Bøger i Made in Michigan Writers Series serien

In I Want to Be Once, M. L. Liebler approaches current events with a journalistic eye and a poet's response. Part autobiographical, part commentary, the lines of Liebler's poems come hard-hitting, but not without moments of great tenderness and humanity. Ordered into three sections, I Want To Be Once provides readers with a look into the author's personal life, as well as our collective history as a nation vis-vis the American media. The first section, called "e;American Life,"e; captures the experience of coming of age in working-class 1960s America and helps to paint the picture of Liebler's early political involvement. The poems in the second section, "e;American War,"e; focus on the author's cultural work in Afghanistan for the U.S. State Department; Liebler successfully captures the sad realities and fleeting stability of everyday life in Kabul, Jalalabad, and Kandahar. In the final section, "e;American Psalms,"e; the short, satirical poems muse on present-day American society, culture, and the arts. In these poems, Liebler remarks on everything from public education to public radio to Russia's feminist punk rock protest group Pussy Riot and more. The poems in I Want to Be Once are emotionally grounding but punctuated with a humor that keeps things in perspective. Readers with an interest in poetry and social commentary will be drawn to this engaging collection.

While a mother can be defined as a creator, a nurturer, a protector-at the center of each mother is an individual who is attempting to manage her own fears, desires, and responsibilities in different and sometimes unexpected ways. In Know the Mother, author Desiree Cooper explores the complex archetype of the mother in all of her incarnations. In a collage of meditative stories, women-both black and white-find themselves wedged between their own yearnings and their roles as daughters, sisters, grandmothers, and wives. In this heart-wrenching collection, Cooper reveals that gender and race are often unanticipated interlopers in family life. An anxious mother reflects on her prenatal fantasies of suicide while waiting for her daughter to come home late one night. A lawyer miscarries during a conference call and must proceed as though nothing has happened. On a rare night out with her husband, a new mother tries convincing herself that everything is still the same. A politician's wife's thoughts turn to slavery as she contemplates her own escape: "e;Even Harriet Tubman had realized that freedom wasn't worth the price of abandoning her family, so she'd come back home. She'd risked it all for love."e; With her lyrical and carefully crafted prose, Cooper's stories provide truths without sermon and invite empathy without sentimentality. Know the Mother explores the intersection of race and gender in vignettes that pull you in and then are gone in an instant. Readers of short fiction will appreciate this deeply felt collection.

Beautifully-crafted prose from one of Michigan's most original voices.

Idealistic characters fight to hold onto a life that is slipping out of their grasp.

The poems in Russell Thorburn's Somewhere We'll Leave the World are fluid and masterful with a flow that captures an authentic consciousness. These poems breathe and allow the reader breathing room. Powerful images and deft endings arrive like the best kind of emotional left hook - the kind that leaves you wanting more.

A personal narrative of past and present racial violence and resistance to terror in the United States. A perfect blending of prose, poetry, and images, The Forgetting Tree is a unique and thought-provoking collection that argues for a deeper understanding of past and present so that we might imagine a more hopeful, sustainable, and loving future.

A modern-day fairy tale told in conversation between a young girl and the mermaid of Lake Michigan. This is a new tale that feels familiar. The breeze off the lake, the sand underfoot, the supreme sadness of being young and not in control - these sensations come rushing back page by page, bringing to life an ancient myth of coming of age in a troubled world.

Dystopic fairy tales told through the lens of media and capitalism run amok.

Offers surreal stories highlighting the struggle of carving out a home for one's self. Steve Hughes wrote Stiff with an audience in mind. As creator of The Good Tyme Writers Buffet - a literary series/potluck which runs out of a neighbourhood art space - Hughes offers up each story in the collection like a dish to be passed.

Presents new creative nonfiction by some of Michigan's most well-known and highly acclaimed authors. A celebration of the elements, this collection is both the storm and the shelter. The essays approach Michigan at the atomic level. This is a place where weather patterns and ecology matter.

Not long after stumbling into Mason County, Natalie Ruth Joynton finds herself the owner of four acres, a big red barn, and a white farmhouse set among the picturesque rolling hills of Northern Michigan. But there's a catch. Right in her front lawn stands a life-size tribute to the Old West-specifically, Dodge City, Kansas.