RC Creative Writing alumna Carrie Smith joins our book club to talk about and sign her new novel Forgotten City. Everyone is welcome.
Reading by this poet whose Pulitzer Prize-winning 2011 collection, Life on Mars, draws on sources as disparate as Arthur C. Clarke and David Bowie and is in part an elegiac tribute to her late father, an engineer who worked on the Hubble Telescope. Her highly acclaimed 2015 book, Ordinary Light, is a memoir about her experiences growing up in suburban California and struggling to fashion her own understanding of belief, loss, history, and what it means to be black in America. “She holds the child she was in her adult hands, examining the things that bridge the two: memory, parents, siblings, time-and of course her extraordinary eye,” says novelist Abraham Verghese. Preceded by awards presentations to U-M undergrad poets and prose writers.
Literati is beyond delighted to celebrate Ann Arbor legend Keith Taylor and his latest collection of poems, The Bird-while, illustrated by Tom Pohrt.
“In a natural chronometer, a Bird-while may be admitted as one of the metres, since the space most of the wild birds will allow you to make your observations on them when they alight near you in the woods, is a pretty equal and familiar measure” (Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Journal, 1838). Without becoming didactic or pedantic about the spiritual metaphor hidden in the concept of the “bird-while,” Keith Taylor’s collection evokes certain Eastern meditative poets who often wrote in an aphoristic style of the spirit or the mind mirroring specific aspects of the natural world.
The Bird-while is a collection of forty-nine poems that meditate on the nature—both human and non-human—that surrounds us daily. Taylor is in the company of naturalist poets such as Gary Snyder and Mary Oliver—poets who often drew from an Emersonian sensibility to create art that awakens the mind to its corresponding truths in the natural world. The book ranges from the longer poem to the eight line, unrhymed stanza similar to that of the T’ang poet Han-Shan. And without section breaks to reinforce the passing of time, the collection creates greater fluidity of movement from one poem to the next, as if there is no beginning or end, only an eternal moment that is suspended on the page. Tom Pohrt’s original illustrations are scattered throughout the text, adding a stunning visual element to the already vivid language. The book moves from the author’s travel accounts to the destruction of the natural world, even species extinction, to more hopeful poems of survival and the return of wildness. The natural rhythm is at times marred by the disturbances of the twenty-first century that come blaring into these meditations, as when a National Guard jet rumbles over the treeline upsetting a hummingbird, and yet, even the hummingbird is able to regain its balance and continue as before. At its core, Taylor’s collection is a reminder of Emerson’s idea that natural facts are symbols of spiritual facts.
Keith Taylor teaches at the University of Michigan. He has published many books over the years: collections of poetry, a collection of very short stories, co-edited volumes of essays and fiction, and a volume of poetry translated from Modern Greek.
Tom Pohrt is a self-taught artist who has illustrated numerous books including The New York Times bestseller Crow and Weasel by Barry Lopez. He recently illustrated Terrapin and Other Poems by Wendell Berry and Careless Rambles, a selection of poems by John Clare. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Heidi Andermack, born in Michigan, co-founded Chowgirls Killer Catering in 2004. She is a passionate member of her community in Minneapolis, helping establish the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District and serving on the board of the local farmers market. She is mom to Maximillian and wife to world-renowned font designer Chank Diesel.
Amy Lynn Brown was born and raised in Kentucky but ended up in Minneapolis, where she married an old college friend. After a 15-year career in bookselling and publishing, she co-created Chowgirls Killer Catering in 2004. She stays busy distance running, gardening, and raising her three daughters Frances, Louise, and Julip.
With an eye for style and appreciation for seasonal ingredients, the proprietors of Chowgirls Killer Catering, one of the Midwest’s leading catering companies, share their inspired ideas for delicious appetizers, small plates, and cocktails that are perfect for home entertaining. Amy Lynn Brown and Heidi Andermack were early adopters of the local, organic, sustainable, and seasonal approach to cooking; their ethos is clearly reflected in this cookbook, which offers fun, elegant, and yet easy-to-prepare recipes arranged by season that will be the hit of your next social gathering.
For your party to welcome spring, impress your guests with Spring Pea Toasts with Gouda, Mint-Crusted Lamb Chops, and Wasabi Crab Cakes. For that backyard summer fest, try Flank Steak Skewers with Chimichurri, Sweet Corn Risotto with Grilled Shrimp, and Gazpacho Jars. On that chilly fall gathering, offer the Grilled Sirloin with Farro Tomato Salad, Bacon-Pecan Tartlets, and Roasted Fall Vegetables with Saffron Aioli. And for that festive winter blow-out, make the Italian Beef Sliders, Crab & Green Chile Gratin, and Artichoke Tapenade. Then to wash it all down, make sure there’s plenty of Mint Julep Sweet Tea, White Sangria, and Strawberry Basil Daiquiris!
Andermack and Brown’s shared passion for cooking and entertaining shines throughout this beautiful and inspiring cookbook. Their “righteous bites” will impress your guests with dazzling, organic, locally sourced recipes that show you care. Party on!
U-M English professor Susan Parrish reads from her new book and discusses it with U-M history professor Perrin Selcer.
5:30-7 p.m., 100 U-M Hatcher Grad Library Gallery, enter from the Diag. Free. 764-3166.
Literati is thrilled to be the bookseller for the Zell Visiting Writers Series, presented by the Helen Zell Writers’ Program, which brings world-renowned poets and fiction writers to Helmut Stern Auditorium in the University of Michigan Museum of Art.
Tom Sleigh is the author of eight books of poetry, including ArmyCats, winner of the John Updike Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and Space Walk which won the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Award. His other books include After One, winner of the Houghton Mifflin New Poetry Prize; Waking, a finalist for the Lamont Poetry Prize and the William Carlos Williams Award; The Chain, finalist for Lenore Marshall Prize; TheDreamhouse, finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award; Far Side of the Earth, an Honor Book Award from the Massachusetts Society for the Book; Bula Matari/Smasher of Rocks; a translation of Euripides’ Herakles; and a book of essays, Interview With a Ghost.
Feb. 3 & 4. 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.
Feb. 3 & 4. 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.
Every 1st & 3rd Sun. Readings by featured poets, preceded by a poetry open mike.
Reading by Ashwini Bhasi, a widely published local poet who describes her work as “poems to make sense of the mind-body connection of her chronic pain, life in India, and the duality of her experiences as a scientific data analyst and poet
7-9 p.m. (sign-up begins at 6:30 p.m.), Espresso Royale, 324 S. State. $5 suggested donation. facebook.com/AnnArborPoetry.
Local short story writer Alex Kourvo and young adult novelist Bethany Neal discuss the basic techniques of good fiction. For adult and teen (grade 6 & up) fiction and nonfiction writers. Also, Kourvo and Neal host an open house for writers to connect with one another and/or work on their projects at 7 p.m. on Feb. 20.
7-8:45 p.m., AADL Westgate Branch, Westgate shopping center, 2503 Jackson. Free. 327-8301.
