Calendar

Dec
7
Thu
Angelique Chengelis: Michigan Man @ Literati
Dec 7 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Literati is excited to welcome sportswriter Angelique Chengelis who will be sharing and discussing her new book, Michigan Man: Jim Harbaugh and the Rebirth of Wolverine Football.

About Michigan Man:
All eyes and ears turned toward Ann Arbor in late 2014 when it was announced that Jim Harbaugh would be returning to the Big House as the new head coach of Michigan football. Now, Angelique Chengelis, longtime chronicler of the Wolverines for the Detroit News, gives the inside story on how exactly Harbaugh restored the Michigan program to national title contender status. Learn how he instilled a new culture and rankled rivals with outspokenness, creative tactics, and relentless recruiting. Get the behind-the-scenes story on how and why Harbaugh chose to come back to the university he led to glory as its starting quarterback in the early 1980s. Follow along as Jabrill Peppers, Jake Butt, and others develop into true stars. Michigan Man is a comeback tale, an examination of the rapid turnaround from a five-win team in 2014 to squads that earned 10 wins plus trips to the Citrus and Orange Bowls in 2015 and 2016 respectively. Featuring extensive interviews with Harbaugh himself, this is a book Wolverines faithful and football fans in general will not want to miss.

Angelique Chengelis is a sportswriter for the Detroit News. Michigan football has been her primary beat since 1992, but she has covered countless sporting events including Super Bowls, U.S. Opens, PGA Championships, Ryder Cups, Stanley Cup Finals, NBA Finals, Indianapolis 500, Daytona 500, and NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. She has also been a contributor to ESPN’s NASCAR coverage as part of the NASCAR Now show. She lives in Detroit, Michigan

Dec
8
Fri
Philip J. Deloria and Alexander J. Olson: American Studies: A User’s Guide @ Literati
Dec 8 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

We are thrilled to welcome professors Philip J. Deloria and Alexander I. Olson to Literati Bookstore to discuss their latest book, American Studies: A User’s Guide.

About American Studies: A User’s Guide
American Studies has long been a home for adventurous students seeking to understand the culture and politics of the United States. This welcoming spirit has found appeal around the world, but at the heart of the field is an identity crisis. Nearly every effort to articulate an American Studies methodology has been rejected for fear of losing intellectual flexibility and freedom. But what if these fears are misplaced? Providing a fresh look at American Studies in practice, this book contends that a shared set of “rules” can offer a springboard to creativity. American Studies: A User’s Guide offers readers a critical introduction to the history and methods of the field as well as useful strategies for interpretation, curation, analysis, and theory

Philip J. Deloria is Carroll Smith-Rosenberg Collegiate Professor of American Culture and History at the University of Michigan. He is a former president of the American Studies Association.

Alexander I. Olson is Assistant Professor in the Mahurin Honors College at Western Kentucky University.

Jan
26
Fri
RC Players: An Evening of Scenes @ Keene Theater
Jan 26 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

Have you ever pulled a ratatouille and found a rat on your head? Do you ever question the larger impact of a cup of coffee? Have you gotten fed up with constantly being kidnapped? Ever daydream about America’s history if women were the founders?

Do you enjoy question leads that ultimately serve as clickbait in order to intrigue potential audience members?

Then we are the place for you! RC Players is hosting our semi-annual comedic Evening of Scenes performance Friday, Jan. 26 and Saturday, Jan. 27 at 8 p.m. in the Keene Theater, located in the basement of our dear East Quad. As always, our production is as free as the wind beneath my wings!

Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your parents, tell your dogs and cats and lizards and rats (they can find themselves in the subject matter of one of the scenes)! Feel free to share this event, or invite people who would love a good laugh in a theater.

Jan
27
Sat
RC Players: An Evening of Scenes @ Keene Theater
Jan 27 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

Have you ever pulled a ratatouille and found a rat on your head? Do you ever question the larger impact of a cup of coffee? Have you gotten fed up with constantly being kidnapped? Ever daydream about America’s history if women were the founders?

Do you enjoy question leads that ultimately serve as clickbait in order to intrigue potential audience members?

Then we are the place for you! RC Players is hosting our semi-annual comedic Evening of Scenes performance Friday, Jan. 26 and Saturday, Jan. 27 at 8 p.m. in the Keene Theater, located in the basement of our dear East Quad. As always, our production is as free as the wind beneath my wings!

Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your parents, tell your dogs and cats and lizards and rats (they can find themselves in the subject matter of one of the scenes)! Feel free to share this event, or invite people who would love a good laugh in a theater.

Jan
28
Sun
Ann Arbor Storytellers Guild @ Trinity Lutheran Church
Jan 28 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
All invited to listen to guild members swap stories or bring their own to tell. Park in rear and use door to the community room. Front entrance is handicap accessible.
2-4 p.m., Trinity Lutheran Church, 1400 W. Stadium. Free. annarborstorytelling.org, 997-5388.
Feb
25
Sun
Ann Arbor Storytellers Guild @ AADL 3rd floor
Feb 25 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
All invited to listen to guild members swap stories or bring their own to tell.
2-4 p.m., Ann Arbor District Library Freespace (3rd floor). Free. 971-5763.
Mar
1
Thu
Ann Arbor Storytellers Guild: A Little Bit of Twain, A Little Bit of Thurber @ Dexter Public Library
Mar 1 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Join the Dexter District Library in welcoming back professional storytellers, Jane Fink and Steve Daut as they share the wit and wisdom of American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer, Mark Twain and American cartoonist, author, humorist, journalist, playwright, and celebrated wit, James Grover Thurber. This fun filled performance is sure to amuse and entertain. Register at the Adult Service Desk or call the library at 734-426-4477.

Contact: lryan@dexter.lib.mi.us
Location: Dexter District Library – Lower Level

Apr
20
Fri
The Exit Interview with Keith Taylor and Cody Walker @ Literati
Apr 20 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Literati is thrilled to be celebrating the work and formal career of the poet and close friend of the store, Keith Taylor. Keith will be retiring from the University of Michigan at the end of the Winter 2018 Semester. Keith will be joined by fellow poet Cody Walker for a discussion of his work.

Poet and writer Keith Taylor teaches in the undergraduate and graduate programs in creative writing at the University of Michigan, directs the Bear River Writer’s Conference, and is the former poetry editor for Michigan Quarterly Review. His sixteenth collection, The Bird-while, was published by Wayne State University Press February 2017. Fidelities was published in 2015 by Alice Greene & Co. Keith’s work has appeared in such publications as Story, The Los Angeles Times, Alternative Press, The Southern Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Notre Dame Review, The Iowa Review, Witness, Chicago Tribune, and Hanging Loose. Other books are Marginalia for a Natural History published by Black Lawrence Press, and Ghost Writers, a collection of ghost stories co-edited with Laura Kasischke, published by Wayne State University Press.

Cody Walker is the author of The Self-Styled No-Child (Waywiser, 2016) and Shuffle and Breakdown (Waywiser, 2008). His poems have appeared in The New York TimesThe Yale ReviewSlateSalon, and The Best American Poetry (2015 and 2007); his essays have appeared online in The New Yorker and the Kenyon Review. The former Poet Populist of Seattle, he now lives with his family in Ann Arbor, where he directs the creative writing minor at the University of Michigan. His new collection, The Trumpiad (Waywiser, 2017), was released last April.

Apr
21
Sat
Gene Yang: Reading without Walls @ Literati
Apr 21 @ 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm

Literati Bookstore is thrilled to partner with the Ann Arbor Distric Library to welcome Gene Luen Yang! This event includes a book signing and books will be on sale. The event will take place in the Downtown Library’s multipurpose room.

Cartoonist Gene Luen Yang gives a talk about Reading Without Walls: exploring books about characters who look or live differently than you, topics you haven’t discovered, or formats that you haven’t tried. Drawing on his own experiences as a reader and author, Yang promotes diversity and opens readers’ eyes to new ideas and experiences.

Learn more about the Reading Without Walls Initiative here.

Gene Luen Yang is the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. He began drawing comic books in the fifth grade, and in 1997 he received a Xeric Grant for his first comic, Gordon Yamamoto and the King of the Geeks. He has since written and drawn a number of titles, including Duncan’s Kingdom, The Rosary Comic Book, Prime Baby and Animal Crackers. American Born Chinese, his first graphic novel from First Second, was a National Book Award finalist, as well as the winner of the Printz Award and an Eisner Award. He also won an Eisner for The Eternal Smile, a collaboration with Derek Kirk Kim. He is the author of the Secret Coders series (with artist Mike Holmes) and has written for the hit comics Avatar: The Last Airbender and Superman. Yang lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Apr
23
Mon
Maura Elizabeth Cunningham: China in the 21st Century @ Literati
Apr 23 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Literati is pleased to host historian and writer Maura Elizabeth Cunningham who will be discussing her new book China in the 21st Century.

About China in the 21st Century:
In this fully revised and updated third edition of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know(R), Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom and Maura Elizabeth Cunningham provide cogent answers to urgent questions regarding the world’s newest superpower and offer a framework for understanding China’s meteoric rise from developing country to superpower. Framing their answers through the historical legacies – Confucian thought, Western and Japanese imperialism, the Mao era, and the Tiananmen Square massacre – that largely define China’s present-day trajectory, Wasserstrom and Cunningham introduce readers to the Chinese Communist Party, the building boom in Shanghai, and the environmental fallout of rapid Chinese industrialization. They also explain unique aspects of Chinese culture, such as the one-child policy, and provide insight into Chinese-American relations, a subject that has become increasingly fraught during the Trump era. As Wasserstrom and Cunningham draw parallels between China and other industrialized nations during their periods of development, in particular the United States during its rapid industrialization in the 19th century, they also predict how we might expect China to act in the future vis-a-vis the United States, Russia, India, and its East Asian neighbors.

Updated to include perspectives on Hong Kong’s shifting political status, as well as an expanded discussion of President Xi Jinping’s time in office, China in the 21st Century provides a concise and insightful introduction to this significant global power.

Maura Elizabeth Cunningham is an Associate at the University of Michigan’s Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies. She has written on modern Chinese history for the Wall Street Journal and the LA Review of Books.

lsa logoum logoU-M Privacy StatementAccessibility at U-M