Literati is pleased to be the bookseller for Susan Stellin and Graham MacIndoe’s visit to Ann Arbor. Susan and Graham will discuss their book Chancers: Addiction, Prison, Recovery, Love at the University of Michigan, sponsored by the Crime and Justice Minor Program.
In this powerful dual memoir, a reporter and a photographer tell their gripping story of falling in love, the heroin habit that drove them apart, and the unlikely way a criminal conviction brought them back together.
From their harrowing portrayal of the ravages of addiction to the stunning chain of events that led to Graham’s arrest and imprisonment at Rikers Island, Chancersunfolds in alternating chapters that offer two perspectives on a relationship that ultimately endures against long odds. Susan, a tenacious reporter, follows Graham down the rabbit hole of the American criminal justice system, determined to keep him from becoming another casualty of the war on drugs. Graham gives a stark, riveting description of his slide from brownstone Brooklyn to a prison cell, his gut-wrenching efforts to get clean, and his fight to avoid getting exiled far away from his son and the life he built over twenty years.
Beautifully written, brutally honest, yet filled with suspense and hope, Chancerswill resonate with anyone who has been touched by the heartache of addiction, the nightmare of incarceration, or the tough choice of leaving or staying with someone who is struggling on the road to recovery.
Literati is thrilled to welcome artist Michele Oka Doner in support of her most recent work, Into the Mysterium, a book that reveals the wondrous marine creatures deep in the heart of the endangered oceans that cover most of our planet.
With the oceans covering over 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, our planet can be called a marine planet. Beneath the waves are millions of remarkable creatures—beautiful big whales, dangerous jellyfish, legions of phytoplankton—but also, perhaps least known, are the marine invertebrates who make up an essential part of marine life. At the University of Miami, Florida, one museum is devoted to the study of Atlantic and Eastern Pacific marine invertebrates—over 93,000 specimens. Many of them were pulled from the Gulf of Panama, throughout the Caribbean, the Florida Keys, and the eastern Pacific over the last fifty years. They represent creatures that may never be seen again as the oceans grow ever more polluted and as global warming wreaks havoc on these ecosystems. Here, in lavishly beautifully photographs, nearly 100 of the rarest, most wondrous, mystifying, and entrancing specimens are brought into the light. From rare seahorses to now extinct corals, these invertebrates leave one gasping again at the extraordinary beauty and mystery of our world.
Michele Oka Doner is an internationally renowned artist whose career spans four decades. The breadth of her artistic production encompasses sculpture, furniture, jewelry, public art, functional objects, video, as well as costume and set design. She is well-known for creating numerous public art installations throughout the United States, including Radiant Site at New York’s Herald Square subway, Flight at Washington’s Reagan International Airport, and A Walk on the Beach at the Miami International Airport. Her artwork can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Louvre, the Yale Art Gallery, the Princeton University Art Museum, and many others. (Author photo: Bruce Weber.)
Literati is pleased to be the bookseller for the Author’s Forum’s presentationof “Contemporary Korean Art: Tansaekhwa and the Urgency of Method,” a conversation with Joan Kee and David Chung.
A crucial artistic movement of twentieth-century Korea, Tansaekhwa (monochromatic painting) also became one of its most famous and successful. In this full-color, richly illustrated account—the first of its kind in English—Joan Kee provides a fresh interpretation of the movement’s emergence and meaning that sheds new light on the history of abstraction, twentieth-century Asian art, and contemporary art in general. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the most controversial and influential artistic movement in contemporary Korean art. With detailed formal analysis on the important artworks and locating them within the broader historical and intellectual framework, Joan Kee vividly portrays how Korean artists responded to the international art world and positioned Tansaekhwa as an alternative to Euro-American art. Contemporary Korean Art makes essential reading for anyone interested in the non-Western artists’ negotiations to global art in the twentieth century.
This event will be recorded
Join us for a special mystery-lovers evening as historical mystery writers Maureen Jennings and Nancy Herriman discuss their work and the history/mystery genre. This event, cosponsored by Aunt Agatha’s Mystery Bookstore, includes a book signing and books will be for sale. Note: mystery writer Tasha Alexander, also scheduled to present, is unfortunately unable to attend this event.
Born in England, Maureen Jennings emigrated to Canada as a teenager. The first acclaimed Detective Murdoch mystery was published in 1997. Six more followed, all to enthusiastic reviews.
In 2003, Shaftesbury Films adapted three of the novels into movies of the week, and four years later the Murdoch Mysteries TV series was created. It is now shown around the world.
The Detective Inspector Tom Tyler series, set in World War II-era England, got off to a spectacular start with 2011’s Season of Darkness, followed by Beware This Boyin 2012.
Her newest book, “Dead Ground in Between,” is the haunting fourth novel in the DI Tom Tyler series. Set in Britain during the darkest days of World War II, this is a must-read especially for those interested in wartime dramas.
Nancy Herriman abandoned a career in Engineering to chase around two small children and take up the pen. She hasn’t looked back. A multi-published author, she is also a former winner of the Romance Writers of America’s Daphne du Maurier award for Best Unpublished Mystery/Romantic Suspense.
Oct. 26: Readings by Kalamazoo Valley Community College English teacher Robert Haight, the author of 3 poetry collections, and Joy Gaines-Friedler, a widely published Detroit-area poet who has released 2 collections, Followed by a poetry and short fiction open mike.
Literati is pleased to welcome poets Troy Jollimore and Heather Altfeld for a reading and signing.
Troy Jollimore’s most recent collection of poetry, Syllabus of Errors, was chosen by the New York Times as one of the best poetry books of 2015. His previous poetry books are At Lake Scugog (2011) and Tom Thomson in Purgatory, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry for 2006. He teaches philosophy at California State University, Chico, and is the author of two philosophical works,Love’s Vision and On Loyalty. He has been the recipient of fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, the Stanford Humanities Center, and the Guggenheim Foundation.
Heather Altfeld is the author of The Disappearing Theatre, chosen by Stephen Dunn for the Poets at Work prize. Her poetry appears or is forthcoming in Narrative Magazine, ZYZZYVA, Pleiades, Copper Nickel, The Literary Review, Cimarron Review, Watershed, and others, and she has written essays for North American Review, Superstition Review, and Poetry Northwest. Her research and areas of interest include Children’s Literature, Anthropology and Poetry, Waldorf Education for K-12, and things that have vanished. She has taught in Juvenile Hall, California Poets-in the Schools, Teachers and Writers Collaborative in New York City, and various campuses in the North State.
This bestselling children’s writer and illustrator-author of many pop-up books, including America the Beautiful and A Winter’s Tale: An Original Pop-Up Journey-discusses his work and leads a hands-on pop-up book-making activity for adults.
7 p.m., Concordia University Kreft Center Black Box Theater, 4090 Geddes at Earhart. Free, but reservations required. 995-7537.
Literati is delighted to be the bookseller for the DISC Distinguished Lecture, “Gender and Sexuality in the Islamic Culture,” delivered by Nobel Peace Prize recipient Shirin Ebadi. This event is hosted by the Islamic Studies Program and co-sponosored by the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, International Institute, Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies, Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia, and Law School.
Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian lawyer, former judge, and human rights activist. On October 10, 2003, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights – especially women’s, children’s, and refugee rights. She was the first Iranian to ever receive the prize. Ebadi became Iran’s first female judge when she was just 23 years old. She also became the first Iranian and first Muslim woman to be awarded the Nobel peace prize. Despite initially supporting the Iranian revolution like many Iranians, Ebadi soon became its scourge. Although described as “the worst nightmare of Iran’s hardline clerics,” her fight for human rights, particularly those for women, is not anti-religion. “I am against patriarchy, not Islam,” she says.
Demoted to a secretary in her own court by the regime, which considered women unsuitable to be judges, she set up her own pro-bono law practice to focus on injustices in the legal system, acting for political dissidents and on child-abuse cases. Despite being put on a death list by the regime, Dr. Ebadi became the country’s most high-profile human rights activist, founding the Human Rights Defenders Centre and helping to found the One Million Signatures Campaign. This grassroots campaign collected 1 million signatures from women in support of changing discriminatory laws. The campaign has won numerous international prizes (including the 2009 Reach All Women in War Anna Politkovskaya Award), but its members have also been harassed and even jailed.
Shirin Ebadi lived in Tehran, but she has been in exile in the UK since June 2009 due to the increase in persecution of Iranian citizens who are critical of the current regime. In 2004, she was listed by Forbes Magazine as one of the “100 most powerful women in the world.” She is also included in a published list of the “100 most influential women of all time.”
Ebadi will be introduced by Bridgette Carr, clinical professor of law at the University of Michigan.
Come ghosts, ghouls, and goblins for a haunting reading event. Bring something to read or just come to listen. There will be apples, cider, candy corn, and friendship!
The BarkBox doodles are everywhere- on the box, in our newsletter, and on our Facebook page. And while we affectionately call these pup drawings “doodles,” the artist behind them is a full-blown cartoonist.
They’re by Dave Coverly, one of the top cartoonists in the country. (Seriously.) His “Speed Bump” comic strip is syndicated in more than 400 newspapers and websites, including the Washington Post, Torontopr Globe & Mail, Detroit Free Press, Chicago Tribune, and the Indianapolis Star. In 2009 he was given the prestigious Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year—the highest honor awarded by the National Cartoonists Society.
Dave lives with his wife and two daughters in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and he took a few moments to chat with us about dogs, cartoons, dogs, BarkBox, and more dogs. (courtesy of BarkPost)
Click on the link to read BarkPost’s interview of Dave Coverly http://bit.ly/2bzZ6Es
Humane Society of Huron Valley Bountiful Bowls Program:
The Humane Society of Huron Valley understands that financial difficulty often means making a list of priorities. Frequently, animals are forced to be low on that list. HSHV’s Bountiful Bowls pet food assistance program helps Washtenaw County and Plymouth residents who are having difficulty meeting the nutritional needs of their dog or cat due to financial burden.
Trying times can be temporary. With a little assistance, a pet owner can often find a way to keep their pet in their home.
