek‘s previous collections of poetry are Divination Machine (Free Verse Editions/Parlor Press) and Neck of the World (Utah State University Press), as well as four chapbooks, most recently Live Feeds (Epiphany Editions). He is coeditor of The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry: Contemporary Poets in Discussion and Practice (Rose Metal Press). Rzicznek teaches writing at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio.
Literati is thrilled to welcome back author R.J. Fox who will be sharing his new novel Awaiting Identification. R.J. will be in conversation with fellow novelist Michael Ferro.
About Awaiting Identification:
Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office, Detroit, Michigan: October 31, 1999.
Five unidentified bodies lie in the Wayne County morgue on Halloween night. Although each character was on a separate journey, fate leads each of the five victims to cross paths on the streets of Detroit en route to their tragic demise. Set against the backdrop of a Devil’s Night party at legendary Detroit concert venue and nightclub, Saint Andrew’s Hall, Awaiting Identification details the final night on earth for five lost souls. NYC Girl: a former dancer arrives back home from New York City to make amends with her mother and begin to rebuild her life. Leaf Man: a musician and part-time DJ is on the cusp of his big break with one final, unexpected drug deal to complete before he can go totally straight. R.I.P.: a career criminal must come up with a large sum of money to pay for his father’s medical expenses, despite his yearning for a crime-free life. The Zealot: a religious fanatic on a mission from God to rid the city of filth. Cat Man: a kind and trusting homeless man wanders the city looking for new friends. Like the city in which it takes place, Awaiting Identification is a story of hope, identity, and above all, redemption.
R.J. Fox is an English and video production teacher who uses his own dream of making movies to inspire his students to follow their dreams. He has previously worked in public relations and as a journalist. He is the author of Love & Vodka. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Michael A. Ferro‘s debut novel, TITLE 13, was published by Harvard Square Editions in February 2018. He has received an Honorable Mention from Glimmer Train for their New Writers Award, won the Jim Cash Creative Writing Award for Fiction, and been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Michael’s writing has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including Crack the Spine, Entropy, Amsterdam Quarterly, Yale University’s Perch Journal, Duende, The Nottingham Review, Splitsider, Potluck Magazine, and elsewhere. Born and bred in Detroit, Michael has lived, worked, and written throughout the Midwest; he currently resides in rural Ann Arbor, Michigan
