Emerging Writer's Workshop: Writing Fast and Slow

Writing a book involves two distinct activities: drafting and editing. But when is the right time to do each one? Should you finish a complete draft before revising, or edit as you go? In this workshop, authors Alex Kourvo and Bethany Neal will show you the best way to get a rough draft done, the easy way to edit it, and how to get out of your own way to get that book finished.

This is part of the monthly Emerging Writer’s Workshops, which offer support, learning, and advice for local authors. Each month, two weeks after the workshop (this month on Thursday, November 17 at 7 p.m.), there is Meet-Up where the instructors will read samples of your work and offer advice and assistance in a casual, supportive atmosphere. Do you have a completed manuscript? Bring your work to one of the Meet-Ups to be considered for the library’s new imprint, Fifth Avenue Press.

Emerging Writer's Workshop: How to Deepen Your Fiction

We read stories to find out what happens next, but we also read for the deep meaning that only written fiction can provide. In this workshop, authors Alex Kourvo and Bethany Neal will show you why theme matters, what subtext and symbolism can do for your story, and why character change is a vital part of making novels work.

This is part of the monthly Emerging Writer’s Workshops, which offer support, learning, and advice for local authors. Each month, two weeks after the workshop, there is a Meet-up where the instructors will read samples of your work and offer advice and assistance in a casual, supportive atmosphere.

Do you have a completed manuscript? Bring your work to one of the Meet-ups to be in consideration for the library’s new imprint Fifth Avenue Press.

Emerging Writer's Workshop: Where Does My Book Fit on the Shelf?

Can you describe your book in one sentence? Do you know what kind of book it is? How does it compare to others of its genre?

In this workshop, Bethany Neal and Alex Kourvo will show you how to figure out exactly where your novel or non-fiction book belongs on the shelf, and why knowing your book’s place is crucial to its success.

This is part of the monthly Emerging Writer’s Workshops, which offer support, learning, and advice for local authors. Each month, two weeks after the workshop, there is a Meet-Up where the instructors will read samples of your work and offer advice and assistance in a casual, supportive atmosphere.

Do you have a completed manuscript? Bring your work to one of the Meet-Ups to be in consideration for the library’s new imprint Fifth Avenue Press fifthavenue.press.

Emerging Writer's Workshop: Writing Your Novel One Scene at a Time

Novels are made up of scenes, but how many should there be, and what should each one include? In this workshop, Bethany Neal and Alex Kourvo will show you why some scenes work and some don’t, which scenes your story must have, and how to write scenes that grip the reader while furthering the story.

This is part of the monthly Emerging Writer’s Workshops, which offer support, learning, and advice for local authors. Each month, two weeks after the workshop, there is a meet-up where the instructors will read samples of your work and offer advice and assistance in a casual, supportive atmosphere.

Do you have a completed manuscript? Bring your work to one of the Meet-Ups to be in consideration for the library’s new imprint, fifthavenue.press.

Emerging Writer's Workshop: Go Big on the Bookshelf

Books often start as small ideas, but they shouldn’t stay that way. In this workshop, Alex Kourvo and Bethany Neal will show you how to expand your original idea into a compelling novel or non-fiction book by adding a unique hook, subplots, and high stakes to take your book from original idea to complete story.

This is part of the monthly Emerging Writer’s Workshops, which offer support, learning, and advice for local authors.

Each month, two weeks after the workshop, there is a Meet-Up where the instructors will read samples of your work and offer advice and assistance in a casual, supportive atmosphere.

Do you have a completed manuscript? Bring your work to one of the Meet-Ups to be in consideration for the library’s new imprint Fifth Avenue Press fifthavenue.press.

Emerging Writer's Workshop: Social Media for Writers

The world is more connected than ever. With socializing and marketing now done largely online, writers need to be there, too. In this workshop, Bethany Neal and Alex Kourvo will show you how to make the most of blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media to learn new things, network with fellow writers, and most importantly, help your readers find you.

This is part of the monthly Emerging Writer’s Workshops, which offer support, learning, and advice for local authors.

Each month, two weeks after the workshop, there is a Meet-Up where the instructors will read samples of your work and offer advice and assistance in a casual, supportive atmosphere. Do you have a completed manuscript? Bring your work to one of the Meet-Ups to be in consideration for the library’s new imprint Fifth Avenue Press fifthavenue.press.

Women's History Month Event: Great Girls in Michigan History

A dancer, a pilot, a writer, and an Ann Arbor wrestler—these are among the girls you'll meet when author Patricia Majher leads this fascinating look at famous women, Michigan, and her new book, Great Girls in Michigan History.

The easy-to-read short biographies in her book, named a 2016 Michigan Notable Book, uncover the stories of 20 girls from Michigan’s past who did amazing things before they turned 20 years old. From lesser-known leaders and writers to more well-known figures, the girls in her book come from a variety of personal backgrounds and interests, locations across the state, and historical time periods.

Patricia Majher is the editor of Michigan History magazine (published by the Historical Society of Michigan) and the author of Ladies of the Lights: Michigan Women in the U.S. Lighthouse Service.

Do not miss this look at Michigan's past through the lens of its most famous women! A book signing will follow and books will be for sale.

Leni Sinclair, 2016 Kresge Eminent Artist

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Congratulations to Leni Sinclair, recently named the 2016 Kresge Eminent Artist!

AADL was privileged to work with Leni on the events and website surrounding the 40th anniversary of the John Sinclair Freedom Rally in 2011. You'll find several of Leni's photographs relating to the Rally and her years in Ann Arbor on AADL's Freeing John Sinclair site. Here you can also listen to an interview with Leni in which she recalls the origins of the Detroit Artists Workshop and their strategic retreat to Ann Arbor following the Detroit Riots, or a joint video interview with John Sinclair on their memories of the 1971 Rally. Read Leni's essay about her life in Ann Arbor's Hill House commune, or check out her work in Detroit Rocks (2012), co-authored with Gary Grimshaw.

Fabulous Fiction Firsts #571 (and truly a small gem)

As I was getting ready my Small Gems blog for this December, my copy of Anna and the Swallow Man * * arrived on my doorstep, and my choice is obvious. "I have never read anything quite like this book", wrote the reviewer for The Guardian, and neither have I.

"When Anna Lania woke on the morning of the sixth of November in the year 1939 - her seventh - there was several things that she did not know", one of them being her father, a Linguistics professor at the Jagiellonian University, would never return, having been rounded up by the Gestapos in Occupied Poland.

Turned out by a fearful family friend, hungry and cold, Anna met a tall and exceedingly thin man who not only shared Anna's command of languages, but he could also speak to the birds, and seemed to have more than a little magic up his sleeves. As the pair wandered the countryside together for years, they dodged bombs, tame soldiers, and in the process, the Swallow Man taught Anna lessons of survival while remaining an enigma until the end.

"Subtly crafted with an intelligent structure and beautiful language, this was a compelling and thought-provoking read." "Artful, original, insightful." Marketed as Teen fiction, Anna will nevertheless appeal to readers of any age.

A readalike for The Book Thief, it too, is "a story about growing up during a time of monumental changes. It reveals life's hardest lesson while celebrating its miraculous possibilities."

Debut novelist Gavriel Savit holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he grew up. An an actor and singer, he lives in Brooklyn.

* * = 2 starred reviews

Fabulous Fiction Firsts #564

Gold Fame Citrus * * *, the debut novel by UM Assistant Professor Claire Vaye Watkins is truly worth the wait. (No doubt, my eager anticipation is due in part, to the New York Times book review by Emily St. John Mandel).

Set in the near future, when extreme drought and water shortage laid waste to much of the western states, Los Angeles is not longer the land of gold, fame and citrus. With mass exodus to lusher regions, only a few hardy souls remain. Luz, a 25-year old former model and her boyfriend Ray, whose survival skills are keeping them alive, are holed up in the abandoned mansion of a Hollywood starlet. But when they take in a very strange little girl, they realize that it's time to seek a safer place.

Danger lurks as they head east - sinkholes, patrolling authorities, bandits and the brutal sun. Seeking refuge in a rumored desert commune, Luz comes under the sway of the charismatic leader of an outpost in the desert, threatening the bond of their make-shift family.

"Immensely moving, profoundly disquieting, and mind-blowingly original, Watkins’s novel explores the myths we believe about others and tell about ourselves, the double-edged power of our most cherished relationships, and the shape of hope in a precarious future that may be our own."

Readers might want to check out Claire Vaye Watkins’s multiple-awards winning story collection, Battleborn, among them, the National Book Foundation “5 Under 35”, and the Story Prize.

This debut novel would likely remind readers of Swamplandia! by Karen Russell; Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel; and The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

* * * = 3 starred reviews