We welcome three incredible poets–Oliver Baez Bendorf, Suzi F. Garcia, & David Hornibrook–as part of our ongoing Poetry at Literati Series. A book signing will follow. The event is free and open to the public.
Oliver Baez Bendorf’s debut full-length collection, The Spectral Wilderness (Kent State U.) was selected by Mark Doty for the Stan & Tom Wick Poetry Prize. His second book, Advantages of Being Evergreen, won CSU Poetry Center’s Open Book Poetry Competition and will be published September 10, 2019. His poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Poetry, BOMB, Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics, and elsewhere. He has been a featured reader at New Orleans Poetry Festival, The White House, Smith College, and Woodland Pattern. A recipient of honors and fellowships from CantoMundo, Lambda Literary, Vermont Studio Center, and University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Institute for Creative Writing, he is an assistant professor of creative writing at Kalamazoo College in Michigan. https://www.oliverbaezbendorf.com/
Suzi F. Garcia is the author of the chapbook, Dear Dorothy: A Home Grown Fairytale, Skull + Wind Press, 2020. The daughter of a Peruvian immigrant, raised in Arkansas, she has an MFA in Creative Writing with minors in Screen Cultures and Gender Studies. Suzi is an Executive Editor at Noemi Press, where she has worked with authors such as the Blunt Research Group, Jennifer Tamayo, Roberto Tejada, Thirii Myint, and Vanessa Villarreal. Suzi is a CantoMundo Fellow, a Macondista, and participated in the first-ever Poetry Incubator at the Poetry Foundation. She is teaching a 2019 Telluride Association Summer Program seminar. Her writing has been featured or is forthcoming from the Offing, Vinyl, Fence Magazine, and more. She has presented at PCA/ACA, AWP, and Console-ing Passions, among other national conferences.
David Hornibrook grew up in the suburbs of Detroit where he worked for many years as a caregiver and non-profit administrator. His poems have won multiple awards, including a Pushcart Prize. Hornibrook holds an MFA from the Helen Zell Writer’s Program at the University of Michigan.
Celebrate the new YpsiWrites and the National Day on Writing. Try out writing activities, learn from area writers and authors, and share your own writing experiences. There will be giveaways from local businesses. For more information, contact ypsiwrites@gmail.com
Literati Bookstore is pleased to be on hand to sell books for the Clements Library’s ongoing lecture series. This event features Jason S. Lantzer presenting his lecture Torn Asunder: Faith, Higher Education, Politics and the Davidson family during the Civil War. Literati will have copies of Jason’s related book, Rebel Bulldog, available for purchase.
About the lecture: The Davidson family of Indianapolis is a near-perfect microcosm of the United States during Civil War. With roots in the South, but living in the North the family’s ties to religious, education, and political leaders and institutions cast new light on the loyalties Americans felt towards their region, nation and the institution of slavery.
Central to the story is Preston Davidson, a Hoosier by birth, who fought for the Confederacy alongside his Virginian cousins. On the other side, stands his brother Dorman, who fought to preserve the Union. How these two ended up on opposing sides of the greatest conflict in American history is the story of how familial expectations, faith, higher educational opportunities, and political loyalties all played into the struggle over if the nation would be divided or united and whether or not slavery would flourish or be abolished.
Jason S. Lantzer holds a BA, MA, and PhD all from Indiana University. His research and writing interests center on the intersection of religion, politics, and law in American History. His book, “Rebel Bulldog: The Story of One Family, Two States, and the Civil War” was published in 2017. Dr. Lantzer serves as the Assistant Director of the Butler University Honors Program.
Pamela Reynolds will speak about her book The Uncaring, Intricate World: A Field Diary, Zambezi Valley, 1984-85 (Duke 2019). Professor Emerita of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University and Honorary Professor at the University of Cape Town, Reynolds is author of War in Worcester: Youth and the Apartheid State. As U-M Presidential Professor she conducted the 2001-02 Mellon Seminar: Contested Childhood in a Changing Global Order. Following her talk, she is available for further conversation at a reception and book signing held in her honor. Reception RSVP at lizgoode@umich.edu
If you’ve ever thought about writing a novel, join us at the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) Kick Off Party! Hosted by Ann Arbor municipal liaison Hilary Braley, you’ll find fellow first-time and experienced writers to get inspired! This event includes light refreshments.
National Novel Writing Month is a non-profit event that encourages teens and adults to tackle the challenge of writing a novel during the month of November. Participants begin writing on November 1 with the goal of writing a 50,000-word (approximately 175 page) novel by 11:59:59 pm, November 30.
Official NaNoWriMo writing sessions will be held at AADL during November, but get a head start and celebrate with this great kick off party!
Ellen Muehlberger (history, classical studies, Middle East studies) and Deborah Dash Moore (Judaic studies, history) discuss Muehlberger’s latest book, followed by Q & A.
Late antiquity saw a proliferation of Christian texts dwelling on the emotions and physical sensations of dying—not as a heroic martyr in a public square or a judge’s court but as an individual, at home in a bed or in a private room. In sermons, letters, and ascetic traditions, late ancient Christians imagined the last minutes of life and the events that followed death in elaborate detail. This book traces how, in late ancient Christianity, death came to be thought of as a moment of reckoning: a physical ordeal whose pain is followed by an immediate judgment of one’s actions by angels and demons and, after that, fitting punishment. This emphasis on the experience of death ushered in a new ethical sensibility among Christians, in which one’s death was to be imagined frequently and anticipated in detail. This was initially meant as a tool for individuals: preachers counted on the fact that becoming aware of a judgment arriving at the end of one’s life tends to sharpen one’s scruples. But, as this book argues, the change in Christian sensibility toward death did not just affect individuals. Death imagined as the moment of reckoning created a fund of images and ideas within late ancient Christian culture about just what constituted a human being and how variances in human morality should be treated. This had significant effects on the Christian adoption of power in late antiquity, especially in the case of power’s heaviest baggage: the capacity to authorize violence against others
Join us for a thought-provoking conversation about the culprits of and solutions for the largest issues facing the world today.
The Erb Institute is proud to host an evening with Anand Giridharadas, author of the National Best Seller, Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World. This candid conversation will examine the role of business in society, the flaws of philanthropy and the possibility of changing the world from the ground up. We’ll discuss climate change—culprits, challenges and collaboration for progress—social inequality—who’s winning, who’s losing and why—and what needs to change.
Seating will be on a first come first served basis. Book signing in partnership with Literati to immediately follow the event.
Open-mic storytelling competitions. Open to anyone with a five-minute story to share on the night’s theme. Come tell a story, or just enjoy the show!
6:30pm Doors Open | 7:30pm Stories Begin
*Tickets for this event are available one week before the show, at 3pm ET.
*Seating is not guaranteed and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please be sure to arrive at least 10 minutes before the show. Admission is not guaranteed for late arrivals. All sales final.
Media Sponsor: Michigan Radio.
GUMPTION: Prepare a five-minute story about go-getting. Moments of courage and the peaks and pratfalls of a daring spirit. Scaling mountains or admitting to mistakes. Nerves of steel or jelly legs. Tell us about your gutsiest gambles and the mettle that forged them. You’ve got moxie, kid!
Ambassador Dennis Ross is counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Prior to returning to the Institute in 2011, he served two years as special assistant to President Obama and National Security Council senior director for the Central Region, and a year as special advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. For more than twelve years, Ambassador Ross played a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process and dealing directly with the parties in negotiations. A highly skilled diplomat, Ambassador Ross was U.S. point man on the peace process in both the George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations.
Enlighten us, but make it quick!
How would you share your passion in 5 minutes, with just 20 slides? We asked Ann Arbor this question; Ignite | Ann Arbor is the response. Watch your neighbors engage in this international phenomenon of fast-paced geekery! Discover what your community geeks have to say – whether it’s food, tech, business, music, art, history or something strange and new, it’s sure to be a feverish night filled with discovery!
2019 Speaker List
Living with Tourette Syndrome: I say “I CAN” when others say “YOU CAN’T”
Larry Biederman
Mashed, Fried, or Baked: Serving up the Spud’s Story
Kayla Peck
We’re Not Angry… We’re Human!
Alishea Sutton
My 50 Before 50 Challenge
Lisa Lipscomb
Reinventing the Wheel: The Automotive Industry on the Brink of Disruption
Steven Sherman
When Home Leaves Check Your Back Pocket
Natalie McKinney
Compute Like It’s 1980! (tentative)
James Kruth
Hear This Photo: One Year As a Music Photographer
Lizz Wilkinson
Pearls of the Pacific
Cathy-Alice Koyanagi
Eat More Veggies, Spend Less Money
Raya Danielle York
The Olympic Vocalist
Monica Ely
Not Your Grandfather’s Ham Radio
Dan Romanchik, KB6NU
Exploring Nonconformity through Graphic Novels
Julie Cruz
How to Raise a Generation to Love the Outdoors
Annie Fortunato
