Poets:
Jennifer Burd has had poetry published in numerous print and online journals. She is author of a full-length book of poems, Body and Echo (2010; PlainView Press), a chapbook with CD of original poems set to music by Laszlo Slomovits, Receiving the Shore (2016, Little Light Publications), and a book of creative nonfiction, Daily Bread: A Portrait of Homeless Men & Women of Lenawee County, Michigan (Bottom Dog Press; 2009). Her newest collection of poetry, Days’ Late Blue, is scheduled to be published by Cherry Grove Editions in July 2017. She is co-author of a children’s play based on Patricia Polacco’s book I Can Hear the Sun, which was produced by Wild Swan Theatre of Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 2015. Burd received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Washington in Seattle. She currently teaches writing and literature classes at Jackson College and Washtenaw Community College, both in Michigan, as well as creative writing classes online through The Loft Literary Center, Minneapolis, MN.
Saleem Peeradina is the author of First Offence (Newground, 1980), Group Portrait (OUP, 1992), Meditations on Desire (Ridgeway Press, 2003), Slow Dance (Ridgeway Press, 2010), and Final Cut (Valley Press, 2016). He edited Contemporary Indian Poetry in English (Macmillan, 1972), one of the earliest and most widely used texts in courses on South Asian literature. The Ocean in My Yard, a prose memoir of growing up in Bombay, was published by Penguin Books, in 2005. His next book, Heart’s Beast : New and Selected Poems is forthcoming in early 2017. Meditations on Desire was published in Arabic translation by Kalima Publishers in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
His poetry is represented in most major anthologies of Indian, South Asian, and Asian American writing including The Oxford India Anthology of Poetry (1994), Living in America: Fiction and Poetry by South Asian-American Writers (1995), Contours of the Heart (1996), Uncommon Wealth (1997), Vespers: Contemporary American Poems of Religion and Spirituality (2003), The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poetry (2008), and 60 Indian Poets, Penguin Books (2008).
The Oxford Companion to Twentieth Century Poets (1994) carries an entry on Peeradina. Peeradina has given readings all over the world. In 2003, he served as writer-in-residence at American College, Madurai, India, and at Lenoir-Rhyne College, NC. In 2009-10, he was writer-in-residence at The Chelsea Public Library, MI. Peeradina is Professor Emeritus at Siena Heights University, Adrian, Michigan.
Laz Slomovits: Born in Budapest, Hungary, Laz and his twin brother emigrated with their parents after the 1956 Revolution and lived in Israel for three years before moving to the United States. Living in several countries as they were growing up gave San and Laz a chance to see and appreciate many different ways of life, as well as exposing them to the music and instruments of various cultures. They grew up hearing a rich variety of music at home. Their father, a fine singer and a Cantor in the synagogue, taught them everything from religious music and Italian opera, to Hungarian and Yiddish folk songs. Their mother, though not a musician, nevertheless had a powerful impact on their choice of careers. “The music comes from our father,” the brothers say, “but whatever it takes to get up in front of an audience and put a song across, that comes from our mother’s spirit.”
Readings by featured poets, preceded by a poetry open mike.
Anthony Zick, a member of the 2008 Ann Arbor Youth Poetry Slam team featured in the HBO documentary Brave New Voices.
7-9 p.m. (sign-up begins at 6:30 p.m.), Espresso Royale, 324 S. State. $5 suggested donation. facebook.com/AnnArborPoetry.
On April 3, local short story writer Alex Kourvo and young adult novelist Bethany Neal discuss the difference between traditional and self-publishing and examine the benefits and drawbacks of each path. For adult and teen (grade 6 & up) fiction and nonfiction writers. Also, Kourvo and Neal host an open house for writers to connect with one another and/or work on their projects at 7 p.m. on Apr. 17.
Keith Taylor has authored or edited 16 books and chapbooks, including his most recent small collection, Fidelities (Alice Greene and Co., 2015). His last full length collection was If the World Becomes So Bright, and his next one, The Bird-while, will be published by Wayne State University Press in February, 2017. He has also co-edited several collections of fiction and non-fiction, including a recent collection of contemporary Michigan ghost stories. His poems, stories, reviews and translations have appeared widely in North America and in Europe. He has received Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs. He teaches at the University of Michigan where he also serves as Associate Editor of Michigan Quarterly Review and director of the Bear River Writers Conference. He spends his summers teaching at the University of Michigan Biological Station near Pellston.
IIllustrator and children’s author Tom Pohrt grew up in the automobile-manufacturing town of Flint, Michigan. A self-taught artist whose love of animals is evident in his artwork, Pohrt has been interested in writing and drawing ever since he was a little boy. Despite his lack of guidance as a youngster, Pohrt has become a well-established illustrator, working with texts by authors such as Philippa Pierce, Julia Durango, and Jim Harrison as well as penning the text for two self-illustrated books featuring his original stories. “The precise, delicate lines of his drawings, coupled with his slightly moody, sepia-toned palette, suggest antique etchings,” wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor in reviewing Pohrt’s work for Howard Norman’s Trickster and the Fainting Birds, the critic dubbing the picture book “beautifully designed and presented.”
Pohrt is the winner of the Lee Bennett Hopkins Award for Children’s Poetry, 2004, for The Wishing Bone and Other Poems by Stephen Mitchell; American Library Association Notable Children’s Book designation, 2004, for The Little Gentleman by Philippa Pearce.
The Bird-while is a collection of forty-nine poems that meditate on the nature-both human and non-human-that surrounds us daily. Taylor is in the company of naturalist poets such as Gary Snyder and Mary Oliver-poets who often drew from an Emersonian sensibility to create art that awakens the mind to its corresponding truths in the natural world. The book ranges from the longer poem to the eight line, unrhymed stanza similar to that of the T’ang poet Han-Shan. And without section breaks to reinforce the passing of time, the collection creates greater fluidity of movement from one poem to the next, as if there is no beginning or end, only an eternal moment that is suspended on the page. Tom Pohrt’s original illustrations are scattered throughout the text, adding a stunning visual element to the already vivid language. The book moves from the author’s travel accounts to the destruction of the natural world, even species extinction, to more hopeful poems of survival and the return of wildness. The natural rhythm is at times marred by the disturbances of the twenty-first century that come blaring into these meditations, as when a National Guard jet rumbles over the treeline upsetting a hummingbird, and yet, even the hummingbird is able to regain its balance and continue as before. At its core, Taylor’s collection is a reminder of Emerson’s idea that natural facts are symbols of spiritual facts.
Open mike storytelling competition sponsored by The Moth, the NYC-based nonprofit storytelling organization that also produces a weekly public radio show. Each month 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 p.m.), $10. 764-5118.
U-M Professor Emeritus of English Language and Literature George Bornstein attended Harvard University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts, Phi Beta Kappa, in 1963. He then attended Princeton University, where he earned his Doctorate in 1966. Professor Bornstein joined the faculty at the University of Michigan as associate professor in 1970 and was promoted through the ranks to professor in 1975.
Professor Bornstein is one of the most distinguished and admired scholars of Modernism in his generation. For decades, as he devoted himself to the study of the literature and culture of the later 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries. He is the author of seven scholarly monographs, and the editor of twelve books. He has published close to fifty articles, numerous reviews, and he has given talks at conferences, colleges, and universities throughout the United States, in Ireland, England, and Germany. He has offered distinguished service to the Department, the College and the University.
Book:
A stunning facsimile of the 1919 first edition of William Butler Yeats’s The Wild Swans at Coole an elegant volume showcasing these poems as they would have first been read and a complement to facsimile editions The Winding Stair and The Tower.
Published in 1919 during W.B. Yeats’s “middle stage” and composed of poems written during World War I, The Wild Swans at Coole is contemplative and elegiac. This collection captures Yeats at a time when he was looking back on his life, coming to terms with the realities of modern war, reflecting on lost love, and defining his place in the world as a poet. It features forty poems, among them “The Fisherman,” “In Memory of Major Robert Gregory,” “The Wild Swans at Coole,” and “On Being Asked for a War Poem.”
This facsimile of the original 1919 edition presents the reader with the work in its original form, with handsome old fashioned type, how readers and Yeats himself would have seen it in the early twentieth century. A great gift book and collector’s item, The Wild Swans at Coole also includes an Introduction and notes by esteemed Yeats scholar George Bornstein.
This year’s Story Slam again features prose, poetry, narratives, personal essays and more (800 words or less) in the newsroom. Winner will receive a $50 gift card from Literati. Guests and participants can enjoy food from New York Pizza Depot and Avalon Cafe and Kitchen while it lasts. All are welcome to attend!
Detroit children’s book writer Mark Crilley, author of the Mike Falls and Akiko series, discusses the art of writing and presents awards to the winners of the AADL short story contest for 3rd-5th graders. Refreshments.
2-3 p.m., AADL multipurpose room, 343 S. Fifth Ave. Free. 327-8301.
Wayne State University Press authors Kelly Fordon, Michael Lauchlan, Ken Mikolowski, Cindy Hunter Morgan, Keith Taylor, and Laura Hulthen Thomas will be participating in readings on Sunday, April 9, as part of a new festival, Power of the Press Fest. For more information, or to learn about how you can get involved, check out the Power of the Press Fest website.
Literati is delighted to welcome poets Kathy Fagan, Matthew Thorburn, and Katie Willingham in support of their recent and forthcoming collections.
Kathy Fagan’s latest collection is Lip (Carnegie Mellon UP, 2009); her new book, Sycamore, is scheduled to appear with Milkweed Editions in March 2017. She is also the author of the National Poetry Series selection The Raft (Dutton, 1985), the Vassar Miller Prize winner MOVING & ST RAGE (Univ of North Texas, 1999), and The Charm (Zoo, 2002). Her work has appeared in The Paris Review, The Kenyon Review, Slate, FIELD, Narrative, The New Republic, and Poetry, among other literary magazines, and is widely anthologized. Fagan is the recipient of awards and fellowships from the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Frost Place, Ohioana, and the Ohio Arts Council. The Director of Creative Writing and the MFA Program at The Ohio State University, she is currently Professor of English, Poetry Editor of OSU Press, and Advisor to The Journal.
Matthew Thorburn is the author of six collections of poetry, including the book-length poem Dear Almost (Louisiana State University Press, 2016) and the chapbook A Green River in Spring (Autumn House Press, 2015), winner of the Coal Hill Review chapbook competition. His previous collections include This Time Tomorrow (Waywiser Press, 2013), a finalist for the Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize; Every Possible Blue (CW Books, 2012); Subject to Change (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2004), winner of the New Issues Poetry Prize; and an earlier chapbook, the long poem Disappears in the Rain (Parlor City Press, 2009). His work has been recognized with a Witter Bynner Fellowship from the Library of Congress, as well as fellowships from the Bronx Council on the Arts and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. His interviews with writers, first published as the What Are You Reading? series, now appear on the Ploughshares blog as a monthly feature. He lives in New York City, where he works in corporate communications.
Katie Willingham is the author of Unlikely Designs, forthcoming in September 2017 from the University of Chicago Press. She teaches at the University of Michigan and lives in Ann Arbor.
