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State of the Book Presenter: Gerry LaFemina

by The Editors

Editor’s Note: For the past two weeks we’ve been posting micro-portraits and/or interesting news about this year’s 2013 presenters at The State of the Book Literary Symposium, which will take place in Ann Arbor TODAY, September 28, in Rackham Auditorium. All events are free and open to the public. For a complete schedule or list of presenters, please check out the State of the Book Website. Thank you! Gerry LaFemina is the author of eleven books of poems, prose poems, and fiction, including 2011’s Vanishing Horizon (poems) and this year’s Notes for the Novice Ventriloquist (prose poems). Clamor, a novel, […]


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2013 State of the Book Presenter: Anne-Marie Oomen

by The Editors

Editor’s Note: For the past two weeks we’ve been posting micro-portraits and/or interesting news about this year’s 2013 presenters at The State of the Book Literary Symposium, which will take place in Ann Arbor TOMORROW, September 28, in Rackham Auditorium. All events are free and open to the public. For a complete schedule or list of presenters, please check out the State of the Book Website. Thank you! Anne-Marie Oomen is the author of two memoirs, Pulling Down the Barn and House of Fields, both Michigan Notable Books; An American Map: Essays  (Wayne State University Press); and a full-length collection of […]


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2013 State of the Book Presenter: Steve Hamilton

by The Editors

Steve Hamilton is a brightly decorated mystery novelist from Detroit. He is the creator of protagonist Alex McKnight, a Detroit-born detective who solves crimes in Michigan’s rugged Upper Peninsula. In a recent interview with Aunt Agatha‘s, an independent bookstore in Ann Arbor, Hamilton dismantles common misconceptions about the process of writing mystery and the genre of crime fiction. Mystery is widely perceived as a plot-centered genre. One would think that crime fiction authors would be skilled at, and consumed with, the process of plotting, planning, outlining and calculating. However, Hamilton’s writing process is more spontaneous and intuitive. He confesses: Honestly, […]


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State of the Book Presenter: Ariel Djanikian

by The Editors

Editor’s Note: All this week we’ll continue posting micro-portraits and/or interesting news about this year’s 2013 presenters at The State of the Book Literary Symposium, which will take place in Ann Arbor on Saturday, September 28, in Rackham Auditorium. All events are free and open to the public. For a complete schedule or list of presenters, please check out the State of the Book Website. Thank you! Ariel Djanikian’s debut novel, The Office of Mercy, was published this February by Viking. Djanikian holds an MFA degree from the University of Michigan and is the recipient of a Fulbright grant. She’s […]


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2013 State of the Book Presenter: Bill Harris

by The Editors

Editor’s Note: All this week we’ll continue posting micro-portraits and/or interesting news about this year’s 2013 presenters at The State of the Book Literary Symposium, which will take place in Ann Arbor on Saturday, September 28, in Rackham Auditorium. All events are free and open to the public. For a complete schedule or list of presenters, please check out the State of the Book Website. Thank you! In 2011, the Kresge Foundation presented writer Bill Harris with their Eminent Artist Award. Kresge called Harris a “magic-maker and a man of letters in the truest sense.” The award itself recognizes “a […]


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Book of the Week: Men We Reaped, by Jesmyn Ward

by The Editors

This week’s feature is Jesmyn Ward’s new memoir, Men We Reaped, which was published this week by Bloomsbury. Ward is also the author of the National Book Award winning novel Salvage the Bones (Bloomsbury, 2011) and the novel Where the Line Bleeds (Agate, 2008), which was an Essence Magazine Book Club selection, a Black Caucus of the ALA Honor Award recipient, and a finalist for both the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Ward received her MFA from the University of Michigan in 2005, was a Stegner Fellow from 2008-2010, and served as the 2010-2011 John […]


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2013 State of the Book Presenter: Robert James Russell

by The Editors

Editor’s Note: All this week we’ll continue posting micro-portraits and/or interesting news about this year’s 2013 presenters at The State of the Book Literary Symposium, which will take place in Ann Arbor on Saturday, September 28, in Rackham Auditorium. All events are free and open to the public. For a complete schedule or list of presenters, please check out the State of the Book Website. Thank you! Lit-man Robert James Russell comes to us as the co-founding editor of the literary journal Midwestern Gothic and author of Pushcart Prize nominated Sea of Trees (Winter Goose Publishing, 2012). On September 28 […]


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2013 Great Write Off Begins!

by The Editors

Dear Friends, We’re excited to announce that the 2013 Great Write Off is underway! For the next week (9/23 – 9/30) we’ll be participating in our second annual write-a-thon fundraiser, in collaboration with four other literary non-profits: 826michigan, Dzanc Books, the National Writers Series, and the Neutral Zone. Last year FWR and its partner organizations raised nearly $30,000 during our inaugural fundraiser to support the work these literary non-profit organizations do to help nurture the next generation of writers. And we hope to exceed those number this year! Last year the money we raised from the Great Write Off allowed us to […]


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2013 State of the Book Keynote Speaker: Carolyn Forché

by The Editors

Editor’s Note: All this week we’ll continue posting micro-portraits and/or interesting news about this year’s 2013 presenters at The State of the Book Literary Symposium, which will take place in Ann Arbor on Saturday, September 28, in Rackham Auditorium. All events are free and open to the public. For a complete schedule or list of presenters, please check out the State of the Book Website. Thank you! We’re honored to have poet of witness, teacher, social justice activist, and Detroit native Carolyn Forché as this year’s State of the Book keynote presenter. Forché is best known for engaging with explicit […]




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