Brutally Honest Storytelling Open Mic is a live storytelling event where the audience is free to be real as they want to be. No experience necessary. New storytellers or experienced storytellers – everyone has stories. OR just come to listen, that’s okay too!
Stories have a 5 minute time limits. Notes are okay!
Hosted by Shannon Cason (The Moth, Snap Judgment, RISK!, WBEZ’s Homemade Stories). Shannon is a host, MainStage storyteller and GrandSlam champion with The Moth. He is a regular on RISK! and NPR’s Snap Judgment. Shannon also hosts his own storytelling podcast with WBEZ Chicago called Shannon Cason’s Homemade Stories. He is a husband, father, and from Detroit.
The Blind Pig, 208 N. First St. Ann Arbor, MI 48104. $7 (age 20 & under, $10).patriciarwheeler@gmail.com http://www.shannoncason.com/
Nov. 1 & 15. All adults and teens in grade 9 & up invited to work on their novel for this nonprofit promotion (also known as NaNoWriMo) challenging teens and adults to write a 50,000-word novel by the end of November.
Monthly open mike storytelling competition sponsored by The Moth, the NYC-based nonprofit storytelling organization that also produces a weekly public radio show. Each month 10 storytellers are selected at random from among those who sign up to tell a 3-5 minute story on the monthly theme. The 3 judges are recruited from the audience. Monthly winners compete in a semiannual Grand Slam. Space limited, so it’s smart to arrive early.
Note: Beginning in August, the Storyslam is held twice a month, on the 1st & 3rd Tuesdays.
7:30-9 p.m. (doors open and sign-up begins at 6 p.m.), The Circus, 210 S. First. $10. 764-5118.
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 November 17th installment of ZVWS will feature award-winning author Colm Tóibín.
Colm Tóibín is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, journalist, critic, and poet. His seventh novel, Brooklyn, was recently adapted into a major motion picture, and his most recent novel, Nora Webster, received the Hawthornden Prize in 2015. Tóibín has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize on three different occasions, and been awarded the Los Angeles Times Novel of the Year, the Lamda Literary Award, the Costa Novel Award, and the Irish PEN Award, among many others. A celebrated essayist as well, Tóibín’s latest nonfiction book, On Elizabeth Bishop, offers a deeply personal introduction to the work and life of the American poet, who was one of his most important literary influences.
Local short story writer Alex Kourvo and young adult novelist Bethany Neal host an open house for writers to connect with one another and/or work on their projects.
Every 1st & 3rd Sun. All poets invited to compete in a poetry slam judged by a randomly chosen panel from the audience. The program begins with a poetry open mike and (occasionally) a short set by a featured poet.
7-9 p.m. (sign-up begins at 6:30 p.m.), Espresso Royale, 324 S. State. $5 suggested donation. facebook.com/AnnArborPoetrySlam.
Jon Milan – Jon Milan is a Detroit-based journalist, pianist, composer and historian with three previous Arcadia publications: 2014’s Grand River Avenue: From Detroit to Lake Michigan, coauthored with Gail Offen; 2011’s Old Chicago Road, and 2009’s Detroit: Ragtime and the Jazz Age.
Jon has written for The Detroit Metro Times and The Detroit Area Convention and Visitor’s Bureau Magazine. He has spent his professional career as a corporate communications manager and gives presentations on the history of Ragtime and early jazz music.
Gail Offen – Gail Offen is the author of Grand River Avenue: From Detroit to Lake Michigan, a 2014 book from Arcadia Publishing that she wrote with co-author Jon Milan.
A graduate of the University of Michigan, she is a SVP, Creative Director at Doner Advertising and has won awards, including a One Show, Effie and more, plus blue ribbons for baking at the Michigan State Fair.
Gail is also an adjunct professor of advertising at Lawrence Technical University. She’s always curious to see, eat, and write about what’s around every corner.
Susan L. Nenadic – Susan Nenadic came to Ann Arbor for graduate school and never really left. She taught English and history at Saline High School. Since her retirement in 2004, she has been writing, speaking and teaching at Washtenaw Community College and life-long learning groups. She is the author of A Purse of Her Own: Occupations of 19th Century Women and many articles exploring local history. She has been a member/director of the Washtenaw County Historical Society, the Downtown Citizens Advisory Council and a volunteer cook at Ann Arbor’s Delonis Center for the homeless.
M. Joanne Nesbit – M. Joanne Nesbit has had a variety of careers in Indiana and Michigan. From a reporter for a small newspaper to positions at Indiana University and The University of Michigan, she has relished the opportunities for contact with fascinating local people. Author of three books about early artists of the Brown County, Indian, art colony, she also has contributed articles to monthly publications. Before and after retirement, both in Indiana and Michigan, she has followed a lifestyle of volunteerism with a number of local and national organizations ranging from the American Heart Association to the Washtenaw County Historical Society.
Local fiction writer Leslie “Elle” Wright, best known for her Edge of Scandal romance novels, offers tips on revising your written work and how to get published.&A. Signing In conjunction with the end of National Novel Writing Month, a nonprofit promotion challenging teens and adults to write a 50,000-word novel by the end of November.
2-4 p.m., AADL Traverwood Branch
Every 1st & 3rd Sun. Readings by featured poets, preceded by a poetry open mike.
Dec. 4: Readings Siaara Freeman, a poet from Cleveland whose poems explore the resilient spirit of people struggling with the realities of inner-city living, and Scott Beal, a Pushcart Prize-winning local poet whose recently published debut collection Wait ‘Til You Have Real Problems deploys familiar characters from Rapunzel to Perseus and whimsically surreal tall tales to explore the varied and violent forces that shape human identities.
Dec. 18: Open mike only.
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7-9 p.m. (sign-up begins at 6:30 p.m.), Espresso Royale, 324 S. State. $5 suggested donation. facebook.com/AnnArborPoetry.
Neutral Zone and Literati Bookstore are partnering to present an Open Mic Night for writers ages 19 and under! Poets, storytellers, short story writers…. everyone is invited to take to the mic in a safe and welcoming environment. The event is free and open to the public.
