This local husband-and-wife writing team reads from ‘Til Death: Marriage Poems, their jointly written collection exploring the ups and downs of suburban monogamy from their dual perspectives. The program begins with open mike readings.
7-8:30 p.m., Sweetwaters, 123 W. Washington. Free. 994-6663.
Local writer Sarah Zettel reads from her new historical fiction novella set in 1839 China at the outset of the 1st Anglo-Chinese Opium War. Tea & snacks.
7-8:30 p.m., AADL Downtown multipurpose rm., 343 S. Fifth Ave. Free. 327-4200.
Literati Bookstore is excited to welcome author Fatima Farheen Mirza, who will read and discuss her debut novel, A Place for Us.
About A Place for Us:
Fatima Farheen Mirza’s masterful debut novel gathers together the lives of an Indian Muslim family in California on the eve of its eldest daughter’s wedding. As Hadia’s marriage—one chosen of love, not tradition—brings the family back together, her parents, Rafiq and Layla, must come to terms with the choices that their two daughters, and their estranged son, Amar, have made.
In a narrative that spans decades and sees family life through the eyes of each member, A Place for Us charts the crucial moments in the family’s past, from the bonds that hold them together to the differences that pull them apart.
And as Hadia, Huda, and Amar attempt to carve out lives for themselves, they must reconcile their present culture with their parents’ faith, tread a path between the old world and the new, and learn how the smallest decisions can lead to the deepest of betrayals.
This is a deeply moving and resonant story for our times: a masterful novel of love, identity, and belonging—one that eloquently examines what it means to be both American and Muslim—and announces Fatima Farheen Mirza as a major new literary talent.
Fatima Farheen Mirza was born and raised in the Bay Area, and is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a teaching-writing fellow. She currently lives in Brooklyn.
Readings by these 2 novelists. Title 13 is local writer Ferro’s satirical debut novel about an alcoholic bureaucrat who struggles with mounting paranoia, his relationships with concerned family members, his dying grandmother, and a budding office romance. Portland writer DeFreitas’s Hot Season is about 3 college roommates whose lives change when the FBI comes to campus in pursuit of an alum wanted for politically motivated crimes. Signing.
7 p.m., Bookbound, Courtyard Shops. Free. 369-4345.
Widely-published Detroit poet Lauren Bernstein-Machlay reads from her latest book, Travelers, a collection of autobiographical poems. Foreword (Traverse City) writer Susan Waggoner notes “it’s through the bravery of the concept-going back to the place where you grew up to plant your flag in uncertain turf-that the book most delivers. Poised between sinking back into nature and leaping forward to revival, flashing glimpses of Detroit stand out.” Followed by a poetry and short fiction open mike.
7-9 p.m., Crazy Wisdom, 114 S. Main. Free. 665-2757.
Poetry open mike.
Ann Arbor Poetry. Poetry open mike. 7-9 p.m. (sign-up begins at 6:30 p.m.), Espresso Royale, 324 S. State. $5 suggested donation. facebook.com/AnnArborPoetry.
Literati is pleased to welcome journalist Edward McClelland who will be discussing his new book book Folktales and Legends of the Middle West.
About Folktales and Legends of the Middle West:
America’s first superheroes lived in the Midwest. There was Nanabozho, the Ojibway man-god who conquered the King of Fish, took control of the North Wind, and inspired Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha. Paul Bunyan, the larger-than-life North Woods lumberjack, created Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes with his giant footsteps. More recently, Pittsburgh steelworker Joe Magerac squeezed out rails between his fingers, and Rosie the Riveter churned out the planes that won the world’s most terrible war. In Folktales and Legends of the Middle West, Edward McClelland collects these stories and more. Readers will learn the sea shanties of the Great Lakes sailors and the spirituals of the slaves following the North Star across the Ohio River, and be frightened by tales of the Lake Erie Monster and Wisconsin’s dangerous Hodag. A history of the region as told through its folklore, music, and legends, this is a book every Midwestern family should own.
Edward McClelland is a journalist. His writing has appeared in publications such as the Columbia Journalism Review, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and Salon. He is the author of How to Speak Midwestern, Nothin’ But Blue Skies and Young Mr. Obama. He lives in Chicago
Join us for a special Storytime event with author Robert Burleigh who will be reading from his new book: Trapped! a Whale’s Rescue.
About Trapped!
In the icy waters of the Pacific, a massive humpback whale unexpectedly finds herself tangled in a net abandoned by fishermen. When a rescue boat and a convoy of divers arrive to help the struggling humpback, a realistic and moving encounter bridges the human and aquatic worlds.
Based on an event that took place near San Francisco in 2005, this picture book depicts a humpback whale swimming, diving, and feeding freely until she becomes entangled in abandoned, drifting nets. Her struggles draw the ropes tighter until, trapped, she stops and lies still. Boats bring rescuers to the scene. Five divers cut the lines, one by one, until the whale can swim again. “She moves among the cheering rescuers, softly nudging each one, as if saying thanks.” The whale breaches and swims away. In Minor’s beautifully composed gouache paintings, the whale is a silent but enormously empathetic character. Several appended pages offer more information about the actual event, whale rescues in general, and humpback whales in particular. Adults reading the book aloud may want to introduce words such as spyhop, lobtail, fluke, and krill before beginning,to avoid breaking the cadence of the writing once the story is underway. Like the stately illustrations, the precise prose has a dignity that is worthy of its subject and unusual in a picture book for preschool and primary-grade children. Although the episode of the whale’s entrapment and release is short, it will linger in young listeners’ minds long after the book is closed.
– Booklist, *starred review
Robert Burleigh is the author of many books for children, including Night Flight: Amelia Earhart Crosses the Atlantic illustrated by Wendell Minor (Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books, 2011); Fly, Cher Ami, Fly!: The Pigeon Who Saved the Lost Battalion (Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2008); and Homerun: The Story of Babe Ruth (Sandpiper, 2003).
Literati is pleased to welcome author Anna-Lisa Cox who will be sharing her new book The Bone and Sinew of the Land: America’s Forgotten Black Pioneers and the Struggle for Equality.
About The Bone and Sinew of the Land:
The long-hidden stories of America’s black pioneers, the frontier they settled, and their fight for the heart of the nation
When black settlers Keziah and Charles Grier started clearing their frontier land in 1818, they couldn’t know that they were part of the nation’s earliest struggle for equality; they were just looking to build a better life. But within a few years, the Griers would become early Underground Railroad conductors, joining with fellow pioneers and other allies to confront the growing tyranny of bondage and injustice.
The Bone and Sinew of the Land tells the Griers’ story and the stories of many others like them: the lost history of the nation’s first Great Migration. In building hundreds of settlements on the frontier, these black pioneers were making a stand for equality and freedom. Their new home, the Northwest Territory–the wild region that would become present-day Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin–was the first territory to ban slavery and have equal voting rights for all men. Though forgotten today, in their own time the successes of these pioneers made them the targets of racist backlash. Political and even armed battles soon ensued, tearing apart families and communities long before the Civil War. This groundbreaking work of research reveals America’s forgotten frontier, where these settlers were inspired by the belief that all men are created equal and a brighter future was possible.
Anna-Lisa Cox is the author of A Stronger Kinship: One Town’s Extraordinary Story of Hope and Faith, and an award-winning historian. Currently a fellow at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, she also recently helped create two historical exhibits based on her original research at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, including one on black pioneers. She lives in Michigan.
