Literati welcomes young-adult author and Ann Arbor native Gavriel Savit in support of Anna and the Swallow Man: a stunning, literary, and wholly original debut novel set in Poland during the Second World War, perfect for readers of The Book Thief.
About the book: Kraków, 1939. A million marching soldiers and a thousand barking dogs. This is no place to grow up. Anna Łania is just seven years old when the Germans take her father, a linguistics professor, during their purge of intellectuals in Poland. She’s alone. And then Anna meets the Swallow Man. He is a mystery, strange and tall, a skilled deceiver with more than a little magic up his sleeve. And when the soldiers in the streets look at him, they see what he wants them to see. The Swallow Man is not Anna’s father—she knows that very well—but she also knows that, like her father, he’s in danger of being taken, and like her father, he has a gift for languages: Polish, Russian, German, Yiddish, even Bird. When he summons a bright, beautiful swallow down to his hand to stop her from crying, Anna is entranced. She follows him into the wilderness. Over the course of their travels together, Anna and the Swallow Man will dodge bombs, tame soldiers, and even, despite their better judgment, make a friend. But in a world gone mad, everything can prove dangerous. Even the Swallow Man. Destined to become a classic, Gavriel Savit’s stunning debut reveals life’s hardest lessons while celebrating its miraculous possibilities.
About the author: Gavriel Savit holds a BFA in musical theater from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he grew up. As an actor and singer, Gavriel has performed on three continents, from New York to Brussels to Tokyo. He lives in Brooklyn. This is his first novel.
RC Creative Writing alumna Carrie Smith and three-time Hopwood winner discusses her debut crime novel, Silent City, a police procedural whose lead character, an NYPD detective, is cancer survivor returning to work.
Angela Flournoy is the author of The Turner House, a finalist for the National Book Award and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. The novel was a Summer 2015 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and a New York Times Sunday Book Review Editors’ Choice. She is a National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” honoree. Her fiction has appeared inThe Paris Review, and she has written for The New York Times, The New Republic, and The Los Angeles Times. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Flournoy has taught at the University of Iowa and The Writer’s Foundry at St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn.
RC Creative Writing alumna Carrie Smith will read from Silent City, her new crime novel. Carrie won three Hopwood Awards (one in 1977 and two in 1979), and a fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. She has been a finalist in Nimrod Magazine’s Katherine Anne Porter prize for fiction, and is the author of a literary first novel, Forget Harry published by Simon & Schuster. Carrie moved to New York City in 1981. By day, she is Senior Vice President and Publisher of Benchmark Education Company. By night, she thinks about murder. She lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with her partner and sixteen year old twins.
One MFA student of fiction and one of poetry, each introduced by a peer, will read their work. Tonight: Francis Santana and Cab Tran.
Kristen Remenar is a children’s librarian, writer, teacher, and national speaker on literacy. She is married to author/illustrator Matt Faulkner. This is her first picture book
A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, Matt Faulkner has written and illustrated a number of children’s books. His work has won wide praise for its humor, exuberance and sensitivity. In addition, he is a contributing illustrator to such national periodicals as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Forbes. Matt is married to author and children’s librarian, Kristen Remenar. They live with their 3 kids and 3 cats on the lower right corner of the Michigan mitten. He teaches illustration at the Art Academy University in San Francisco.
The award-winning novel The Book Of Unknown Americans: A Novel by Cristina Henriquez is the book selected for Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Reads 2016. The community is invited to read and discuss this stunning novel of hopes and dreams, guilt and love—a book that offers a resonant new definition of what it means to be American.
The author, Cristina Henriquez, will make a special appearance at Washtenaw Community College on Tuesday, February 23 to discuss “The Book Of Unknown Americans.” Doors will open and 6 PM. The event includes a book signing and books will be for sale courtesy of Nicola’s Books.
Henríquez is also the author of the story collection Come Together, Fall Apart, which was a New York Times Editors’ Choice selection, and the novel The World in Half. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The American Scholar, Glimmer Train, Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, TriQuarterly, AGNI, and Oxford American, as well as in various anthologies.
The Book Of Unknown Americans centers on fifteen-year-old Maribel Rivera, who sustains a terrible injury. Her family leaves behind a comfortable life in Mexico and risks everything to come to the United States so that Maribel can have the care she needs. Once they arrive, it’s not long before Maribel attracts the attention of Mayor Toro, the son of one of their new neighbors, who sees a kindred spirit in this beautiful, damaged outsider. Their love story sets in motion events that will have profound repercussions for everyone involved.
Henríquez seamlessly interweaves the story of these star-crossed lovers, and of the Rivera and Toro families, with the testimonials of men and women who have come to the United States from all over Latin America.
Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Reads is coordinated by several area organizations, including the Ann Arbor District Library, the Ypsilanti District Library, Washtenaw Intermediate School District, Nicola’s Books, Barnes & Noble, Literati Bookstore, Eastern Michigan University, the University of Michigan, Washtenaw Community College, and many others.
For more information and resources related to Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Reads, please visit the program’s website at aareads.org
Readings by Joy Gaines-Friedler, a widely published Detroit-area poet who has published 2 collections, and Scott Beal, a local performance poet whose 2015 debut collection Wait ‘Til You Have Real Problems, deploys familiar characters from Rapunzel to Perseus and whimsically surreal tall tales to explore the varied and violent forces that shape human identities. Followed by a poetry and short fiction open mike.
This internationally recognized Malawian writer and social activist reads from his work. He won the 2013 Peer Gynt Literary Award for his sci-fi fantasy Azotus the Kingdom.Signing. Chikoti also does a Q&A at 2 p.m. today in the Hopwood Room (1176 Angell Hall).
Vic Amato holds a PhD in political science/public administration from Wayne State University, Detroit. He is a former journalist, mental health services administrator, and college instructor, and he served with the Third Infantry Division. He and his wife, Susan, live in Port Huron, Michigan.
Vic Amato’s sixteen tales in his Incoming: Collected Stories are literary explorations of the corridors of the human psyche, some familiar, some dark, all incorporating empathetic portraits of people, including married couples, young men on the cusp of adulthood, and even a sympathetic examination of the quirky among us.
Nearly every piece is set in the modern age; the one exception is “Everyone Hates Malvolio,” a sardonic takeoff on Twelfth Night.
