This Hobart literary journal editor reads from Stephen King’s The Body, his new book-part memoir, part literary criticism-that revolves around King’s novella, which was adapted into the film Stand By Me. Also, readings by U-M Residential College lecturer Robert James Russell and Kentucky fiction writer Leesa Cross-Smith.
Literati is thrilled to launch Children of the New World by Alexander Weinstein.
Children of the New World introduces readers to a near-future world of social media implants, memory manufacturers, dangerously immersive virtual reality games, and frighteningly intuitive robots. Many of these characters live in a utopian future of instant connection and technological gratification that belies an unbridgeable human distance, while others inhabit a post-collapse landscape made primitive by disaster. Children of the New World grapples with our unease in this modern world and how our ever-growing dependence on new technologies has changed the shape of our society. Alexander Weinstein is a visionary new voice in speculative fiction for all of us who are fascinated by and terrified of what we might find on the horizon.
“Taken together, these stories present a fully-imagined vision of the future which will disturb you, provoke you, and make you feel alive. Weinstein is brilliant, incisive and fearless.” —Charles Yu, author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
“In each of the gripping stories in Children of the New World, Alexander Weinstein offers a glimpse into an unnerving, not-so-distant, and all-too-possible future. Weinstein explores what-ifs with both wit and sensitivity, and his cautionary tales demand to be read (before it’s too late).” —Judy Budnitz, author of Nice Big American Baby
Alexander Weinstein is the Director of The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing and the author of the short story collection Children of the New World (Picador 2016). His fiction and translations have appeared in Cream City Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Notre-Dame Review, Pleiades, PRISM International, World Literature Today, and other journals. He is the recipient of a Sustainable Arts Foundation Award, and his fiction has been awarded the Lamar York, Gail Crump, Hamlin Garland, and New Millennium Prize. His stories have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, and appear in the anthologies 2013 New Stories from the Midwest, and the 2014 & 2015 Lascaux Prize Stories. He is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing and a freelance editor, and leads fiction workshops in the United States and Europe.
Literati is thrilled to be the bookseller for the Zell Visiting Writers Series at the University of Michigan. More information about the Helen Zell Writers’ Program, including a full calendar of visiting writers, can be found here. The September 22nd installment of ZVWS will feature poet Bob Hicok.
Bob Hicok was born in 1960 in Michigan and worked for many years in the automotive die industry. A published poet long before he earned his MFA, Hicok is the author of several collections of poems, including The Legend of Light, winner of the Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry in 1995 and named a 1997 ALA Booklist Notable Book of the Year; Plus Shipping; Animal Soul, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; Insomnia Diary; This Clumsy Living, which received the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry from the Library of Congress; Words for Empty, Words for Full; Elegy Owed, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and, most recently, Love & Sex &. His work has been selected numerous times for the Best American Poetry series. Hicok has won Pushcart Prizes and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, and has taught creative writing at Western Michigan University and Virginia Tech.
Literati is proud to be the bookseller for Sam Kean’s visit to Ann Arbor. Thanks toMiSciWriters and RELATE, this New York Times-bestselling author will be visiting the University of Michigan campus to talk about science writing. This event will take place in the Rackham Amphitheatre and is free and open to the public. You can RSVP to the Facebook event here.
Sam Kean spent years collecting mercury from broken thermometers as a kid, and now he’s a writer in Washington, D.C. His stories have appeared in The Best American Science and Nature Writing, The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, Mental Floss, Slate, and Psychology Today, among other places, and his work has been featured on “Radiolab” and NPR’s “All Things Considered,” among other shows. His books The Disappearing Spoon and The Violinist’s Thumb were national bestsellers, and both were named an Amazon “Top 5” science books of the year. The Disappearing Spoon was nominated by the Royal Society for one of the top science books of 2010, while both The Violinist’s Thumb and The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons were nominated for PEN’s literary science writing award.
Oct. 7 & 8. RC students direct and perform this popular semiannual 90-minute program of short scenes on a variety of topics and in a variety of styles, many written by RC students.
Oct. 7 & 8. RC students direct and perform this popular semiannual 90-minute program of short scenes on a variety of topics and in a variety of styles, many written by RC students.
RC Alumna Anna Clark (2003) speaks on her forthcoming book, “Water’s Perfect Memory: Flint and the Poisoning of an American City”. The James H. and Jean B. Robertson Memorial Lecture Series was established by the Robertson family in 2011 to honor the first Director of the Residential College and his spouse and to provide for an annual lecture on education and the liberal arts.
• Panel discussion about the present and future of research in bipolar disorder
• Reception
The signed book will be available for purchase at the event.
This event is free and open to the public, but we kindly ask you to pre-register:http://www.prechterfund.org/lecture/
“Baird’s lonely, angry, grief-stricken, and occasionally grandiose account of his illness and its shattering costs is the reason we can’t put [this book] down. His sharply detailed recollections are sometimes sane and sometimes not, but his writing is lucid even when his thinking isn’t. His manuscript is a plea to understand his experience and, by extension, others.” – The Boston Globe
University of Michigan, Kahn Auditorium, A. Alfred Taubman Biomedical Science Research Building, 109 Zina Pitcher Place. Free. kbergman@umich.edu http://www.prechterfund.org/lecture/ [map]
Geraldine Markel, PhD, a board certified executive coach, enhances leadership and workplace productivity. As principal of Managing Your Mind Coaching & Seminars, Geri provides systematic processes to enhance business performance and profits. Geri helps leaders, entrepreneurs and business owners cut to core issues and apply practical strategies to move from good intentions to cost-effective actions. Her style of providing feedback using compassionate candor leads to accelerated learning and change.
Dr. Markel is an educational psychologist and served as faculty in the School of Education and as seminar leader of the Instructional Design Workshop at the Executive Education Center, School of Business, University of Michigan. For over 15 years, she helped develop instructor-led and self-directed learning materials to enhance performance, productivity and effectiveness for corporate, governmental and educational organizations. As a consultant and trainer, Geri worked with companies such as Ford Motor Company, Disney Corporation, and Department of Agriculture. As a speaker, she has worked at corporate offices of VIACOM, Time Warner, Merrill Lynch, and TIAA-CREF; educational institutions such as University of Michigan, Wayne State University and Michigan State University; and law firms such as Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Kelly, Drye & Warren.
She is an award winning author; her most recent books are:
Actions Against Distractions: Managing Your Scattered, Distracted and Forgetful Mind
Defeating the 8 Demons of Distraction: Proven Strategies to Increase Productivity and Reduce Stress
Finding Happiness with Aristotle as Your Guide: Action Strategies Based on 10 Timeless Ideas
Finding Your Focus: Practical Strategies for the Everyday Problems Facing Adults with ADD
On October 21st, Literati is thrilled to welcome Margaret Atwood to Ann Arbor (at Rackham Auditorium) in celebration of her most recent novel, Hag-Seed, part of the Hogarth Shakespeare project. Click the button below to purchase a ticket.
About Hag-Seed
Hag-Seed is a re-visiting of Shakespeare’s play of magic and illusion, The Tempest, and will be the fourth novel in the Hogarth Shakespeare series.
In Margaret Atwood’s novel take on Shakespeare’s original, theater director Felix has been unceremoniously ousted from his role as Artistic Director of the Makeshiweg Festival. When he lands a job teaching theater in a prison, the possibility of revenge presents itself–and his cast find themselves taking part in an interactive and illusion-ridden version of The Tempest that will change their lives forever.
There is a lot of Shakespearean swearing in this new Tempest adventure–but also a mischief, curiosity and vigor that is entirely Atwood.
About Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. Her latest book of short stories is Stone Mattress: Nine Tales (2014). Her MaddAddam trilogy–the Giller and Booker prize-nominated Oryx and Crake (2003),The Year of the Flood (2009), and MaddAddam (2013)–is currently being adapted for HBO. The Door is her latest volume of poetry (2007). Her most recent non-fiction books are Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth (2008) and In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination (2011). Her novels include The Blind Assassin, winner of the Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; and The Robber Bride, Cat’s Eye, The Handmaid’s Tale–coming soon as a TV series with MGM and Hulu–and The Penelopiad. Her new novel, The Heart Goes Last, was published in September 2015. Forthcoming in 2016 are Hag-Seed, a novel revisitation of Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, for the Hogarth Shakespeare Project, and Angel Catbird–with a cat-bird superhero–a graphic novel with co-creator Johnnie Christmas (Dark Horse.) Margaret Atwood lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.
About the Event
This event will take place at Rackham Auditorium on the campus of The University of Michigan on October 21st, 2016, at 7pm. Doors for seating will open at 6:15. Tickets are $30, and include a hardcover copy of the novel to be picked up at the venue the day of the event. Other titles by Margaret Atwood will be available to purchase in the lobby. Ticket holders may also have books signed. Due to venue time constraints, the signing will be limited. Those wishing to have more than 3 titles signed are asked to wait until the end of the signing. Books may be personalized.
