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.
Literati is pleased to be partnering with the Neutral Zone to host poet Aldo Leopoldo Pando Girard.
Join us for the release of a poetry book by Aldo Leopoldo Pando Girard, Ann Arbor’s Youth Poet Laureate! Aldo’s work explores the intersection of multiple identities and homelands, painting a complex, vulnerable and vivid self-portrait. Aldo will read from his collection, followed by a Q&A and book signing.
Aldo Leopoldo Pando Girard is an Afro-Cuban poet born and raised in Ann Arbor, MI. He loves music, walking through the woods, has an intense fascination with mountains, & thinks that the ultimate goal of life is to increase happiness in the world. He was a feature for Poetry Night in Ann Arbor 2018 and a member of the 2018 Ann Arbor slam team. He spends a lot of time at the Neutral Zone sharing poems, ideas, & energy. He is now a student at the University of Michigan studying vocal performance and civil engineering.
Animals have played a crucial role in human history, and continue to do so until today. The interaction between humans and animals can affect the environment, and vice versa. In the ancient Egyptian Nile Valley, in addition to providing food, transportation, raw materials, companionship and entertainment, animals played a key role in religion. As such, they inspired divine iconography and language, and served both as manifestations as well as offerings to gods. Ultimately, in the twilight of Egypt’s pharaonic history, animals played a part in defining cultural identity and world-view. This talk will focus on a critical locus of this agency: animal mummies in ancient Egypt, and what they tell us not only about Egyptian culture, economy, and human-animal relationships, but also about Egypt’s changing environment.
Salima Ikram is Distinguished University Professor of Egyptology at The American University in Cairo, and has worked as an archaeologist in Turkey, Sudan, Greece and the United States. After double majoring in history and classical and near eastern archaeology at Bryn Mawr College, she received her MPhil in museology and Egyptian archaeology and PhD in Egyptian archaeology from Cambridge University. She previously directed the Animal Mummy Project, the North Kharga Darb Ain Amur Survey, Valley of the Kings KV10/KV63 Mission co-directed the Predynastic Gallery project and the North Kharga Oasis Survey. She has also participated in several other archaeological missions throughout Egypt. She has lectured on her work internationally, and publishes in both scholarly and popular journals. She also has an active media presence.
Literati is proud to be partnering with the Helen Zell Writers Program to host author Edwidge Danticat at the University of Michigan Art Museum Apse.
Edwidge Danticat is the author of several books, including Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah’s Book Club selection; Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award finalist; The Farming of Bones, an American Book Award winner; and the novel-in-stories, The Dew Breaker. She is the editor of The Butterfly’s Way: Voices from the Haitian Diaspora in the United States and The Beacon Best of 2000: Great Writing by Men and Women of All Colors and Cultures , Haiti Noir and Haiti Noir 2, and Best American Essays 2011. She has written six books for young adults and children– Anac aona, Behind the Mountains, Eight Days, The Last Mapou, Mama’s Nightingale, and Untwine–as well as a travel narrative, After the Dance, A Walk Through Carnival in Jacmel. Her memoir, Brother, I’m Dying, was a 2007 finalist for the National Book Award and a 2008 winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography. She is a 2009 MacArthur Fellow.
With the young republic in crisis, President Washington chose as general an aging brigadier whose private life was mired in scandal. Follow the story of General Anthony Wayne, drawn from his own passionate letters where he vividly confessed his deepest thoughts. Writer and historian Mary Stockwell was an Earhart Foundation Fellow at the Clements Library. Her book “Unlikely General: ‘Mad’ Anthony Wayne and the Battle for America” was published by Yale University Press in 2018. She has a B.A. in history from Mary Manse College and holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in history from the University of Toledo. Register online.
Literati is honored to host author Rebecca Soffer who will be sharing her new book Modern Loss: Candid Conversations About Grief. Beginners Welcome.
About Modern Loss:
Inspired by the website hailed as “redefining mourning” by the New York Times, a wise and irreverent collection of essays and tips on navigating grief in the modern age
Let’s face it: most of us have a difficult time talking about death and sharing our grief. We’re awkward and uncertain; we avoid, ignore, or even deny feelings of sadness; we offer platitudes; we send sympathy bouquets whittled out of fruit.
And at a time when we mourn public figures and national tragedies with hashtags, when intimate posts about loss go viral and we receive automated birthday reminders for dead friends, it’s clear we are exploring this modern landscape of loss without a road map.
Enter Rebecca Soffer and Gabrielle Birkner, who can help us do better. Each having lost parents as young adults, they cofounded the website Modern Loss, responding to a need to change the dialogue around the messy experience of grief. Now, in this wise and often funny book, they offer the insights of the Modern Loss community to help us cry, laugh, grieve, identify, and–above all–empathize.
Soffer and Birkner, along with more than forty guest contributors, including rocker Amanda Palmer, CNN’s Brian Stelter, and Dr. Lucy Kalanithi (widow of When Breath Becomes Air author Paul Kalanithi), reveal their own stories on a wide range of topics, such as triggers, intimacy, secrets, inheritance, and more. Accompanied by beautiful hand-drawn illustrations and witty how-to cartoons, each contribution provides a unique perspective on loss as well as a remarkable life-affirming message.
Brutally honest and inspiring, Modern Loss invites us to talk intimately and humorously about grief, helping us confront the humanity (and mortality) we all share. Beginners welcome.
Rebecca Soffer is the cofounder and CEO of Modern Loss. A former producer for the Peabody Award-winning Colbert Report, Rebecca is a nationally recognized speaker on the topics of loss and resilience. She is a Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumna and contributes regularly to books, magazines, and other media. Rebecca lives in New York City and the Berkshires with her husband and two children.
Join the Bailey Library and Entrepreneurship Center for an inspirational talk on entrepreneurship by Lisa Ludwinski, founder of Sister Pie, and author of Sister Pie, The Recipes and Stories of a Big-Hearted Bakery in Detroit
Born and raised in Michigan, Lisa trained at New York’s Milk Bar and Brooklyn’s Four and Twenty Blackbirds. Sister Pie started as a home-based business out of her parents’ kitchen, and has been featured in Bon Appetit and the New York Times, among other publications. Lisa will showcase her book which pays homage to Motor City ingenuity and all-American spirit.
Part of the Carceral State Project, a year of dialogue about criminal justice, policing, imprisonment, inequality, and what we can do about it. Presented by the U-M Carceral State Project with support from the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, the Department of History, the Residential College, the Crime and Justice Minor, the Social Theory and Practice Major, the Prison Creative Arts Project, the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, the Institute for the Humanities, the Department of Political Science, and the Department of Sociology.
BRING ABOUT SIX COPIES OF YOUR WORK. COPIES WILL BE RETURNED TO YOU.
Hosted by Joe Kelty, Ed Morin, and Dave Jibson; see our blog at Facebook/Crazy Wisdom Poetry Series
Literati is honored to welcome back poet Clayton Eshelman who will be reading from his new collection Pollen Aria.
About Pollen Aria:
That Clayton Eshleman has not ceased from exploration over a career spanning more than 60 years is witnessed by the bulk, range, and diversity of his prior work. Now in his 80’s Eshleman presents us with a last collection of his poems-mostly recent, a few older. That he has sought to open up his life and work, to entwine and entangle it with others, through observation and vision, research and scholarship, translation and editing, and collaboration and conversation, all of this reflects Eshleman’s life commitment, indeed a commitment to life in writing poetry.
Clayton Eshleman has had published roughly 100 books and chapbooks of original poetry, translations, and nonfiction writings, and edited seventy issues of magazines and journals, including the ground-breaking Caterpillar and Sulfur. His writings have appeared in over 500 literary magazines and journals around the world and his books and writings have been translated into over a dozen languages. He has won many poetry awards, fellowships, and translation awards for his works through the years. It is undoubtedly unnecessary to observe that he made and has fulfilled a life commitment to poetry. Now in his 80’s he resides with his wife Caryl in Ypsilanti, MI.
