Storytellers Guild members present a program of old tales and personal stories for grownups.
Free; donations accepted. annarborstorytelling.org, facebook.com/annarborstorytellers. 665-2757.
Readings by 13 of Ann Arbor Poetry’s most popular poets, including Ashwini Bhasi, Marlin Jenkins, Fiona Chamness, Tariq Luthun, Nadine Marshall, Garret Potter, and Simon Mermelstein.
7 p.m. Espresso Royale, 324 S. State. $5 suggested donation. facebook.com/AnnArborPoetry.
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.
Tonight Literati is excited to welcome author Steven Gillis who will be reading from his new novel Liars
About Liars
Eric McCanus is a novelist with the misfortune of having written his one great book when he was young. Struggling to write more, recently divorced, cynical toward marriage while still missing his ex-wife, Eric becomes convinced that happy relationships are unsustainable. He sets out to prove his theory when he spots a seemingly perfect couple, Cara and Matt, at the market. Convinced that Cara and Matt’s marriage can’t be as successful as it appears, Eric does what he can to break them apart, using his power as a one-time great novelist. What follows is a psychological and philosophical comedy of errors. Liars is an exploration of love, relationships, and human interaction—a madcap romp through the vestiges of modern affairs—revolving around five characters, each spun drunk on the batterings of love while attempting to sustain themselves in a false world.
“Steve Gillis was born to write Liars, the mesmerizing, noirish story of Eric McCanus, a writer, professor, music aficionado, bon vivant. This lyrical, fast-paced novel is chock-full of intrigue, slight paranoia, plans gone awry, and outright mystery. One couple, pushing the same grocery cart, serves as Gillis’s madeleine. And then the reader’s taken on one fun bumpy jolting ride.” — George Singleton, author of Calloustown
“Writers may control the plot on the page, but can they bend real-life to their purposes? In the story of writer and dilettante Eric McManus, Gillis explores the slippery slope between love and commitment, with McManus determined to prove love’s folly by interfering in the marriage of a happy couple. Reminiscent of Pinter and Mamet, Gillis writes a sharp but strangely vulnerable comedy of errors that shows sometimes the ringmaster is really the dancing bear.” —Jen Michalski, author of The Summer She Was Under Water
Steven Gillis is the author of five novels and two short story collections. A founding member of the Ann Arbor Book Festival Board of Directors, and a finalist for the 2007 Ann Arbor News Citizen of the Year, Steve taught writing at Eastern Michigan University. In 2004 Steve founded 826Michigan, a mentoring program for students. In 2006 Steve co-founded Dzanc Books. Steve lives in Ann Arbor with his wife Mary, and two dogs, and regular visits from their kids, Anna and Zach.
Open mike storytelling competition sponsored by The Moth, the NYC-based nonprofit storytelling organization that also produces a weekly public radio show. Each night 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.
7:30-9 p.m. (doors open and sign-up begins at 6:30 p.m.)
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.
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
HOWARD MARKEL, M.D., Ph.D., is the George E. Wantz Distinguished Professor of the History of Medicine, director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan, and editor in chief of The Milbank Quarterly. His books include Quarantine!, When Germs Travel, and An Anatomy of Addiction. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Journal of the American Medical Association, and The New England Journal of Medicine. Markel is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Book: The Kelloggs: Battling Brothers of Battle Creek
From the much admired medical historian (“Markel shows just how compelling the medical history can be”–Andrea Barrett) and author of An Anatomy of Addiction (“Absorbing, vivid”–Sherwin Nuland, The New York Times Book Review, front page)–the story of America’s empire builders: John and Will Kellogg. John Harvey Kellogg was one of America’s most beloved physicians; a best-selling author, lecturer, and health-magazine publisher; founder of the Battle Creek Sanitarium; and patron saint of the pursuit of wellness. His youngest brother, Will, was the founder of the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, which revolutionized the mass production of food and what we eat for breakfast. In The Kelloggs, Howard Markel tells the sweeping saga of these two extraordinary men, whose lifelong competition and enmity toward one another changed America’s notion of health and wellness from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, and who helped change the course of American medicine, nutrition, wellness, and diet.
Part of the 30th Annual Jewish Book and Arts Festival, $
Readings by U-M creative writing grad students, including fiction writers Michelle Cheever and poet Colin Walker.
7 p.m., UMMA Auditorium, 525 S. State. Free. 764-6330
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.
Nov. 4 & 18. All adults and teens in grade 9 & up invited to work on their novel for this nonprofit promotion (also known as National Novel Writing Month) challenging teens and adults to write a 50,000-word novel by the end of November.
1-3 p.m., AADL Westgate Branch West Side Room, Westgate shopping center, 2503 Jackson. Free. 327-8301.
