Open-mic storytelling competitions. Open to anyone with a five-minute story to share on the night’s theme. Come tell a story, or just enjoy the show!
6:30pm Doors Open | 7:30pm Stories Begin
BLUNDERS: Prepare a five-minute story about a time you goofed. Wax on about a gaffe, mistake, misstep or other oops. Recount a defining slip-up, blooper, or faux pas from your life and times. Recall saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, letting the cat out of the bag or other spectacularly bad decisions.
*Tickets for this event are available one week before the show, at 3pm ET.
*Seating is not guaranteed and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please be sure to arrive at least 10 minutes before the show. Admission is not guaranteed for late arrivals. All sales final.
Media Sponsor: Michigan Radio.
Join local poet Douglas Smith for a reading of his works. Award-winning Michigan playwright Brian Cox calls Smith “…a poet who creates an awareness that burrows into you and changes how you see.”
Literati is excited to welcome back author Polly Rosenwaike who will be reading and discussing her new short story collection Look How Happy I’m Making You.
About Look How Happy I’m Making You:
“A beautifully written and beautifully conceived series of stories about, well, conception…Among the thousands of books for prospective and new parents, I doubt any will make you feel more understood and less alone than this one.”–ANTHONY DOERR, author of ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE
A candid, ultimately buoyant debut story collection about the realities of the “baby years,” whether you’re having one or not.
The women in Polly Rosenwaike’s Look How Happy I’m Making You want to be mothers, or aren’t sure they want to be mothers, or–having recently given birth–are overwhelmed by what they’ve wrought. Sharp and unsettling, wry and moving in its depiction of love, friendship, and family, this collection expands the conversation about what having a baby looks like.
One woman struggling with infertility deals with the news that her sister is pregnant. Another woman nervous about her biological clock “forgets” to take her birth control while dating a younger man and must confront the possibility of becoming a single parent. Four motherless women who meet in a bar every Mother’s Day contend with their losses and what it would mean to have a child.
Witty, empathetic, and precisely observed, Look How Happy I’m Making You offers the rare, honest portrayal of pregnancy and new motherhood in a culture obsessed with women’s most intimate choices.
POLLY ROSENWAIKE has published stories, essays, and reviews in The O. Henry Prize Stories 2013, The New York Times Book Review, Glimmer Train, New England Review, The Millions, and the San Francisco Chronicle. The fiction editor for Michigan Quarterly Review, she lives in Ann Arbor with the poet Cody Walker and their two daughters.
ONE PAUSE POETRY SALON is (literally) a greenhouse for poetry and poets, nurturing an appreciation for written art in all languages and encouraging experiments in creative writing.
We meet every Weds in the greenhouse at Argus Farm Stop on Liberty St. The poems we read each time are unified by form (haiku, sonnet, spoken word), poet, time / place (Tang Dynasty, English Romanticism, New York in the 70s) or theme / mood (springtime, poems with cats, protest poems). We discuss the poems and play writing games together, with time for snacks and socializing in between.
Members are encouraged to share their own poems or poems they like – they may or may not relate to the theme of the evening. This is not primarily a workshop – we may hold special workshop nights, but mostly we listen to and talk about poems for the sake of inspiring new writing.
Whether you are a published poet or encountering poetry for the first time, we invite you to join us!
$5 suggested donation for food, drinks and printing costs.
8-10 p.m., Argus Farm Stop greenhouse, 325 W. Liberty. $5 suggested donation. onepausepoetry.org, 707-1284.
A diverse nation deserves diverse poetry, Celebrate National Poetry Month with leading poets of color from Ann Arbor’s vibrant poetry scene as they explore pressing themes of identity, heritage, culture, race, resistance, and more. This event will be curated by local writer Frances Kai-Hwa Wang.
- Jasmine An comes from the Midwest. Her chapbook, Naming the No-Name Woman, won the 2015 Two Sylvias Press Chapbook Prize. Her work can be found or is forthcoming in HEArt, Stirring: A Literary Collection, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Nat. Brut and Waxwing, among others. Currently, she is pursuing a PhD in English and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan.
- Aldo Leopoldo Pando Girard is the current Youth Poet Laureate of Ann Arbor. Aldo believes firmly in bringing people together and making people feel seen through poetry, and hopes to do so in his own poetry. He is a recent graduate of Pioneer high school, former Ann Arbor Youth Slam Team member, and a freshman at the University of Michigan, studying Vocal Performance and Engineering.
- Marlin M. Jenkins was born and raised in Detroit. He teaches in the English Department Writing Program at University of Michigan and in the Literary Arts Program at the Neutral Zone.
- Leslie McGraw is the creative inspiration behind the Bookbound Open Mic & Share Poetry Series and the Life By Poetry online community. Her debut poetry collection, Emergencies of the Heart, was published in 2014; and her essay, “Roses Come in Black, Too,” was published in the As/Us Women of the World Journal. You can follow her on Twitter @LifebyPoetry.
- Saleem Peeradina is the internationally esteemed author of several books of poetry, memoir, and essays. He is the editor of Contemporary Indian Poetry in English, one of the earliest and most widely used texts in South Asian literature courses. He has served as writer-in-residence from Chelsea District Library to the American College in Madurai, India and is Professor Emeritus at Siena Heights University.
- Frances Kai-Hwa Wang is a journalist, essayist, speaker, educator, and poet focused on issues of diversity, race, culture, and the arts. Her poetry has appeared in Cha Asian Literary Journal, Kartika Review, and the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. She teaches Asian/Pacific Islander American studies at the University of Michigan.
- Cozine A. Welch, Jr. is a formerly incarcerated published poet and writer. A staff member of the University of Michigan’s Prisoner Creative Arts Project (PCAP), he now teaches at the University and is managing editor of the Michigan Review of Prisoner Creative Writing literary journal.
For Whom
Grade 4 – Adult
Description
Hands-on experimenting with words, sounds, technology, and images to produce your own unique poems.
Literati is excited to welcome the Creative Writing Sub-concentration seniors in the English Department at the University of Michigan for a night of poetry and prose readings!
Each year the Creative Writing Sub-concentration selects no more than 14 students who spend their senior year working with faculty to complete a creative thesis of poetry or fiction. These collections, the same size as many MFA theses, are first attempts to create book-length manuscripts, and to prepare the writers for their work in the future.
Readers include…
Laura Dzubay is a writer specializing in short fiction, long fiction, and articles about all the music she loves. She is mostly from Indiana and has published work in Blue Earth Review, Bad Pony, Belle Ombre, and others, and has won three Hopwood Awards. She enjoys UltimateGuitar.com and pretending it’s fall year-round.
Sophia Christos is a senior studying English, creative writing, and entrepreneurship. She’s one of the founders of EMPOWER, an online young women’s magazine that promotes positivity and inspiration. Sophia’s also a development intern at the Alzheimer’s Association, where she is working to find the first survivor of Alzheimer’s. In her spare time, Sophia loves to scuba dive, ski, and travel the world.
Nitya Gupta is a senior from the Chicago suburbs studying English with a sub-concentration in creative writing and a minor in the environment. She’s a Daily Arts Writer for The Michigan Daily as well as an Editorial Assistant at Michigan News. When she’s not reading or writing, she enjoys practicing and teaching yoga.
Ana Lucena is a senior studying English with creative writing and pre-law at the University of Michigan. Her favorite themes are psychological horror and social justice. Her writing is deeply inspired by film and comics as well. If her writing career doesn’t take off, she plans to go to law school in the hopes of furthering her research skills and her understanding of society to the benefit of her writing.
Cailean Robinson is a writer, reader, introvert, and feminist. Her work has appeared in the 2016 Cafe Shapiro Anthology. If Cailean could do anything for a day, she would people-watch with Libba Bray and Jane Austen, and if she could go anywhere for a month, she would visit New Zealand. Cailean enjoys acting and listening to musicals, and her plans after graduating (please stop asking) are to live, to travel, and to finish her book. She is from Ann Arbor, MI and Kennesaw, GA.
Matthew Solway is a poet at the University of Michigan. He has worked in various medical research labs studying diabetic complications and is committed to understanding the natural world through poetry and science with a specific focus on improving the lives of those who cannot help themselves. This fall, he will continue his studies Wayne State School of Medicine.
Josie Tolin is just glad to be here. She’s from Chesterton, Indiana—a town so unremarkable it’s almost remarkable. Her short fiction has appeared in The Google Drive Folder (a premier publication co-founded by Nitya Gupta, Kate Velguth, and Ellie Zak) as well as Emails to Her Friends (subject line: “can u tell me if this sux, lol”).
Since its creation in 1999, Mock Rock seeks to invest in a community that relentlessly supports Michigan Athletics while showcasing student-athlete talents. U of M Athletics teams put on skits, songs, and other merriment for an audience and panel of judges. Tickets available at the title link. April 7, doors open at 4pm, show starts at 4:30pm, Cliff Keen Arena.
Join us for an evening with six, local, published authors doing short readings from their books, and have a chance to chat and buy their books too!
We’ll kick off the evening with readings by two authors with books published with the library’s Fifth Avenue Press imprint: Linda Jeffries with the adult fiction novel, “We Thought We Knew You” and V.W. Shurtliff with the Teen novel, “Setting the Record Straight“.
Meet the authors:
Brooke Borton with her poetry collection, “Mutter”. Tecumseh resident Brooke D. Borton spent much of her childhood growing up in the south amidst an intractable depression, experiencing what she believes to be her first manic episode at the tender age of 15. Her first self-published book of poetry, titled “Hoarding Hearts”, spans her late teenage years into early adulthood, encompassing the push and pull of manic depressive romances, whimsical adventures, and guitar playing. “Mutter”, her most recent collection, charges head-first into what it means to be a mother when your moods won’t sit still. With her presentation of Mania and Manuscripts, Brooke D. Borton brings to Ann Arbor readers an intimate understanding of the challenges faced by mothers battling mental illness, encouragement for those in the trenches, and hope for those who may have lost it.
C.A. Collins with her book “Sunshine Through the Rain”. Ms. Collins was born and raised in the Deep South where sweet tea, seafood gumbo, and bless your heart were commonplace. Ms. Collins was recently published in “Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Crazy Family”.
Callie R. Feyen with her memoir, “Twirl: My Life with Stories, Clothes, and Writing”. Feyen is a writer and teacher living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She writes creative nonfiction, and in her oldest daughter Hadley’s words, she uses her imagination to, “add a bit of sparkle to the story.” Callie R. Feyen is a contributor for Coffee+Crumbs, Off the Page, Makes You Mom, and Relief Journal.
Sylvia Hubbard with her book “Beautiful“. Find the answers wrapped around suspense, drama, and erotic romance in “Beautiful”, Author Sylvia Hubbard’s 40th Novel. Detroit Author & Founder of Motown Writers, Sylvia Hubbard has published over 40 books on suspense romance. As an avid blogger, Sylvia has received numerous awards and recognition for her work, plus has had five #1 Bestsellers. She has spoken all over the U.S. & Canada on literary, blogging & busy mom subjects.This is part of the monthly Emerging Writers Workshops, which offer support, learning, and advice for local authors.
Do you have a completed manuscript? Consider submitting it to the library’s imprint Fifth Avenue Press.
