We are thrilled to host a night of fiction with Elizabeth Ellen, Juliet Escoria, and Mary Miller, who will read from their respective novels Person/a, Juliet the Maniac, and Biloxi. Signing to follow
Elizabeth Ellen is a Pushcart Prize winner whose stories, poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals including Hobart, Fanzine, Bookslut, New York Tyrant, McSweeney’s, The Guardian, Catapult, and Salon. She has also written books of poetry and short stories. She is deputy editor at the literary journal Hobart, and founder of Short Flight/Long Drive Books (SF/LD).
Juliet Escoria is the author of the poetry collection Witch Huntand the story collection Black Cloud. She was born in Australia, raised in San Diego, and currently lives in West Virginia with her husband, the writer Scott McClanahan.
Mary Miller is also the author of the novel The Last Days of California, and two short story collections. Her fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, the Oxford American, McSweeney’s, American Short Fiction, and many others. She is a former James A. Michener Fellow in Fiction at the University of Texas and John and Renée Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi.
Crazy Wisdom Poetry Series hosted by Joe Kelty, Ed Morin, and David Jibson • Second and Fourth Wednesdays, 7-9 p.m. in the Crazy Wisdom Tea Room • Second Wednesdays are poetry workshop nights. All writers welcome to share and discuss their own poetry and short fiction. Sign up for new participants begins at 6:45 p.m.
Fourth Wednesdays have a featured reader for 50 minutes and then open mic for an hour. All writers welcome to share. Sign up begins at 6:45 p.m. Free. Contact Ed at 668-7523; eacmorso@sbcglobal.net or cwpoetrycircle.tumblr.com.
ONE PAUSE POETRY SALON is (literally) a greenhouse for poetry and poets, nurturing an appreciation for written art in all languages and encouraging experiments in creative writing.
We meet every Weds in the greenhouse at Argus Farm Stop on Liberty St. The poems we read each time are unified by form (haiku, sonnet, spoken word), poet, time / place (Tang Dynasty, English Romanticism, New York in the 70s) or theme / mood (springtime, poems with cats, protest poems). We discuss the poems and play writing games together, with time for snacks and socializing in between.
Members are encouraged to share their own poems or poems they like – they may or may not relate to the theme of the evening. This is not primarily a workshop – we may hold special workshop nights, but mostly we listen to and talk about poems for the sake of inspiring new writing.
Whether you are a published poet or encountering poetry for the first time, we invite you to join us!
$5 suggested donation for food, drinks and printing costs.
8-10 p.m., Argus Farm Stop greenhouse, 325 W. Liberty. $5 suggested donation. onepausepoetry.org, 707-1284.
Margaret A. Leary became director of the Law Library in 1984 and retired in 2011. From 1973 to 1981, she served as assistant director and from 1982 to 1984, as associate director. She received a BA from Cornell University, an MA from the University of Minnesota School of Library Science, and a JD from the William Mitchell College of Law. Leary worked to build the comprehensive library collection to support current and future research in law and a wide range of disciplines. She also developed strong services to support faculty research. Her biography of William W. Cook was published by the University of Michigan Press in fall 2011. Giving It All Away: The Story of William W. Cook and His Michigan Law Quad describes Cook’s family background, his education at Michigan, and his great success in New York City, which generated the money he was to give to Michigan Law.
This is the third in a three-lecture series.
We welcome the CNN Presidential Historian and contributing editor at Vanity Fair in support of his instant New York Times Bestseller, American Moonshot. A book signing will follow the event. Free and open to the public.
“Compelling and comprehensive….With a mixture of granular detail from a gigantic body of works on the subject and analyses of Kennedy’s decision-making and political savvy, American Moonshot transcends mere narrative to help the rest of us understand how America geared up for the astonishing feat of landing a man on the moon. With the approach of the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s ‘small step for man,’ Brinkley’s focus on the all-important early days provides a valuable perspective.”
— Washington Post
Douglas Brinkley is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, a CNN Presidential Historian, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. In the world of public history, he serves on boards, at museums, at colleges, and for historical societies. The Chicago Tribune dubbed him “America’s New Past Master.” The New-York Historical Society has chosen Brinkley as its official U.S. Presidential Historian. His recent book Cronkite won the Sperber Prize, while The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast received the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. He was awarded a Grammy for Presidential Suite and is the recipient of seven honorary doctorates in American studies. His two-volume, annotated Nixon Tapes recently won the Arthur S. Link–Warren F. Kuehl Prize. He is a member of the Century Association, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the James Madison Council of the Library of Congress. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and three children.
Features Karen Holman and Josephine Rood.
This is part of a monthly series on the 2nd Thursday of most months in partnership with Les Go Social Media Marketing and Training. The event begins with an Open Mic session when area poets can read their own work or share a favorite poem by another author in a welcoming atmosphere.
Book launch party and author signing.
We welcome Rick Bailey back to the store for a reading from his latest, The Enjoy Agenda. Book signing to follow. Free and open to the public.
About the book: Part memoir, part travelogue, The Enjoy Agenda takes readers from Rick Bailey’s one-stoplight town in Michigan farm country to Stratford, England, to the French Concession in Shanghai, the Adriatic coast of Italy, and to a small village in the Republic of San Marino. With his self-deprecating style, Bailey recalls the traumas of picture day in elementary school and lugging a guitar to the Cotswalds and back. He reflects on food safety in China, relives a dental emergency in Venice, and embarks on a quest for il formaggio del perdono (the cheese of forgiveness) in the hills above the Adriatic.
Bailey, whose voice is a combination of Dave Barry and Rick Steves with just a soupçon of Montaigne, writes with humor and wit about how these experiences reflect the issues and conflicts of contemporary American life: environmental change, life in digital times, and the vicissitudes of arriving at ripe old age. Throughout The Enjoy Agenda Bailey asks, “Where am I and how did I get here?” a question less about geography than the difficulties and gifts of becoming a husband and ultimately a partner changed and improved by a very smart woman and challenged and delighted by a gradual but seismic culture shift.
Rick Bailey is a retired English instructor who taught writing for thirty-eight years at Henry Ford Community College in Michigan. He is the author or editor of several books on writing, including The Creative Writer’s Craft, and is the author of American English, Italian Chocolate: Small Subjects of Great Importance (Nebraska, 2017).
ONE PAUSE POETRY SALON is (literally) a greenhouse for poetry and poets, nurturing an appreciation for written art in all languages and encouraging experiments in creative writing.
We meet every Weds in the greenhouse at Argus Farm Stop on Liberty St. The poems we read each time are unified by form (haiku, sonnet, spoken word), poet, time / place (Tang Dynasty, English Romanticism, New York in the 70s) or theme / mood (springtime, poems with cats, protest poems). We discuss the poems and play writing games together, with time for snacks and socializing in between.
Members are encouraged to share their own poems or poems they like – they may or may not relate to the theme of the evening. This is not primarily a workshop – we may hold special workshop nights, but mostly we listen to and talk about poems for the sake of inspiring new writing.
Whether you are a published poet or encountering poetry for the first time, we invite you to join us!
$5 suggested donation for food, drinks and printing costs.
8-10 p.m., Argus Farm Stop greenhouse, 325 W. Liberty. $5 suggested donation. onepausepoetry.org, 707-1284.
Join us for an evening with five local authors doing short readings from their published books, and have a chance to chat and buy their books too!
We’ll kick off the evening with readings by two authors with books published with the library’s Fifth Avenue Press imprint: Brad and Kristin Northrop with their picture book, Akeina the Crocodile and Tracy Gallup with her picture book, Paint the Night.
Meet the authors:
Sherry Duquet with the picture book, Violet the Hugging Octopus. “Violet the Hugging Octopus is a children’s picture book with a message of self-love and self-confidence. Brilliantly illustrated in watercolor, readers meet Violet and her undersea friends as she teaches them the secret to loving themselves. Originally written as a children’s book, Violet has also quickly become a touchstone for older youth and adults who need to be reminded to love themselves.”
Born and raised in Dearborn, Michigan, Sherry Duquet is a graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Today, she is an author, yoga studio owner, yoga instructor and renowned hugger. She loves working self-hugs into her yoga classes and believes that loving ourselves is a radical idea whose time has come. She is obsessed with elevating the self-esteem and positivity of men, women and children.
Fred Reif with Tell ’em ’bout the Blues: Interviews and stories about my life in the Detroit & Michigan Blues Scene.
Born and raised in Saginaw, Michigan, Fred Reif, is a musician, manager, writer, researcher, publisher, and collector of American roots music. Fred has re-discovered many American blues musicians and is a world-renowned washboard player.
This is part of the monthly Emerging Writers Workshops, which offer support, learning, and advice for local authors.
Do you have a completed manuscript? Consider submitting it to the library’s imprint Fifth Avenue Press.
