Local short story writer Alex Kourvo and young adult novelist Bethany Neal discuss how to make the most of your writing time, conquer writer’s block, and develop solid work habits to finish your book. For adult and teen (grade 6 & up) fiction and nonfiction writers.
Also, Kourvo and Neal host an open house for writers to connect with one another and/or work on their projects on Jan. 21.
One MFA student of fiction and one of poetry, each introduced by a peer, will read their work. Tonight: Will Klein and Kathleen Schenck.
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.
This event is intended for grade 6 – adult
Huron High School English teacher and Love & Vodka:My Surreal Adventures in Ukraine author R.J. Fox will lead participants through the process of turning real life experiences—both profound and ordinary—into the art of creative non-fiction.
Learn how to mold your own life stories through such topics as story structure, dialogue, character development/arc, and how to infuse your writing with literary elements traditionally associated with fiction. Participants will apply the skills taught during the workshop through various prompts and activities designed to spark creativity, with the aim of mining material that can later be developed into various forms of memoir and creative non-fiction, from short essays to long-form works.
R.J. Fox is the award-winning writer of several short stories, plays, poems, and fifteen feature-length screenplays. He is also the writer and director of several award-winning short films. In addition his writing and film-making exploits — not to mention his talents as a saxophonist — Fox teaches English and Video Production in the Ann Arbor Public Schools where he uses his own dream of making movies to inspire his students to follow their own dreams. Fox has also worked in public relations at Ford Motor Company and as a newspaper reporter.
This event includes a book signing and books will be for sale at the event.
Storytellers Guild members present a program of old tales and personal stories for grownups.
annarborstorytelling.org, facebook.com/annarborstorytellers. 665-2757.
All poets invited to compete in a poetry slam judged by a randomly chosen panel from the audience. The program begins with a poetry open mike and (occasionally) a short set by a featured poet.
8-11 p.m. (sign-up begins at 7:30 p.m.), $5 suggested donation. A2poetry.com.
Monthly open mike storytelling competition sponsored by The Moth, the NYC-based nonprofit storytelling organization that also produces a weekly public radio show. Each month 10 storytellers are selected at random from among those who sign up to tell a 3-5 minute story on the monthly theme. The 3 judges are recruited from the audience. Monthly winners compete in a semiannual Grand Slam. Space limited, so it’s smart to arrive early. January theme: Strict. $8. Doors open, and sign up start at 6.
U-M Professors Tiya Miles and Martha Jones discuss Miles’ new book The Cherokee Rose, a novel that examines a little-known aspect of America’s past—slaveholding by Southern Creeks and Cherokees—and its legacy in the lives of three young women who are drawn to the Georgia plantation where scenes of extreme cruelty and equally extraordinary compassion once played out.
Local short story writer Alex Kourvo and young adult novelist Bethany Neal host an open house for writers to connect with one another and/or work on their projects.
One MFA student of fiction and one of poetry, each introduced by a peer, will read their work. Tonight: poet Hanae Jonas and fiction writer Emily Chew.
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.
In Elephants and Kings, Trautmann traces the history of the war elephant in India and the spread of the institution to the west—where elephants took part in some of the greatest wars of antiquity—and Southeast Asia. He shows that because elephants eat such massive quantities of food, it was uneconomic to raise them from birth. Rather, in a unique form of domestication, Indian kings captured wild adults and trained them, one by one, through millennia. Kings were thus compelled to protect wild elephants from hunters and elephant forests from being cut down. By taking a wide-angle view of human-elephant relations, Trautmann throws into relief the structure of India’s environmental history and the reasons for the persistence of wild elephants in its forests. Thomas Trautmann is professor emeritus of history and anthropology at the University of Michigan. Andrew Shryock is is chair and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan.
