Calendar

Jul
12
Wed
Poetry and the Written Word @ Crazy Wisdom
Jul 12 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

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.
7-9 p.m., Crazy Wisdom, 114 S. Main. Free. 665-2757

 

Jul
26
Wed
Home Plate: Fictionalizing Familiar Places, with Kelly Fordon and Laura Thomas @ Happy Dog at the Euclid Tavern
Jul 26 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

The authors will discuss how their fiction transforms home into character. How do writers use assumptions about familiar places to find the unexpected and surprising?  When is a hometown the whole trouble, and also the last, best hope for change? The authors will also talk about how the unique landscape of the upper Midwest inspires their fiction.

Kelly Fordon’s work has appeared in The Florida Review, The Kenyon Review (KRO), Rattle and various other journals. She is the author of three poetry chapbooks. The first one, On the Street Where We Live, won the 2012 Standing Rock Chapbook Award and the latest one, The Witness, won the 2016 Eric Hoffer Award for the Chapbook and was shortlisted for the Grand Prize. Her novel-in-stories, Garden for the Blind, was chosen as a Michigan Notable Book, a 2016 Foreword Reviews’ INDIEFAB Finalist, a Midwest Book Award Finalist, an Eric Hoffer Finalist, and an IPPY Awards Bronze Medalist in the short story category. She works for The College for Creative Studies, Springfed Arts and The InsideOut Literary Arts Project in Detroit.

Laura Hulthen Thomas is the author of the short fiction collection, States of Motion, published by Wayne State University Press. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including The Cimarron Review, Nimrod International Journal, Epiphany and Witness. She received her MFA in fiction writing from Warren Wilson College. She currently heads the undergraduate creative writing program at the University of Michigan’s Residential College, where she teaches fiction and creative nonfiction.

Jul
29
Sat
Panel Discussion on “Bad Guys” with Sarah Zettel, Terrence P. Bronson, Louis Stock, and Jason Porter @ Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase
Jul 29 @ 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm

Membership event for the new Michigan chapter of Sisters in Crime, Saturday, July 29, 2:30 PM. Refreshments, membership sign up, and a panel discussion on “Bad Guys” with author Sarah Zettel, Judge Terrence P. Bronson, Retired U.S. Marshall Louis Stock and Pinkerton Vice President Jason Porter. The panel will be moderated by Judy Lee Burke and the event introduced by Michigan Sisters in Crime President Jan Rydzon. The panel discussion will take place at the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase (across the street from Aunt Agatha’s),  212 S. 4th Ave.

Aug
2
Wed
Haroon Moghul: How to Be A Muslim: An American Story @ AADL Multipurpose Room
Aug 2 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Shalom Hartman Institute (Jerusalem) Muslim Leadership Initiative facilitator Haroon Moghul discusses his coming-of-age memoir about growing up as a 2nd-generation American Muslim in a post-9/11 world. Signing.
7-8:30 p.m., AADL multipurpose room (lower level), 343 S. Fifth Ave. Free. 327-4555.

Aug
21
Mon
The Hummingbird Global Writers’ Circle presents Writing Gender: Laura Thomas, Linda Gregerman, Debroti Dhar, Michael Ferro @ Lane Hall
Aug 21 @ 3:00 am – 5:00 am

The Hummingbird Global Writers’ Circle is an international reading series started by Dr. Debotri Dhar, CEW Visiting Scholar (2015-17) and Lecturer in Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan. The aim of this literary initiative is to bring writers and communities together in different parts of the world to foster a love of books, to discuss the craft of writing, and to promote creative dialogue and global understanding in small ways. The name was inspired by the tiny hummingbird which builds its home with just a few drops of nectar, a root here, a leaf there, and a little bit of sky.

The Circle’s themed readings by established and emerging writers are free and open to the community. The theme for the first event of the Circle is feminism/ gender, to be held on Monday August 21 (3-5 pm) at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

The writer-speakers for this session are Linda Gregerson, Laura Hulthen Thomas, Mike Ferro and Debotri Dhar (writer bios below), who will read from their poetry and fiction, followed by conversation /Q&A.

Light refreshments will be served. All members of the community are welcome to attend, however, RSVP is required. If you wish to hear our speakers read from their work, share tips, and engage in conversation, please RSVP to debotri@umich.edu.

Sep
7
Thu
Barbara Cohn: The Detroit Public Library @ AADL Multipurpose Room
Sep 7 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Barbara Cohn’s new book, The Detroit Public Library, is a photographic tour of the Detroit Public Library’s rich art and architectural history.

Sep
13
Wed
Paul Dimond: The Belle of Two Arbors: Researching the Historical Novel in Three Ann Arbor Libraries @ AADL Multipurpose Room
Sep 13 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Ann Arborite Paul Dimond discusses his experiences doing research for his historical novel set in Ann Arbor and northern Michigan in the 1st half of the 20th century. He is joined by his wife, Marty, who wrote the poems by the titular character that appear in the novel. Signing.
7-8:30 p.m., AADL multipurpose room (lower level), 343 S. Fifth Ave. Free. 327-4555.[

Sep
14
Thu
Stamps Speaker Series: Jessica Care Moore @ Michigan Theater
Sep 14 @ 5:10 pm – 6:45 pm

Native Detroiter Jessica Care Moore discusses her visual art installation and collection of poems that honors the life of Sandra Bland, a black woman who was found hanged in a jail cell in Texas in 2015, 3 days after being arrested during a traffic stop.
5:10 p.m., Michigan Theater. Free. 668-8463.

Sep
25
Mon
Author’s Forum: Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy: Conversation with Heather Ann Thompson and Angela Dillard @ Hatcher Library Rm 100
Sep 25 @ 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm

Heather Ann Thompson (U-M Professor of Afroamerican and African Studies, and History) reads from her Pulitzer Prize-winning book Blood in the Water, followed by a conversation with Angela Dillard (U-M Professor of Afroamerican and African Studies) and then audience Q & A and book sale & signing.

About the book:
On September 9, 1971, nearly 1,300 prisoners took over the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York to protest years of mistreatment. Holding guards and civilian employees hostage, the prisoners negotiated with officials for improved conditions during the four long days and nights that followed.

On September 13, the state abruptly sent hundreds of heavily armed troopers and correction officers to retake the prison by force. Their gunfire killed thirty-nine men—hostages as well as prisoners—and severely wounded more than one hundred others. In the ensuing hours, weeks, and months, troopers and officers brutally retaliated against the prisoners. And, ultimately, New York State authorities prosecuted only the prisoners, never once bringing charges against the officials involved in the retaking and its aftermath and neglecting to provide support to the survivors and the families of the men who had been killed.

Drawing from more than a decade of extensive research, historian Heather Ann Thompson sheds new light on every aspect of the uprising and its legacy, giving voice to all those who took part in this forty-five-year fight for justice: prisoners, former hostages, families of the victims, lawyers and judges, and state officials and members of law enforcement. Blood in the Water is the searing and indelible account of one of the most important civil rights stories of the last century.

Sep
27
Wed
Laura Thomas and Laura Kasischke @ Nicola's Books
Sep 27 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

A U-M Residential College creative writing alumna, Laura Hulthen Thomas heads the undergraduate creative writing program at the Residential College, where she teaches fiction and creative nonfiction.

A U-M Residential College creative writing alumna, Laura Kasischke’s book of poems, Space, in Chains, won the National Book Critics Circle Award. She teaches writing at U-M English and the Residential College.

Set in Michigan small towns both real and fictional, the stories in Laura Hulthen Thomas’s State of Motion take place against a backdrop of economic turmoil and the domestic cost of the war on terror. As familiar places, privilege, and faith disappear, what remains leaves these broken characters wondering what hope is left.

Laura Kasischke’s Where Now: New and Selected Poems showcases her probing vision that subverts the so-called “normal.” A lover of fairy tales, Kasischke’s command of the symbolic includes a keen attention to sound in her exploration of the everyday—whether reflections on loss or the complicated realities of childhood and family.

lsa logoum logoU-M Privacy StatementAccessibility at U-M