Nov. 10 & 17. All adults and teens in grade 9 & up invited to work on their novel for this nonprofit promotion (also known as National Novel Writing Month) challenging teens and adults to write a 50,000-word novel by the end of November.
1-3 p.m., AADL Westgate. Free. 327-4200.
Marlin M. Jenkins was born and raised in Detroit. His poetry and fiction have been given homes by Indiana Review, Waxwing, Iowa Review, and Forward: 21st Century Flash Fiction, among others. He has worked as a teaching artist with Inside Out Literary Arts teaching poetry to middle schoolers in Detroit Public Schools, and is the Short Story Advisor at the Neutral Zone. He teaches writing and literature at University of Michigan, where he earned his MFA in poetry.
Jonathan’s new Lincoln & Speed Mystery, Final Resting Place, was published by Crooked Lane Books in New York in July 2018.
Performance by this RC Prison Creative Arts Project instructor, who was incarcerated at age 17 and released just last year, after serving 18 years. His free verse poems explore the dehumanization of mass incarceration and poverty.
7 p.m. Espresso Royale, 324 S. State. $5 suggested donation. facebook.com/AnnArborPoetry.
Literati Bookstore is thrilled to welcome Jonathan Franzen to Zingerman’s Greyline as he reads from his new essay collection, The End of the End of the Earth.
Tickets are general admission and include a hardcover copy of The End of the End of the Earth, to be picked up at Zingerman’s Greyline the evening of the event. Literati Bookstore will have additional copies of Jonathan Franzen’s titles available for sale.
About The End of the End of the Earth:
A sharp and provocative new essay collection from the award-winning author of Freedom and The Corrections
In The End of the End of the Earth, which gathers essays and speeches written mostly in the past five years, Jonathan Franzen returns with renewed vigor to the themes—both human and literary—that have long preoccupied him. Whether exploring his complex relationship with his uncle, recounting his young adulthood in New York, or offering an illuminating look at the global seabird crisis, these pieces contain all the wit and disabused realism that we’ve come to expect from Franzen.
Taken together, these essays trace the progress of a unique and mature mind wrestling with itself, with literature, and with some of the most important issues of our day, made more pressing by the current political milieu. The End of the End of the Earth is remarkable, provocative, and necessary.
About Jonathan Franzen: Jonathan Franzen is the author of five novels, including Freedom and The Corrections, and five works of nonfiction and translation, including The Kraus Project and Farther Away, all published by FSG. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the German Akademie der Künste, and the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
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.
7-8:45 p.m., AADL Westgate. Free. 327-4200.
Literati is so excited to welcome poet Kristen Tracy who will be reading from her new collection Half-Hazard.
About Half-Hazard:
Half-Hazard is the Winner of the Emily Dickinson First Book Award from the Poetry Foundation for a debut by an American poet over forty.
Half-Hazard is a book of near misses, would-be tragedies, and luck. As Kristen Tracy writes in the title poem, “Dangers here. Perils there. It’ll go how it goes.” The collection follows her wide curiosity, from growing up in a small Mormon farming community to her exodus into the forbidden world, where she finds snakes, car accidents, adulterers, meteors, and death-marked mice. These wry, observant narratives are accompanied by a ringing lyricism, and Tracy’s knack for noticing what’s so funny about trouble and her natural impulse to want to put all the broken things back together. Full of wrong turns, false loves, quashed beliefs, and a menagerie of animals, Half-Hazard introduces a vibrant new voice in American poetry, one of resilience, faith, and joy.
Kristen Tracy is a poet and the acclaimed author of more than a dozen novels for young readers. Her poems have been published in Poetry, Prairie Schooner, and The Threepenny Review, among other magazines. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son
Nov. 6 & 20. 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 themes of “Distance” (Nov. 6) & “Fear” (Nov. 20). The 3-person judging teams are recruited from the audience. Monthly winners compete in a semiannual Grand Slam. Seating 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. General admission tickets $10 in advance only at themoth.org beginning a week before each event. 764-5118.
Literati Bookstore is thrilled to welcome Pete Souza to Ann Arbor for a visual presentation of his latest book, Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents.
Tickets are general admission and include a hardcover copy of Shade to be picked up at the venue the evening of the event. Books will be pre-signed.
PLEASE NOTE: Due to Rackham’s unique seating chart and as this event entails a photo presentation, we have restricted available seating in the venue to improve sightlines. Seating is general admission, so we encourage arriving early.
About Shade: From Pete Souza, the #1 New York Timesbestselling author of Obama: An Intimate Portrait, comes a powerful tribute to a bygone era of integrity in politics.
As Chief Official White House Photographer, Pete Souza spent more time alongside President Barack Obama than almost anyone else. His years photographing the President gave him an intimate behind-the-scenes view of the unique gravity of the Office of the Presidency–and the tremendous responsibility that comes with it.
Now, as a concerned citizen observing the Trump administration, he is standing up and speaking out.
Shade is a portrait in Presidential contrasts, telling the tale of the Obama and Trump administrations through a series of visual juxtapositions. Here, more than one hundred of Souza’s unforgettable images of President Obama deliver new power and meaning when framed by the tweets, news headlines, and quotes that defined the first 500 days of the Trump White House.
What began with Souza’s Instagram posts soon after President Trump’s inauguration in January 2017 has become a potent commentary on the state of the Presidency, and our country. Some call this “throwing shade.” Souza calls it telling the truth.
In Shade, Souza’s photographs are more than a rejoinder to the chaos, abuses of power, and destructive policies that now define our nation’s highest office. They are a reminder of a President we could believe in, and a courageous defense of American values.
About Pete Souza: Pete Souza was the Chief Official White House Photographer for President Obama and the Director of the White House Photo Office. Previously Souza was an Assistant Professor of Photojournalism at Ohio University, the national photographer for the Chicago Tribune, a freelancer for National Geographic, and an Official White House Photographer for President Reagan. His books include the New York Times bestsellers Obama: An Intimate Portraitand The Rise of Barack Obama. Souza is currently a freelance photographer based in Washington, D.C., and a Professor Emeritus at Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication.
Reading by this award-winning local poet whose work often frames dark themes in plainspoken, imaginatively whimsical language. Preceded by an open mike.
7-8:30 p.m. Sweetwaters Coffee & Tea, 123 W. Washington. Free. 994-6663.
