Aunt Agatha’s co-owner (and BookFest president) Robin Agnew discusses the 13th annual BookFest and introduces a new AADL exhibit organized in conjunction with the BookFest that showcases entries in its 9th annual Book Cover design contest for high school students, who were asked this year to design a cover for Andrea Hannah’s debut novel, the crime thriller Of Scars and Stardust. Agnew also announces the contest winners. The exhibit also features a brief history of the contest. Also, live music by harpist Deborah Gabrion and refreshments.
We are thrilled to welcome acclaimed journalist and author Peter Kornbluh, who accompanied President Obama on his historic visit to Cuba, to Literati Bookstore. Peter will be joined in conversation by the University of Michigan’s Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof. Refreshments will be provided thanks to UM’s Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies and Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, generous co-sponsors of this event.
About Back Channel to Cuba:
History is being made in U.S.-Cuban relations. Updated to tell the real story behind the stunning December 17, 2014 announcement by President Obama and President Castro of their move to restore full diplomatic relations, this powerful book is essential to understanding ongoing efforts toward normalization in a new era of engagement. Challenging the conventional wisdom of perpetual conflict and aggression between the United States and Cuba since 1959, Back Channel to Cuba chronicles a surprising, untold history of bilateral efforts toward rapprochement and reconciliation. William M. LeoGrande and Peter Kornbluh here present a remarkably new and relevant account, describing how, despite the intense political clamor surrounding efforts to improve relations with Havana, negotiations have been conducted by every presidential administration since Eisenhower’s through secret, back-channel diplomacy. From John F. Kennedy’s offering of an olive branch to Fidel Castro after the missile crisis, to Henry Kissinger’s top secret quest for normalization, to Barack Obama’s promise of a new approach, LeoGrande and Kornbluh uncovered hundreds of formerly secret U.S. documents and conducted interviews with dozens of negotiators, intermediaries, and policy makers, including Fidel Castro and Jimmy Carter. They reveal a fifty-year record of dialogue and negotiations, both open and furtive, that provides the historical foundation for the dramatic breakthrough in U.S.-Cuba ties.
Peter Kornbluh directs the Cuba Documentation Project and the Chile Documentation Project at the National Security Archive in Washington, DC, and is co-author, with William M. LeoGrande, of Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations Between Washington and Havana. Kornbluh is also the author of The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountabilityand Bay of Pigs Declassified: The Secret CIA Report on the Invasion of Cuba. He writes regularly for The Nation.
Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof is Associate Professor of History, American Culture, and Latina/o Studies at the University of Michigan. He is the author of A Tale of Two Cities: Santo Domingo and New York After 1950.
Sept. 14: All invited to read and discuss their poetry or short stories. Bring about 6 copies of your work to share. Hosted by local poets and former college English teachers Joe Kelty and Ed Morin.
This 2-time Olympic gold medalist soccer player discusses her new memoir, Forward. Signing.
7 p.m., Rackham. $10 ($30 includes the book) in advance at literatibookstore.com. 585-5567.
Sept. 28:Readings by Leah Zazulyer, author of a recent collection of translations of Yiddish poems by Soviet refugee Israel Emiot, and Mitzi Alvin, a veteran Detroit poet whose poems have been described as “jewels of loss and renewal.” Followed by a poetry and short fiction open mike.
Oct. 12: All invited to read and discuss their poetry or short stories. Bring about 6 copies of your work to share. Hosted by local poets and former college English teachers Joe Kelty and Ed Morin.
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.
All writers welcome to share and discuss their poetry and short fiction. Sign up for new participants begins at 6:45 p.m.
Literati is pleased to once again partner with the University of Michigan’s Sweetland Center for Writing in support of their Word2: Writer to Writer programming. Professor Philip J. Deloria is this installment’s featured guest.
Sweetland’s Word Squared: Writer to Writer series lets you hear directly from University of Michigan professors about their challenges, processes, and expectations as writers and also as readers of student writing. Each semester,Word² pairs one esteemed University professor with a Sweetland faculty member for a conversation about writing.
Word² sessions are broadcast live on WCBN radio. These conversations offer students a rare glimpse into the writing that professors do outside the classroom. You can hear instructors from various disciplines describe how they handle the same challenges student writers face, from finding a thesis to managing deadlines. Professors will also discuss what they want from student writers in their courses, and will take questions put forth by students and by other members of the University community. If there’s anything you’ve ever wanted to ask a professor about writing, Word² gives you the chance.
Professor Deloria is the Carroll Smith-Rosenberg Collegiate Professor of American Culture and History, former LSA Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education, and past Director of the Program in American Culture and the AC Native American Studies program. He has served as president of the American Studies Association, a council member of the Organization of American Historians, and a Trustee of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. He holds a joint appointment in the Department of American Culture and the Department of History.
