Heather Ann Thompson, winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for History, is Professor of History, Professor of Afroamerican and African Studies, and Professor in the RC Social Theory and Practice Program
Prison Creative Arts Project Panel, Panel Members TBA
2-4 p.m., Ann Arbor District Library Freespace (3rd floor), 343 S. Fifth Ave. Free. 971-5763.
Local journalist M. Joanne Nesbit discusses her new book that celebrates such diverse characters as the person who chose maize and blue as the U-M colors, the first Ann Arborite to race in the Indy 500, and Lewis the cat from Downtown Home & Garden.
2-3:30 p.m., AADL Westgate Branch West Side Room, Westgate shopping center, 2503 Jackson. Free. 327-8301.
Talk by New York Times Pulitzer-winning correspondent Sheri Fink, author of Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, an examination of decisions made in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
5-6:30 p.m., UMMA Apse, 525 S. State. Free. 615-8482.
Literati is thrilled to welcome Bill Goldstein who will be discussing his new book The World Broke in Two: Virgina Woolf, T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Forster and the Year that Changed Literature. He will be joined by Douglas Trevor, chair of the Zell’s Writers Program at the University of Michigan
About The World Broke in Two
The World Broke in Two tells the fascinating story of the intellectual and personal journeys four legendary writers, Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, E. M. Forster, and D. H. Lawrence, make over the course of one pivotal year. As 1922 begins, all four are literally at a loss for words, confronting an uncertain creative future despite success in the past. The literary ground is shifting, as Ulysses is published in February and Proust’s In Search of Lost Time begins to be published in England in the autumn. Yet, dismal as their prospects seemed in January, by the end of the year Woolf has started Mrs. Dalloway, Forster has, for the first time in nearly a decade, returned to work on the novel that will become A Passage to India, Lawrence has written Kangaroo, his unjustly neglected and most autobiographical novel, and Eliot has finished—and published to acclaim—“The Waste Land.”
As Willa Cather put it, “The world broke in two in 1922 or thereabouts,” and what these writers were struggling with that year was in fact the invention of modernism. Based on original research, The World Broke in Two captures both the literary breakthroughs and the intense personal dramas of these beloved writers as they strive for greatness.
Bill Goldstein, the founding editor of the books site of The New York Times on the Web, reviews books and interviews authors for NBC’s “Weekend Today in New York.” He is also curator of public programs at Roosevelt House, the public policy institute of New York’s Hunter College. He received a PH.D in English from City University of New York Graduate Center in 2010, and is the recipient of writing fellowships at MacDowell, Yaddo, Ucross and elsewhere.
Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, creators of the wildly popular podcast Welcome to Night Vale, discuss It Devours!, their new mystery novel that explores the intersections of faith and science and a growing relationship between two young people who want to trust each other. Signing.
7 p.m., Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre, 911 North University. Tickets $23.31 in advance at brownpapertickets.com/event/3084372 (includes a copy of the book). 585-5567.
Reading by Diane DeCillis, Detroit native whose award-winning 1st book of poems, Strings Attached, was described by Gargoyle Magazine (Washington, D.C.) editor Richard Peabody as a collection of “warm, philosophical poems [which] explore a cultural and emotional terrain similar to the work of Naomi Shihab Nye.” Followed by a poetry and short fiction open mike.
7-9 p.m., Crazy Wisdom, 114 S. Main. Free. 665-2757
Northern California native Tim Hunt reads from his latest book, Poem’s Poems & Other Poems, a collection of poems in which a persona named Poem seeks self-definition through the writing of poetry. DePauw University English profesor Deborah Geis says Poem is “always somewhere that he doesn’t quite belong, or is asking the ‘wrong’ questions, yet ultimately charms us with his love of both illusions and allusions.” The program begins with open mike readings.
7-8:30 p.m., Sweetwaters Coffee & Tea, 123 W. Washington. Free. 994-6663
Doug Stanton is a journalist, lecturer, screenwriter, and author who has appeared on numerous TV and radio outlets, including NBC’s “Today,” CNN, Imus In The Morning, Discovery, A&E, Fox News, NPR, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and NBC’s Nightly News, and has been covered extensively in prominent publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and New York Times. He has written on travel, sport, entertainment, and history, and his writing has appeared in Esquire, Outside Magazine, Men’s Journal, the New York Times, TIME, Newsweek, Slate, The Daily Beast, and the Washington Post.
The Odyssey of Echo Company: The 1968 TET Offensive and the Epic Battle to Survive the Vietnam War
On January 31st, 1968 as many as 100,000 North Vietnamese soldiers attacked thirty-six cities throughout South Vietnam in an attack known as the Tet Offensive. This attack was a turning point in the decade-long war that led to, among other things, LBJ’s decision not to run for re-election. It was a national watershed moment, but for 19-year-old Stan Parker and the young men of the US Army’s recon platoon, Echo Company of the 101st Airborne Division, the attack was the start of a brutal fight for survival.
As we approach the 50th Anniversary of the Tet Offensive, The Odyssey of Echo Company: The 1968 TET Offensive and the Epic Battle to Survive the Vietnam War offers a breathtaking portrait of war, homecoming, and a search for peace.
More than ten years in the making, and based on hours of interviews with soldiers, detailed letters written to and from Echo Company, Pentagon after-action reports, photographs and video footage, this new book by New York Times bestselling author of In Harm’s Way and Horse Soldiers offers the untold and remarkable story of a platoon of American soldiers and their heroic efforts to survive the Vietnam War – both on the battlefield and after their return home to the US.
