Local authors Erica Chapman and Patrick Flores- Scott are joining forces for the evening to share their Young Adult titles.
About the Books
Author: Erica Chapman
Title: Teach Me to Forget
Ellery doesn’t want to live anymore.
She’s unable to bear the loss of her sister, or face the rest of her broken family. So, she’s made a plan—bought the gun, arranged for her funeral, and picked the day. Everything has fallen into place. Then, on the day she intends to take her own life, she meets Colter, a boy who recognizes her desperation and becomes determined to stop her.
Ellery won’t be swayed so easily, but as she struggles with her hopelessness it becomes clear Colter has good reasons for his vigilance—deep, personal reasons. And whether Ellery likes it or not, he can’t let go.
Author: Patrick Flores-Scott
Title: American Road Trip
With a strong family, the best friend a guy could ask for, and a budding romance with the girl of his dreams, life shows promise for Teodoro “T” Avila. But he takes some hard hits the summer before senior year when his nearly perfect brother, Manny, returns from a tour in Iraq with a devastating case of PTSD. In a desperate effort to save Manny from himself and pull their family back together, T’s fiery sister, Xochitl, hoodwinks her brothers into a cathartic road trip.
Told through T’s honest voice, this is a candid exploration of mental illness, socioeconomic pressures, and the many inescapable highs and lows that come with growing up–including falling in love.
About the Authors
Erica Chapman writer of dark, emotional YA novels with a burst of humor, and lighter contemporaries with smart-ass protagonists. Her first novel, TEACH ME TO FORGET (Simon Pulse/S&S) is out now!
Patrick Flores-Scott was a long-time public school teacher in Seattle, Washington. He’s now a reading tutor and early morning writer in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Patrick’s first novel, Jumped In, was named to the 2014 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults list, a Walden Award finalist, a Washington Book Award winner, an NCSS/CBC Notable Book for the Social Studies, and a Bank Street College Best Books of 2014. His second novel, American Road Trip, received multiple starred reviews and is a 2019 Best Fiction for Young Adults pick, and a TAYSHAS Texas reading list selection.
Journalist Clare Malone will discuss the role that gender, class, and race played in the 2016 presidential election and how they might impact the 2020 election.
Clare Malone is a Senior Political Reporter for FiveThirtyEight and a member of the popular podcast FiveThirtyEight Politics. She previously worked at The New Yorker and her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Harper’s, The American Prospect, and more.
One MFA student of fiction and one of poetry, each introduced by a peer, will read their work. The Mark Webster Reading Series presents emerging writers in a warm and relaxed setting. We encourage you to bring your friends–a Webster reading makes for an enjoyable and enlightening Friday evening.
This week’s reading features Karolina Letunova and Mariya Zilberman.
Born and raised in a Siberian coal town, Karolina Letunova writes fiction. She is working on her first novel.
Mariya Zilberman is an Ann Arbor-based poet. She immigrated to the United States from Minsk, Belarus and grew up in Maryland.
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
Mystery and suspense author D.M. Pulley discusses her new book No One’s Home, a dark tale of a mansion haunted by a legacy of tragedy and a family trapped by lies that is sure to appeal to fans of The Haunting of Hill House.
Margot and Myron Spielman move to a new town, looking for a fresh start and an escape from the long shadow of their past. But soon after they buy Rawlingswood, a foreclosed mansion rumored to be haunted, they realize they’re in for more of the same…or worse. As tensions build between the family members, the home’s dark history threatens to repeat itself. Margot and Myron must confront their own ghosts and Rawlingswood’s buried past before the house becomes their undoing.
D.M. Pulley lives in northeast Ohio with her husband, her two children, and a dog named Hobo. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked as a Professional Engineer rehabbing historic structures and conducting forensic investigations of building failures. Pulley’s structural survey of a vacant building in Cleveland inspired her debut novel, The Dead Key, the winner of the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.
This event is in partnership with Aunt Agatha’s. The event includes a signing and books will be for sale.
The book, Sacrifices Not Forgotten was written by Vietnam Veteran John Kinzinger to honor the 76 Washtenaw County servicemen who were missing or killed in action in Vietnam. This will be a heart-to-heart conversation about the Ypsilanti Memorial dedicated to their service and the book that tells their stories The Memorial is on the grounds of the Ypsilanti Township Civic Center, at 7200 South Huron River Drive. This program is free and open to the public. Bring a friend.
Carey Salerno is the executive editor and director of Alice James Books where she has been serving underrepresented voices in the literary community since 2008. She is also the author of Shelter (2009) and coeditor of Lit From Inside: 40 Years of Poetry from Alice James Books (2013). She teaches poetry writing for the University of Maine at Farmington and has been invited to teach or lecture on poetry and editing at places like the University of Washington, Indiana University, Bread Loaf, Butler University, Washington State University, Colrain, The Writer’s Hotel, and The New School. You may find her poems–and articles and interviews regarding her other professional work–in print and online, most recently in The Literary Review and New England Review.
Literati Bookstore is pleased to be on hand to sell books as OLLI Reads, in Collaboration with Michigan Humanities’ Great Michigan Read, presents Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD, discussing her Book What the Eyes Don’t See – A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City.
What the Eyes Don’t See is the inspiring story of how Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, alongside a team of researchers, parents, friends, and community leaders, discovered that the children of Flint, Michigan, were being exposed to lead in their tap water—and then battled her own government and a brutal backlash to expose that truth to the world. Paced like a scientific thriller, What the Eyes Don’t See reveals how misguided austerity policies, broken democracy, and callous bureaucratic indifference placed an entire city at risk. And at the center of the story is Dr. Mona herself—an immigrant, doctor, scientist, and mother whose family’s activist roots inspired her pursuit of justice.
Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD, is the founder and director of the Michigan State University and Hurley Children’s Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative, an innovative and model public health program in Flint. Currently an associate professor of pediatrics and human development at the MSU College of Human Medicine, she has been named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World for her role in uncovering the Flint water crisis and leading recovery efforts. She was one of the first to question whether lead was leaching from the city’s water pipes after an emergency manager switched the city’s water supply to the Flint River in 2014.
OLLI Reads invites OLLI members to read together and discuss two books a year, non-fiction in the fall, fiction in the spring. This fall we are collaborating with Great Michigan Read, and other community partners, to enjoy participating in a wider project. Michigan Humanities’ Great Michigan Read creates a statewide discussion each year on the humanities themes of a selected book. Through partnerships with libraries, schools, book clubs, and a wide range of other non-profit organizations, the Great Michigan Read facilitates statewide reading and programs to bridge communities with a common conversation.
9:30am Coffee
10:00-11:00am Discussion with Mona Hanna-Attisha, followed by Q&A
11:00am-Noon Light Lunch and Book Signing
This event is free and open to the public; advanced registration is required and seating is limited. To register for this event or for more information, please contact olli.info@umich.edu or call 734-998-9351.
Come with questions, a work in progress, or an empty notebook. All writers are welcome in this casual, supportive environment. Authors Bethany Neal and Alex Kourvo will be on hand to answer questions and give encouragement. Bethany and Alex will also provide private, one-on-one critiques if you choose to have them read your work. Sharing your writing with other attendees is not required and is completely voluntary.
The Emerging Writers Meet-Up is an excellent opportunity to meet your fellow Ann Arbor writers and get feedback from published authors. This monthly meet-up welcomes all writers to ask questions, connect with other writers, or simply have a dedicated time and place to work on their projects. Do you have a completed manuscript? Consider submitting it to the library’s new imprint, Fifth Avenue Press.
