Michigan Author Speaker Series
The library frequently brings Michigan authors to campus to discuss and share their work with students. Below are some of the authors we have hosted.
Gordon Henry - Winter 2005
The author of the novel, The Light People, was nominated for a National Book Award in 1994 and won the American Book Award in 1995. Henry's poetry and fiction have been published in The Black Warrior Review, Mid-American Review, Stories Migrating Home, and North Dakota Quarterly, as well as in numerous other journals and anthologies.
Bonnie Jo Campbell - Fall 2005
Bonnie Jo has published several collections of short fiction, in addition to the novel, Q Road. Her collection, Women & Other Animals, won the Associated Writing Programs prize for short fiction. Bonnie Jo's most second short story collection, American Salvage, was a finalist for the National Book Award.
Michael Delp - Winter 2006
Michael Delp is the instructor of creative writing at Interlochen Center for the Arts and author of The Last Good Water, Prose and Poetry 1988-2005.
John Rybicki - Fall 2006
Rybicki is a poet who teaches creative writing to children in inner city Detroit. His first book of poems, Traveling at High Speeds, appeared in 1996, and his latest collection Yellow-Haired Girl with Spider, was published in 2002.
Steve Amick - Winter 2007
Amick is the author of The Lake, The River and The Other Lake, a novel published in May 2005 and named a Michigan Notable Book for 2006.
Rachael Perry - Fall 2007
A native of Michigan, Perry’s stories have appeared in Story Quarterly, River City, Hayden’s Ferry Review and South Dakota Review. She has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize.
Rodney Torreson - Winter 2008
Torreson is the author of three books of poetry, most recently A Breathable Light. His other full-length collection is The Ripening of Pinstripes: Called Shots on the New York Yankees, which was the runner-up for the Roerich Prize for first books. He also has published a chapbook, On a Moonstruck Gravel Road.
Fleda Brown - Fall 2008
Fleda Brown was the winner of the 2007 Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry and is a former poet laureate of Delaware.
Anne-Marie Oomen - Fall 2009
Ms. Oomen writes "stories of farm, fields and family." Her first non-fiction collection, Pulling Down the Barn, a Michigan Notable Book, explores rural culture. She has published several collections of poetry (Uncoded Woman, Seasons of the Sleeping Bear) and has written and produced several plays, including the award-winning Northern Belles. She serves as chair of Creative Writing at Interlochen Arts Academy.
Tom Springer - Winter 2010
Tom has written several works of non-fiction, including his latest, Looking for Hickories: The Forgotten Wildness of the Rural Midwest, a 2009 Michigan Notable Book. He served in the Michigan Army National Guard for 21 years, and holds a masters degree in Environmental Journalism. Springer is currently a senior editor for the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.
Patricia Farewell - Fall 2010
For 20 years, Patricia has been helping people of all ages write poems. Students in her workshops learn to use fresh imagery, surprising metaphors, and sound devices in their poems. Her poem "From the Lighthouse," which was awarded the 1996 John Joseph Memorial Award, is inscribed on bluestone benches at the base of a 90-foot lighthouse sculpture in Atlantic City. Ms. Farewell, and her husband, moved to Alma several years ago from Westchester, New York.
Lawrence LaFountain-Stokes - Winter 2011
Dr. LaFountain-Stokes is an Associate Professor of American Culture and Romance Languages & Literatures at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His areas of research include Latin American, Caribbean and US Latino/Latina Literature and Culture; Theater and Performance Studies; and Queer, Lesbian and Gay Studies. Larry's book Queer Ricans: Cultures and Sexualities in the Diaspora (University of Minnesota Press, 2009) discusses LGBT Puerto Rican migration. Larry has authored several works of fiction, as well as poetry and plays. He has written and performed in a one-man show Abolicion del Pato/Abolition of the Duck. His first book of short stories is called Unas pintadas de azul/Blue Fingernails (Bilungual Press/Editorial Bilingue, 2009).
