19560 Grand River Ave
Detroit, MI 48223
USA
Join us for the February edition of the East Side Reading Series! Writers in various genres will come together to read their original work, tied with this event’s theme of “devotion.”
The Line Up:
Desiree Cooper is a former attorney, Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist and Detroit community activist. Her collection of flash fiction, Know the Mother (Wayne State University Press, 2016), dives unflinchingly into the intersection of racism and sexism through intimate storytelling. It was named a 2017 Michigan Notable Book. A 2015 Kresge Artist Fellow, Cooper’s fiction and poetry have appeared in Callaloo, Detroit Noir, Best African American Fiction 2010 and Tidal Basin Review, among other online and print publications. Cooper was a founding board member of Cave Canem, a national residency for emerging black poets. She is currently a Kimbilio Fellow, a national residency for African American fiction writers.http://www.descooper.com/
Karen Simpson resides in Ann Arbor Michigan. Writing, quilting, and
history are her passions. She holds an M.S. in Historic Preservation
from Eastern Michigan University and much of her artistic life has been dedicated to helping museums and other historical institutions deal with issues of racial and cultural diversity. The subjects and themes for her fiction are often taken from the stories she discovers while doing research. Her novel, Act of Grace, has won several awards including Best New Author by The Go On Girl! Book Club, a nationally recognized organization that supports African American authors.
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. www.kellyfordon.com
Kim Fairley is a writer, historian, athlete, and artist who recently completed a memoir about her childhood in Cincinnati and her experience as a competitive swimmer. Its working title is “Swimming for My Life.” The oldest of five kids, Kim has been the family genealogist since the age of thirteen. She is the author of a book about her great grandfather titled, “Boreal Ties: Photographs and Two Diaries of the 1901 Peary Relief Expedition,” published by the University of New Mexico Press.She has a BFA from the University of Southern California, an MFA from the University of Michigan, is a member of the Chicago Dramatists and the Ann Arbor Area Writers, and is a contributor to The Moth Story Slams. When she’s not swimming, dancing, or dog-walking, she can be found almost anywhere with her laptop, a camera, and a cup of strong coffee. http://kimfairley.com/
Linda K. Sienkiewicz was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. Her poetry, short stories and art are well published in literary journals such as Prairie Schooner, Clackamas Literary Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, Permafrost, Calyx, Twist of Noir and others. She has several poetry chapbooks, a poetry chapbook award from Heartlands Today and a Pushcart Prize nomination. Her debut novel, In the Context of Love, has three finalist awards, most notably the Eric Hoffer Book Award, and an honorable mention. Her MFA is from the University of Southern Maine. http://lindaksienkiewicz.com/
Terry Blackhawk, Founder and Executive Director Emerita of InsideOut Literary Arts Project (iO), is the author of seven poetry collections including Escape Artist, winner of the John Ciardi Prize, The Light Between, and two other full-length volumes as well as three chapbooks. She is co-editor with Peter Markus of To Light a Fire: Twenty Years with the InsideOut Literary Arts Project, a collection of essays by iO poets-in- residence. Blackhawk has received the Michigan Governors’ Award for Arts Education as well as fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Michigan Council for the Arts. She has won the Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize from Nimrod International and is a Kresge Arts in Detroit Literary Fellow. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies and on line at Poetry Daily, Solstice, Verse Daily, and The Collagist. Blackhawk’s most recent poetry title is The Whisk & Whir of Wings (Ridgeway Press 2015), a chapbook of collected poems about birds. http://terrymblackhawk.com/
Bookseller support provided by Pages Bookshop.
