Literati is proud to be partnering with the Helen Zell Writers Program to host poet Marilyn Chin at the University of Michigan Art Museum Helmut Stern Auditorium.
Marilyn Chin was born in Hong Kong. She is the author of four previous poetry collections and a novel. Her work has appeared in The Norton Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women, and Best American Poetry, among other publications. She is the winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award, five Pushcart Prizes, fellowships from the United States Artists Foundation and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, among other honors. Presently, she serves as a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and lives in San Diego.
Literati is thrilled to welcome novelist Halle Butler who will be reading and discussing her latest book The New Me.
About The New Me:
Im still trying to make the dream possible: still might finish my cleaning project, still might sign up for that yoga class, still might, still might. I step into the shower and almost faint, an image of taking the day by the throat and bashing its head against the wall floating in my mind.
Thirty-year-old Millie just can’t pull it together. Misanthropic and morose, she spends her days killing time at a thankless temp job until she can return home to her empty apartment, where she oscillates wildly between self-recrimination and mild delusion, fixating on all the little ways she might change her life. Then she watches TV until she drops off to sleep, and the cycle begins again. When the possibility of a full-time job offer arises, it seems to bring the better life she’s envisioning – one that involves nicer clothes, fresh produce, maybe even financial independence – within reach. But with it also comes the paralyzing realization, lurking just beneath the surface, of just how hollow that vision has become. Darkly hilarious and devastating, The New Me is a dizzying descent into the mind of a young woman trapped in the funhouse of American consumer culture.
“The New Me is a bouncy, profane, highly addictive novel about work, female friendship, and other alienations. Halle Butler’s insane talent shimmers on every page of this deadpan misanthrope’s ode. A must-read!”
–Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Gold Fame Citrus and Battleborn
“Halle Butler has a way of looking at our twenty-first-century neoliberalist condition that simultaneously exposes its brutality and renders that same brutality absurd, hilarious, fizzy with humor. She’s an incisive, curmudgeonly bard of the uniquely precarious times we live in, and it is crucial that you read her immediately.”
–Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine
Halle Butler is the author of Jillian. She has been named a National Book Award Foundation “5 Under 35” honoree and a Granta Best Young American Novelist.
These 2 local writers discuss their work. Title 13 is Ferro’s recent debut novel about an alcoholic bureaucrat who struggles with mounting paranoia, his relationships with concerned family members, his dying grandmother, and a budding office romance. Awaiting Identification is Fox’s 2018 novel, set against the backdrop of a Devil’s Night party in Detroit, about 5 disparate characters whose paths cross en route to their respective demises. Signing.
7 p.m., Nicola’s, Westgate shopping center. Free. 662-0600.
This month we are hosting a full hour of open mic in a relaxed, welcoming atmosphere. Our guest emcee is David Jibson, local poet & co-editor of Third Wednesday Magazine. Please join us to hear some fantastic local poets, and feel free to share your own work or that of a favorite author.
This event is part of a poetry series held on the second Thursday of most months at 7pm in partnership with Les Go Social Media Marketing & Training.
Former RC creative writing lecturer Ken Mikolowski founded the press; the exhibit runs from February 25-June 2 in the Hatcher Aububon Room.
Literati is pleased to be a part of the 23rd Annual CLIFF Conference to host the Student Creative Reading Event.
U-M grad students were invited to submit creative pieces to read for up to five minutes each on the theme of “Silence.”
The Comparative Literature Intra-Student Faculty Forum (CLIFF) is an annual conference sponsored by the graduate students of the Department of Comparative Literature. CLIFF is designed to promote increased awareness of research being conducted in various languages and interdisciplinary studies at the University of Michigan.
Student monologues and exceprts from creative works.
Keene Theater, East Quadrangle, 701 East University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. Free.
Seven short farces about language and relationships, directed by students from RC Hums 482, and acted by students in RC Hums 281, all by master comic playwright, David Ives.
Start your National Letter Writing Month off right with a letter and card writing party! We’ll have stationery, pens, envelopes, stamps, and stickers—you bring your address book! We’ll get you on track with ideas to keep the letter writing going all month long.
