Calendar

Dec
4
Wed
Author’s Forum: June Howard: The Center of the World: Regional Writing and the Puzzles of Place-Time, with Josh Miller @ 202 S. Thayer (Osterman Common Room)
Dec 4 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm

June Howard (English, American culture, women’s studies) and Joshua Miller (English, Judaic studies) discuss Howard’s latest book, followed by Q & A.

*Regional Writing and the Puzzles of Place-Time* is a study of literary regionalism. It focuses on the fiction of the United States and considers the place of the genre in world literature. Regionalism is usually understood to be a literature bound to the local, but this study explores how regional writing shapes ways of imagining not only the neighborhood or the province, but also the nation, and ultimately the world. Its key premise is that thinking about place always entails imagining time. It analyzes how concepts crystallize across disciplines and in everyday discourse and proposes ways of revising American literary history and close readings of particular authors’ work. It demonstrates, for example, the importance of the figure of the school-teacher and the one-room schoolhouse in local color and subsequent place-focused writing. Such representations embody the contested relation in modernity between localities and the knowledge they produce, and books that carry metropolitan and cosmopolitan learning. The volume discusses fiction from the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries, including works by Sui Sin Far/Edith Eaton, Sarah Orne Jewett, Ernest Gaines, Wendell Berry, and Ursula LeGuin as well as romance novels and regional mysteries.

Poetry Series at Crazy Wisdom: George Tysh and Chris Tysh @ Crazy Wisdom
Dec 4 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Crazy Wisdom Poetry Series hosted by Joe Kelty, Ed Morin, and David Jibson • Second and Fourth Wednesdays, 7-9 p.m. in the Crazy Wisdom Tea Room • Second Wednesdays are poetry workshop nights. All writers welcome to share and discuss their own poetry and short fiction. Sign up for new participants begins at 6:45 p.m.

Fourth Wednesdays have a featured reader for 50 minutes and then open mic for an hour. All writers welcome to share. Sign up begins at 6:45 p.m. Free. Contact Ed at 668-7523; eacmorso@sbcglobal.net or cwpoetrycircle.tumblr.com.

December 4 – George Tysh has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Kresge Foundation. His 11 books of poetry include The Slip (2015) and The Imperfect (2010), with a new collection, Twisted Flesh, forthcoming in 2020. He teaches film studies and poetics at College for Creative Studies in Detroit.

and Chris Tysh is author of several plays and collections of poetry. Her latest project, Hotel des Archives, features verse “transcreations” from the novels of Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, and Marguerite Duras, published by Station Hill Press. She holds fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts and the Kresge Foundation.

 

 

Poetry Salon: One Pause Poetry @ Argus Farm Stop
Dec 4 @ 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm

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.

 

 

 

Dec
5
Thu
Laurie Lounsbury: Kingdom Forgotten @ Zal Gaz Grotto Club
Dec 5 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm

Laurie Lounsbury is a national award-winning journalist and editor who spent most of her career covering northern Michigan, including Charlevoix, Petoskey, Boyne City, Gaylord and Beaver Island. She has spent a portion of every summer of her life in Charlevoix.

She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she is an exceptionally mediocre singer in a popular dance band.

Kingdom Forgotten is the story of James Strang, self-proclaimed Mormon king of Beaver Island in Lake Michigan.

Dec
6
Fri
Webster Reading Series: Meagean L. Dugger and Logan Lane @ UMMA Auditorium
Dec 6 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

One MFA student of fiction and one of poetry, each introduced by a peer, will read their work. The Mark Webster Reading Series presents emerging writers in a warm and relaxed setting. We encourage you to bring your friends – a Webster reading makes for an enjoyable and enlightening Friday evening.

 

Dec
7
Sat
Detroit Writing Room’s Inaugural Holiday Book Fair @ Detroit Writing Room
Dec 7 @ 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm

The Detroit Writing Room’s inaugural Holiday Book Fair will feature over a dozen local authors will be selling and signing their book, including RC creative writing alumni Laura Thomas, Elizabeth Schmuhl, and Anna Clark.

Come browse, shop and meet some of the best authors in Michigan!

Admission is free. Please register in advance.

Author Lineup:
– Rosemarie Aquilina, “Triple Cross Killer” (Bowker)

– Angela Berent, “List Your Life: A Modern-Day Memoir” and “Trace Your Travels: An Adventure Journal”

– Anna Clark, “The Poisoned City” and “A Detroit Anthology” (Metropolitan Books / Belt Publishing)

– Kelly Fordon, “Goodbye Toothless House” and “Garden for the Blind” (Kattywompus Press and Wayne State University Press)

– Sylvia Hubbard, “Daddy’s Girl,” “Beautiful” and “Author’s Guide to Writing, Publishing & Marketing” (HubBooks Literary)

– Shaun Manning, “Macbeth: The Red King,” “Hell, Nebraska,” “Interesting Drug” and “Star Wars Adventures” (Lucha Comics/Shooting Star Press)

– Keith Owens, “Detroit Stories Quarterly”

– Ben Pauli, “Flint Fights Back: Environmental Justice and Democracy in the Flint Water Crisis” (MIT Press)

– Craig Rush, “No Time to Hate” (Third Eye Pyramid Publishing)

– Elizabeth Schmuhl, “Premonitions” (Wayne State University Press)

– Syntell Smith, “Call Numbers” (Syntell Smith Publishing)

– Laura Thomas, “States of Motion” (Wayne State University Press)

– Bill Vlasic, “Once Upon A Car” (William Morrow)

You Wrote a Novel… Now What? With Lillian Li @ AADL Westgate, West Side Room
Dec 7 @ 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm

Calling all writers! Whether you participated in this year’s National Novel Writing Month or you just love to write, join author Lillian Li for a presentation and discussion on the writing and revising process, getting published, and get your questions answered!

Lillian Li is the author of Number One Chinese Restaurant, which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize, the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, and an NPR Best Book of 2018. Her work has been published in the New York Times, GrantaOne Story, Bon Appetit, and Jezebel. Originally from the D.C. metro area, she lives in Ann Arbor.

This program is associated with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and all aspiring authors are welcome! This event includes a signing with books for sale.

Sharon McRill: Downsizing The Silver Tsunami: Who to Call and Where Does the Stuff Go? @ AADL Malletts Creek)
Dec 7 @ 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm

Decluttering and relocation expert Sharon McRill discusses her book  Downsizing the Silver Tsunami, a comprehensive reference tool to help people navigate the difficult pathways of estate sales, consignment dealers, picking the right real estate agent, and many other moving and downsizing questions.

This event includes a signing with books for sale.

Dec
8
Sun
Story Slam and Strolling Reception @ First Presbyterian Church
Dec 8 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

A StorySlam and Strolling Reception is Sunday, December 8, 6:00-8:00 p.m. Enjoy stories of the season and the singing of Christmas carols in this special holiday presentation, followed by a reception throughout the building. Listen to special musical performances and enjoy therapy dogs, nibbles, and other festivities.

Dec
10
Tue
John U. Bacon: Overtime: Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines at the Crossroads of College Football @ Nicola's Books
Dec 10 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Join us for a reading, talk, and signing with best-selling local author John U. Bacon for his new book, Overtime: Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines at the Crossroads of College Football. 

Ticketing Information: NONE

About the Book:

A riveting insider’s chronicle of Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh era, and a deeply reported human portrait of a big-time college football program at the crossroads. For the past year, John U. Bacon has received unprecedented access to Jim Harbaugh’s University of Michigan football team: coaches, players, and staffers, in closed-door meetings, locker rooms, meals, and classes. In Overtime we not only discover what these public figures are like behind the scenes, we learn what the experience means to them as they go through it – the trials, the triumphs, and the unexpected answers to a central question: Is it worth it?

About the Author:

John U. Bacon has worked nearly three decades as a writer, a public speaker, and a college instructor, winning awards for all three.

Bacon earned an honors degree in history (“pre-unemployment”) from the University of Michigan in 1986, and a Master’s in Education in1994.  In 2005-06, the Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship named him the first recipient of the Benny Friedman Fellowship for Sports Journalism.

He started his journalism career covering high school sports for The Ann Arbor News, then wrote a light-hearted lifestyle column before becoming the Sunday sports feature writer for The Detroit News in 1995.  He earned numerous state and national awards for his work, including “Notable Sports Writing” in The Best American Sports Writing in 1998 and 2000.

After Bacon covered the 1998 Nagano Olympics, he moved from the sports page to the Sunday front page, roaming the Great Lakes State finding fresh features, then left the paper in 1999 to free-lance for some two dozen national publications, including stories on Formula One racing in Australia for The New York Times, on Japanese hockey for ESPN Magazine, and on Hemingway’s Michigan summer home for Time.

He has authored ten books on sports, business, health, and history, five of which are New York Times best sellers.

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