Marygrove to host Detroit fiction evening

The Marygrove College Institute for Detroit Studies and English and Modern Languages Department present a Defining Detroit event:

An Evening of Recent Detroit Fiction
a reading and book signing,
featuring Peter Markus, Susan Messer, and Michael Zadoorian 

Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 7:00 PM
Marygrove College
8425 West McNichols, Detroit
Alumnae Hall, Madame Cadillac Building

Free and open to the public

Peter Markus has written two books of short stories,
Good, Brother (2005) and The Singing Fish (2006)
and a novel, Bob, or Man on Boat (2008).
“Peter Markus’ gorgeously spare, riverine fables of brotherly sweetness and violence are hypnotic, haunting, and sublime.”—Gary Lutz

Novelist and short-story writer Susan Messer is
the author of Grand River and Joy (2009)
“With unsparing candor, Susan Messer thrusts us into a time when racial tensions sundered friends and neighbors and turned families upside down. The confrontations in Grand River and Joy are complex, challenging, and . . . spot-on accurate.” —Rosellen Brown

Michael Zadoorian is the author of two novels, Second Hand (2000)
and The Leisure Seeker (2009) and one book of short stories,
The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit (2009).
“Zadoorian’s pace [in The Leisure Seeker] is deceptive, it’s restful. But unexpected scenes jump out at you. Come to the end and you’ll say, ‘Oh my God!’” —Elmore Leonard

Leonard Pitts Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation:  Leonard Pitts Jr., Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, will be the featured speaker Friday January 15, 2010 at 10 AM at Oakland Community College Orchard Ridge Campus’ Smith Theatre , 27055 Orchard Lake Road, Farmington Hills.  Admission is free.  For more information: http://www.oaklandcc.edu/Posters/MLKDayConvocation.pdf

Before I Forget Book Discussions:  Throughout the month of February 2010, the Detroit Public Library will be hosting free and open to the public book discussion opportunities of Leonard Pitts Jr.’s book Before I Forget.  For dates, times, and locations, click here: http://www.detroitpubliclibrary.org/events/beforeiforget.htm.

From Mocha to Latte

A new exhibit, free with museum admission, is opening at the Arab American National Museum on January 28th.  “From Mocha to Latte: Coffee, the Arab World, and the $4 cup” will be featured in the lower gallery from January 28 – August 15, 2010.  The public is invited to a free opening reception at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, January 28, 2010 in the AANM’s dramatic Community Courtyard, featuring complimentary Arabic coffee and sweets, sponsored by Hashem Roastery of Dearborn.   See http://www.arabamericanmuseum.org/frommochatolatte for more information.

BookTV premiere this Sunday

Sunday, January 10, 2010 at 5:15 p.m. tune in C-SPAN2’s Book TV to see the premiere of Alia Malek’s talk on her book A Country Called Amreeka taped in December at the Arab American National Museum’s Library & Resource Center.

U.S. Census History at DPL

The History of the United States Census

Wednesday, January 13, 2009
6:00 –7:30 PM

Explorers Room of the Detroit Public Library
5201 Woodward, north of Warren in Midtown Detroit

Learn about the history of the U.S. Census and how you can use this valuable data.
This is the first in a three part series. Free and open to the public.
Information at 313-833-1440
http://www.detroitpubliclibrary.org/