Calendar

Jul
1
Mon
Fiction at Literati: Joe Sacksteder: Make/Shift: Stories, and Matt Kirkpatrick: The Ambrose J. and Vivian T. Seagrave Museum of 20th Century Art @ Literati
Jul 1 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

We welcome authors Joe Sacksteder and Matt Kirkpatrick in support of their latest, Make/Shift: Stories and The Ambrose J. and Vivian T. Seagrave Museum of 20th Century American Art, respectively, as part of our ongoing Fiction at Literati series. A book signing will follow the reading. The event is free and open to the public. 

Situated in the absurd and pop-culture, the stories in Make/Shift land athletes, actors, musicians, and grievers at the center of more dire spectacles than they’d anticipated.

A strange museum, an even stranger curator, the deceased artist who haunts him, and the mystery surrounding the museum founders’ daughter, lost at sea as a child . . . The Ambrose J. and Vivian T. Seagrave Museum of 20th Century American Art is by turns a dark comedy, a ghost story, a romance, a whodunit, a family saga, and an exhibition catalog

Joe Sacksteder is a PhD candidate in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Utah. Fugitive Traces, his album of Werner Herzog audio collages, will be available from Punctum Books. His writing has appeared in Denver Quarterly, Florida Review, The Literary Review, Passages North, Hobart, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. He is currently a visiting instructor at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan.

Matthew Kirkpatrick is a writer and associate professor of creative writing at Eastern Michigan University.

 

Jul
2
Tue
Jim Ottaviani: Hawking @ Literati
Jul 2 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

We welcome the world’s preeminent writer of comics and graphic novels about science back to our store in support of his latest, Hawking. Signing to follow. Free and open to the public. 

About the book: From his early days at the St Albans School and Oxford, Stephen Hawking’s brilliance and good humor were obvious to everyone he met. A lively and popular young man, it’s no surprise that he would later rise to celebrity status.

At twenty-one he was diagnosed with ALS, a degenerative neuromuscular disease. Though the disease weakened his muscles and limited his ability to move and speak, it did nothing to limit his mind. He went on to do groundbreaking work in cosmology and theoretical physics for decades after being told he had only a few years to live. He brought his intimate understanding of the universe to the public in his 1988 bestseller, A Brief History of Time. Soon after, he added pop-culture icon to his accomplishments by playing himself on shows like Star TrekThe Simpsons, and The Big Bang Theory, and becoming an outspoken advocate for disability rights.

In Hawking, writer Jim Ottaviani and artist Leland Myrick have crafted an intricate portrait of the great thinker, the public figure, and the man behind both identities.

Jim Ottaviani (FeynmanPrimates) is the world’s preeminent writer of comics and graphic novels about science. Notable works include a biography of Niels Bohr and the fast-paced tale of the desperate lives of early paleontologists and T-Minus: The Race to the Moon, from Aladdin books. He has worked as a nuclear engineer and is currently employed as a reference librarian in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

 

Jul
9
Tue
Richard Retyi: The Book of Ann Arbor @ Literati
Jul 9 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Once more with music! We’re thrilled to welcome back Richard Retyi in support of The Book of Ann Arbor: An Extremely Serious History Book. Rich has a new, fresh, special presentation in store for the book—one of the inaugural releases from the Ann Arbor District Library’s Fifth Avenue Press. He’s also open to answering questions from the audience, no matter how shockingly personal in nature. Book signing to follow. Free and open to the public. 

About The Book of Ann Arbor:

A suicide submarine parade. Ann Arbor’s top 10 astronauts. Shakey Jake, the Embassy Hotel, and train/building collisions. The birth of Iggy Pop. Nazis getting punched. Visits from heads of state, from presidents to a dictator. The Music Mobile, the Naked Mile and around-the-world flight. Plus, a few tales of murder, because it happens here too. These are a few of the stories that make up The Book of Ann Arbor.

Richard Retyi is the communications and marketing manager at the Ann Arbor District Library and part of the Ann Arbor Stories podcast.

 

Jul
15
Mon
Rick Bailey: The Enjoy Agenda @ Literati
Jul 15 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

We welcome Rick Bailey back to the store for a reading from his latest, The Enjoy Agenda. Book signing to follow. Free and open to the public. 

About the book: Part memoir, part travelogue, The Enjoy Agenda takes readers from Rick Bailey’s one-stoplight town in Michigan farm country to Stratford, England, to the French Concession in Shanghai, the Adriatic coast of Italy, and to a small village in the Republic of San Marino. With his self-deprecating style, Bailey recalls the traumas of picture day in elementary school and lugging a guitar to the Cotswalds and back. He reflects on food safety in China, relives a dental emergency in Venice, and embarks on a quest for il formaggio del perdono (the cheese of forgiveness) in the hills above the Adriatic.

Bailey, whose voice is a combination of Dave Barry and Rick Steves with just a soupçon of Montaigne, writes with humor and wit about how these experiences reflect the issues and conflicts of contemporary American life: environmental change, life in digital times, and the vicissitudes of arriving at ripe old age. Throughout The Enjoy Agenda Bailey asks, “Where am I and how did I get here?” a question less about geography than the difficulties and gifts of becoming a husband and ultimately a partner changed and improved by a very smart woman and challenged and delighted by a gradual but seismic culture shift.

Rick Bailey is a retired English instructor who taught writing for thirty-eight years at Henry Ford Community College in Michigan. He is the author or editor of several books on writing, including The Creative Writer’s Craft, and is the author of American English, Italian Chocolate: Small Subjects of Great Importance (Nebraska, 2017).

 

Jul
23
Tue
Skazat! Poetry Series: 2019 Ann Arbor Youth Poetry Slam Team @ Sweetwaters
Jul 23 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Readings by members of the 2019 Ann Arbor Youth Poetry Slam Team. The program begins with open mike readings.

Jul
28
Sun
Ann Arbor Storytellers Guild @ AADL Downtown (3rd floor, Freespace)
Jul 28 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

All invited to listen to guild members swap stories or bring their own to tell, at the AASG monthly meeting.

 

 

 

 

 

Aug
8
Thu
Patti F. Smith and Britain Woodman: Vanishing Ann Arbor @ Literati
Aug 8 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

We welcome Ann Arborites Patti F. Smith and Britain Woodman in support of their new book, Vanishing Ann Arbor. Free and open to the public. Signing to follow. 

About the book: Ann Arbor has seen many cherished landmarks and institutions come and go—some fondly remembered and others lost to time. When the city was little more than a village in the wilderness, its first school stood on the now busy corner of Main and Ann. Stores like Bach & Abel’s and Dean & Co. served local needs as the village grew into a small town. As the town became a thriving city, Drake’s and Maude’s fed generations of hungry diners, and Fiegel’s clothed father and son alike. Residents passed their time seeing movies at the Majestic or watching parades go down Main Street. Join authors Patti F. Smith and Britain Woodman on a tour of the city’s past.

Patti F. Smith is the author of Downtown Ann Arbor and A History of the People’s Food Co-op Ann Arbor. She has written for CraftBeer.com, West Suburban Living, Concentrate, Mittenbrew, The Ann, AADL’s Pulp blog and the Ann Arbor Observer. A frequent public speaker around town, Patti curated HERsay (an all-woman variety show) and Grown Folks Reading (story time for grownups) and tells stories at Ignite, Nerd Nite, Tellabration and Telling Tales Out of School. She is a commissioner for the Public Art Commission and the Recreation Advisory Commission, a teacher of history for Rec & Ed and a storyteller in the Ann Arbor Storytellers’ Guild.

Britain Woodman lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. A fascination with how the same brands and concepts fit into different communities led him to document them, first in in photographs and then in long-form writing. This writing led to speaking and, ultimately, to authoring this volume with Ann Arbor’s preeminent living historian, Patti F. Smith. Ideally, he would be out visiting every city’s beloved, vanishing places, but working on this book was cool too.

Aug
20
Tue
The Missing Piece: A Collection of Kidney Transplant Stories @ AADL Downtown (Fourth Floor)
Aug 20 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

The University of Michigan Transplant Center and Wolverines For Life present several authors/contributors of The Missing Piece: A Collection of Kidney Transplant Storiesas they  share their experience as kidney donors or recipients.

The Missing Piece is a window into the world of kidney transplant recipients and donors. These powerful, first-hand accounts, written by patients at Michigan Medicine, provide frank glimpses into the highs and the lows experienced by those struggling with a life-altering illness. The contributing authors discuss the coping techniques that worked and those that did not; how they knew when it was time to consider dialysis; and, how they shared their experiences and news with family, friends, and even complete strangers in a quest for a donation from a living donor.

Attendees are encouraged to ask authors questions about their transplant experience, get a copy of their book signed, and join the organ donor registry to help support future transplant recipients.

If you are unable to attend but would still like to join the Michigan Organ Donor Registry, please visit www.golm.org/go/wfl. This event, a partnership with University of Michigan Transplant Center and Wolverines For Life, includes a book signing and books will be for sale at the event. 

This event will be recorded

Aug
21
Wed
Larry Webster: Never Stop Driving @ Literati
Aug 21 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

We welcome former Editor-in-Chief of Road & Track, Larry Webster, in support of his book Never Stop Driving. Signing to follow. Free and open to the public.

About the book: With glorious photography and sharp writing, Never Stop Driving presents the case for the mental and social benefits of driving and engaging with automobiles. It also shows you–from dreaming about a car to living with it–how to jump in and get the most from your machine.

There’s never been a better time to go for a drive. As a nation, we are chronically overstressed, overworked, and not sleeping enough. Worse yet, our digital devices are taking ever increasing chunks of what remaining free time we do have. Activities that force us to engage with ourselves and the environment around us are needed more than ever.

 

Larry Webster is Hagerty Vice President of Content, where he oversees all print and web strategy. Webster is a longtime auto writer who ditched an engineering career for Car and Driver in 1994. Since then, he’s test driven a Formula 1 car, raced in the Baja 500, served as Automotive Editor at Popular Mechanics, and Editor-in-Chief of Road & Track. Webster resides with his family in Ann Arbor, MI.

Aug
22
Thu
Book Club Bonanza: Celebrating Literati’s Monthly Book Clubs @ Literati
Aug 22 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

A special joint meeting of our monthly Literati, Poetry, and Feminist Book Clubs! 

Each club will meet in our second-floor events space to discuss August’s picks as usual. As always, you can purchase book club selections for 15% off the retail price. 

During the event, each club’s moderator will also talk about their monthly book club to all guests–each club’s mission, selection process, upcoming picks for the fall, and more. Guests from these three book clubs will then have the opportunity to meet & greet over provided refreshments. 

This a great opportunity to come to your normal book club while learning about our other book clubs, or–if you’re new to our book clubs–a chance to go through a complete meeting for one of them while learning about (and meeting participants from) all 3! 

Feminist Book Club

We strive to foster a fun, thoughtful, and safe environment in which to discuss current issues surrounding feminism and equality.

This month, we’ll discuss The Old Drift, by Namwali Serpente

Poetry Book Club

Next to fostering a greater appreciation for poetry by reading poems aloud and sharing reflections, our other primary goal is to ensure that the book club space is safe, inclusive, and exciting

This month’s pick is A Piece of Good News, by Katie Peterson.

Literati Book Club

This month’s pick is Orange World and Other Stories, by Karen Russell!

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