Writing & Publishing
Writing Workshop with Sara Ryan, queer author of YA novels and comics!
Monday June 23, 2014: 7:00pm to
8:30pm
Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room
Teens In Grades 6-12 And Adults
Writing & Publishing
Midwestern Gothic Reading
Saturday June 14, 2014: 2:00pm to
3:00pm
Downtown Library: 4th Floor Meeting Room
Public Event
A Visit From Chillers Author Johnathan Rand
Sunday October 26, 2014: 2:00pm to
3:00pm
Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room
Grades 2 - 5
Public Event
Smell and Tell Series: Cooking with Flavor!
Wednesday June 11, 2014: 6:30pm to
8:45pm
Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room
Teens (Grades 6-12) And Adults.
Public Event
Local Music: Rebel Kind
Thursday June 26, 2014: 7:00pm to
8:00pm
Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room
Grades 6 - Adult.
Blog Post
Available for Download through AADL: Books by Local Author Tristan Gregory
by SaraP
All four titles in The Wandering Tale series by local author Tristan Gregory are now available for download from the catalog! Satisfy an appetite for adventure (think swords, knights, and damsels and distress) with these little gems. Tight schedule? No worries - read a novella in one sitting!
If you're looking for something a little meatier, try Gregory's epic fantasy novel Twixt Heaven and Hell, where one wizard who dreams of peace will clash with a power-hungry warlord in control of sorcerers and demons in a battle to save his precious land and people. Full of magic, action, and plenty of atmospheric suspense - fantasy fans won't want to miss this one!
To download a book, click on one of the links below, then click on the book cover image underneath "Download This Item". Easy!! (If you aren't logged into your AADL account, you'll be prompted to do so - still pretty easy).
The Swordsman of Carn Nebeth (Wandering Tale 1)
The Three Fingers of Death (Wandering Tale 2)
The Giant of Tidesmouth (Wandering Tale 3)
The Crown Unconquered (Wandering Tale 4)
Le Morte d'Arthur (a short story to whet your appetite)
Blog Post
Now Available Through AADL: Downloadable Issues of Midwestern Gothic
by mariah
Literary journals can be a marvelous way to discover work by writers you might not already be familiar with — a gateway to some of the most interesting new writing. Midwestern Gothic is "a quarterly print literary journal out of Ann Arbor, Michigan, dedicated to featuring work about or inspired by the Midwest, by writers who live or have lived here."
Is this limiting? The breadth of work collected in Midwestern Gothic — issue after issue — proves that it's not.
The journal, now on its twelfth release, "aims to collect the very best in Midwestern fiction writing in a way that has never been done before, cataloging the oeuvre of an often-overlooked region of the United States ripe with its own mythologies and tall tales." An August interview with AnnArbor.com gives more insight into the journal's background and its founders, Robert James Russell and Jeff Pfaller.
We're happy to report that now you can read every issue of Midwestern Gothic by downloading them directly from AADL's website! A dozen issues are currently in our catalog, and new issues will be added upon release.
If you like what you read in Midwestern Gothic, their MG Press imprint will be celebrating the release of the novel Above All Men with an event at Literati Bookstore on Monday, Feb 17 at 7pm.
Blog Post
Learn about The Polar Express' Michigan Roots
by prlhw
How many of you knew that the classic picture book, The Polar Express, has Michigan roots? The book itself is based in Grand Rapids, which is where the author, Chris Van Allsburg, is from! The story starts out with a young boy who is feeling a bit sad because he’s not so sure anymore that Santa Claus is real. As he lies in bed on Christmas eve, waiting hopefully for the sound of Santa, he instead hears the sound of a locamotive! He hops out of bed and runs outside, only to find a gigantic train waiting for him, filled with other young children. Together, they set off on a Christmas eve adventure to the North Pole.
The Polar Express was also adapted into a film back in 2004, starring Tom Hanks. Did you know that the film, too, has Michigan connections? NPR recently did a story on the locamotive that the film makers used for direct inspiration. When making the movie, the film crew traveled all the way out to little Owosso, Michigan, in order to capture the magic that is the 400 ton Pere Marquette 1225!
“Finally, the train arrives: 16 feet tall, puffing huge blasts of steam. The smell of burning coal fills the air, and the ground literally shakes.”
Do you love The Polar Express? Click through the links in this blog post to place requests on the original book, DVD, or Blu-ray. In fact, if you or your little one are interested in some festive decorating during this holiday season, the AADL even has a Polar Express art print that you can check out and hang up on your walls at home!
Blog Post
Meet Jo Anne Normile, Author of "Saving Baby"! 11/13 at 7 PM
by krayla
Whether you're interested in racing, animal rescue, or horses, be sure to stop by AADL's author event featuring Jo Anne Normile! She will tell us about her new book, "Saving Baby," the true story of a beloved foal and the surprising discoveries to be found in Michigan horse racing. She will also share her inspiring story of how she has worked tirelessly to save the lives of thousands of horses.
We hope to see you there! The event is on Wednesday, November 13 at 7pm in the Downtown Multi-purpose Room.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #422 - Spotlight on Ann Arbor Authors (with news flash!)
by muffy
Words failed me in describing Matt Bell's In the House Upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods *. It disturbs my dreams and shows up at unguarded moments. I now see why Keith Taylor recommended it as a "must-read" this summer. (Listen to the podcast and check out the feature in Publishers Weekly).
By turn called "charmingly bizarre and disturbing ", "spare, devastating", "dark, intriguingly odd fable", it tells how a newly-wed couple relocates to a remote and desolate homestead along a lake - to live simply off the land and water, to build a house and raise a family. With each failed pregnancy, they grow more distant - the child-obsessed husband begins to rage at this new world and resent the wife whose beautiful voice could sing physical objects into existence and altering nature's course. As grief divides them, they must also separately grapple with the bear who rules their woods and the squid who dwells in their lake. A story that is "as beautiful as it is ruinous,... A tragedy of fantastic proportions".
"Bell finds whimsy in despair and reality in the absurd in this absorbingly virtuosic near fairy tale about marital struggle and personal reclamation. The result is a novel of catastrophic beauty and staggering originality. "
Formerly of Ann Arbor (a senior editor at Dzanc Books), currently an assistant professor in the English department at Northern Michigan University, Bell will be one of the speakers at this year's Kerrytown BookFest on Sunday, September 8th.
Signing at the BookFest will be local author Shirley G. Coleman, for her debut novel Mersoon Rising which the Michigan Chronicle review called a "sociopolitical space opera", that chronicles the lives and loves of the Jymirr race during an epic battle for the fate of a planet and an entire solar system.
Check out the feature story in the September 4th issue of the Ann Arbor Journal on Ms. Coleman, and Mersoon being the first title published by Plenary's Wild Seed Press imprint, which honors the late Octavia Butler, and is dedicated to publishing black American authors.
Click here for the BookFest event schedule.
* = starred review