Calendar

Local young adult fiction writer Lara Zielin and short story writer Margaret Yang discuss how to avoid common pitfalls in your writing. For adult and teen (grade 6 & up) fiction and nonfiction writers.

All poets invited to compete in a weekly poetry slam judged by a randomly chosen panel from the audience. The program begins with a brief poetry open mike and (usually) a short set by a[...]

Panel discussion on the issues raised by 2013 U-M Livingston Award for Young Journalists winner Luke Mogelson’s New York Times article about the plight of asylum seekers from the Middle East and Central Asia trying[...]

All invited to read and discuss their poetry or short stories. Bring about 6 copies of your work to share.

Poetry and fiction readings by U-M postgrad Zell fellows Chigozie Obioma, David Hornibrook, and Maya West, as well as local fiction writer Lydia Conklin. The January theme is travel.  

Radio Campfire is a new series of listening events devoted to memorable radio documentaries, soundscapes and experimental sonic shorts. Think relaxed, magical and intimate, like the campfire (minus the burnt marshmallows.) The inaugural event will[...]

In this 8-week course, Writing in The D, U-M students and Detroit Public High School students will work to improve writing skills through writing short fiction. Classes will include impromptu writing exercises, online character sketches, online[...]

U-M literature professor emeritus George Bornstein discusses The Colors of Zion: Blacks, Jews and Irish from 1845 to 1945, his 2011 book about the connections between black, Jewish, and Irish writers, poets, musicians, and politicians[...]

U-M faculty and undergrad and grad students read their poetry exploring the notions of boarders of various sorts. Readers include American culture professor Amy Sara Carroll, U-M creative writing grad Marcelo Hernández Castillo, U-M creative[...]

Reading by InsideOut Literary Arts Project (Detroit) writers-in-schools program founder Terry Blackhawk, a widely published poet who writes brightly figured poems praised for their accessibility and sincerity. The program begins with open mike readings.

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.

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[...]

Jim Ottaviani discusses On Purpose: Lessons inLife and Health from the Frog, the Dung Beetle, and Julia with author Vic Strecher.

Lecture by graphic novelist Alison Bechdel, author of Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama, and the comic strip Dykes To Watch Out For. Q&A at 2 pm at the Hopwood Room, 1176 Angell Hall.[...]

Each term, Semester in Detroit and the U-M Detroit Center partner to organize community classroom events that are free and open to the public.  Detroit community members join together with U-M students, faculty and staff[...]

Lucy Corin is the author of the short story collection The Entire Predicament (Tin House Books) and the novel Everyday Psychokillers:  A History for Girls (FC2).  The collection One Hundred Apocalypses and Other Apocalypses was released in September 2013 from McSweeney’s[...]

Local young adult fiction writer Lara Zielin and short story writer Margaret Yang host an open house for writers to connect with one another and/or work on their projects. For adult and teen (grade 6 &[...]

Jason Vine‘s What Did Jesus Drive? Crisis PR in Cars, Computers and Christianity is mostly about crises in the car industry, but also about being on the front-line of one crisis after another, offering insight[...]

Readings by U-M creative writing grad students, including fiction writer Rory Atwood and poet Rachel Harkai.

Kat Finch lives in Ann Arbor where she attends U-M’s Zell Writers Program. Her work is forthcoming in Sixth Finch & The New Megaphone, and can be found in Birdfeast, Ilk, & The Sugar House Review. Joshua Young is the author[...]

All poets invited to compete in a weekly poetry slam judged by a randomly chosen panel from the audience. The program begins with a brief poetry open mike and (usually) a short set by a[...]

Poet Jerry Dennis discusses his new book, A Daybreak Handbook.

Reading by Korean American novelist Chang-rae Lee, whose novels explore issues central to the Asian American experience. His 2014 novel, Such a Full Sea, is set in a dystopian future Baltimore and concerns a Chinese American[...]

Zell Writers’ Program Alum Rebecca Scherm reads from her debut novel, Unbecoming. She received her MFA from U-M, where she was also a postgraduate Zell Fellow.  She lives in Michigan, where she is working on her second novel, Beta.

Jim Leija, Martin Walsh, and Leigh Woods discuss Staging Ground: An American Theater and Its Ghosts with author Leslie Stainton.  The book is about one of America’s oldest and most ghosted theaters: the Fulton Theatre[...]

Reading by Madeline Strong Diehl, a local journalist (and Observer contributor) and editor who also writes essays, plays, fiction, and poetry, including the recent collection, Wrestling with Angels. Followed by a poetry and short fiction open mike.  

Emily Wilson is the author of The Keep, Micrographia, and The Great Medieval Yellows (forthcoming from Canarium Books in April 2015). She is the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts[...]