Literati is pleased to welcome Rachel Cassandra and Lauren Gucik to Literati in support of Women Street Artists of Latin America: Art without Fear.
In this groundbreaking, in-depth look at a rarely explored perspective of street art, more than twenty female artists from seven nations in Latin America discuss themes of social justice, artist process, community, visibility, feminism, and more. A bilingual edition packed with full-color photographs and interviews, this revealing exploration of contemporary street art includes work from Colombia, Peru, Panama, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Mexico. Viva!
Rachel Cassandra is a freelance writer and designer based in San Francisco, CA. She has written for Vice, Good, Bitch, SFist, and Narratively, and she writes regularly for Juxtapoz. Find her on Twitter as CassandRachel.
Lauren Gucik is an artist and community organizer living in Oakland, CA. She graduated with a degree in Theatre Arts from Indiana University. She has worked with the SF Mime Troupe, Brava Theatre, and Precita Eyes Mural Project as a children’s art teacher. She is currently the Secretary of the Community Advisory Panel at KQED, the Bay Area’s public media station and she organizes the Dia de Los Muertos Festival of Altars with the Marigold Project.
Shannon Gibney was born in 1975, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She was adopted by Jim and Sue Gibney about five months later, and grew up with her two (biological) brothers, Jon and Ben. She is a graduate from Community High School. Shannon is now a professor of English and African diaspora studies at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband, son and daughter.
See No Color:
For as long as she can remember, sixteen-year-old Alex Kirtridge has known two things: 1. She has always been Little Kirtridge, a stellar baseball player, just like her father. 2. She’s adopted. These facts have always been part of Alex’s life. Despite some teasing, being a biracial girl in a white family didn’t make much of a difference as long as she was a star on the diamond where her father—her baseball coach and a former pro player—counted on her. But now, things are changing: she meets Reggie, the first black guy who’s wanted to get to know her; she discovers the letters from her biological father that her adoptive parents have kept from her; and her body starts to grow into a woman’s, affecting her game. Alex begins to question who she really is. She’s always dreamed of playing pro baseball just like her father, but can she really do it? Does she truly fit in with her white family? Who were her biological parents? What does it mean to be black? If she’s going to find answers, Alex has to come to terms with her adoption, her race, and the dreams she thought would always guide her.
Literati is thrilled to launch the latest issue of the Michigan Review of Prisoner Creative Writing, produced by the Prison Creative Arts Project. You can learn more about PCAP and their work here. Selections from the issue will be read and copies will be available for sale.
This event is intended for Grades 3-8
Kate DiCamillo is one of America’s most beloved storytellers. She was the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and is a two-time Newbery Medalist. She will visit the Ann ARbor District Library to discuss her newest book, Raymie Nightingale.
Raymie Clarke has come to realize that everything, absolutely everything, depends on her. And she has a plan. If Raymie can win the Little Miss Central Florida Tire competition, then her father, who left town two days ago with a dental hygienist, will see Raymie’s picture in the paper and (maybe) come home. To win, not only does Raymie have to do good deeds and learn how to twirl a baton; she also has to contend with the wispy, frequently fainting Louisiana Elefante, who has a show-business background, and the fiery, stubborn Beverly Tapinski, who’s determined to sabotage the contest. But as the competition approaches, loneliness, loss, and unanswerable questions draw the three girls into an unlikely friendship — and challenge each of them to come to the rescue in unexpected ways.
Kate DiCamillo is the author of many books for young readers. Her books have been awarded the Newbery Medal (The Tale of Despereaux, 2004); the Newbery Honor (Because of Winn-Dixie, 2001), the Boston Globe Horn Book Award (The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, 2006), and several others.
This program will include a book signing, and books will be for sale courtesy of Nicola’s Books.
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.
Literati is pleased to welcome Stevie Edwards in support of her latest collection, Humanly.
Of Humanly, Patricia Smith says, “With an unpredictability that alternately jolts and mesmerizes, Stevie Edwards has crafted an intricate exploration of life as we’d rather not know it. There is much in these stanzas to jolt and unsettle—stark crafting and a relentless respect for the possibilities of word create a tension only felt in the presence of revelation.”
Stevie Edwards is Editor-in-Chief at Muzzle Magazine and Senior Editor in Book Development at YesYes Books. Her first book, GOOD GRIEF (Write Bloody 2012), received the Independent Publisher Book Awards Bronze in Poetry and the Devil’s Kitchen Reading Award. Her second book, HUMANLY, was released in 2015 by Small Doggies Press. She has an MFA in poetry from Cornell University, and will be starting a PhD in the English Department at the University of North Texas next fall. She currently resides in Ann Arbor, MI, and grew up in Lansing, MI. Her poems have appeared in Indiana Review, The Offing, Salt Hill, Baltimore Review, The Journal, Rattle, Verse Daily, PANK, and elsewhere.
Local writer TBA. The program begins with an open mike for poets, who are welcome to read their own work or a favorite poem by another writer.
Literati is thrilled to welcome Chad Dundas in support of his debut novel, Champion of the World. Chad will be joined in conversation by Chris McCormick, author of Desert Boys.
In this stunning historical fiction debut set in the world of wrestling in the 1920s, a husband and wife are set adrift in a place where everyone has something to hide and not even the fights can be taken at face value.
Late summer, 1921: Disgraced former lightweight champion Pepper Van Dean has spent the past two years on the carnival circuit performing the dangerous “hangman’s drop” and taking on all comers in nightly challenge bouts. But when he and his cardsharp wife, Moira, are marooned in the wilds of Oregon, Pepper accepts an offer to return to the world of wrestling as a trainer for Garfield Taft, a down-and-out African American heavyweight contender in search of a comeback and a shot at the world title. At the training camp in rural Montana, Pepper and Moira soon realize that nothing is what it seems: not Taft, the upcoming match, or the training facility itself. With nowhere to go and no options left, Pepper and Moira must carefully navigate the world of gangsters, bootlegging, and fixed competitions, in the hope that they can carve out a viable future.
A story of second chances and a sport at the cusp of major change, Champion of the World is a wonderful historical debut from a new talent in fiction.
Chad Dundas earned his MFA from the University of Montana, and his short fiction has appeared in the Beloit Fiction Journal, Sycamore Review, Sou’Wester and Thuglit. Since 2001, he’s worked as a sportswriter for national outlets like ESPN, NBC Sports, The Sporting News, Bleacher Report and the Associated Press, as well as local and regional newspapers. A fourth generation Montanan, he lives with his wife, daughter and son in Missoula.
Several mystery writers are on hand to chat about and sign copies of their latest books, including Loren Estleman (Desperate Detroit), David Bell (Since She Went Away),Larry Sweazy (See Also Deception), J.C. Lane (Tag You’re Dead) and Andrew Walsh-Huggins (Capitol Murder). Refreshments.
Elizabeth George’s first novel, ‘A Great Deliverance’, was honored with the Anthony and Agatha Best First Novel Awards and received the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière. Her third novel, ‘Well-Schooled in Murder’, was awarded the prestigious German prize for suspense fiction, the MIMI. ‘A Suitable Vengeance’, ‘For the Sake of Elena’, ‘Missing Joseph’, ‘Playing for the Ashes’, ‘In the Presence of the Enemy’, ‘Deception on His Mind’, ‘In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner’, ‘A Traitor to Memory’, and ‘I, Richard’ were international bestsellers. Elizabeth George divides her time between Huntington Beach, California, and London. Her novels are currently being dramatized by the BBC.
