Believing as we do that Michigan is a state where literature matters, we’d love to invite you, wherever you are, to visit our fine state this month to celebrate the written word. Fiction Writers Review and the University of Michigan MFA program are hosting a day-long symposium, called The State of the Book, and drawing a crowd of writers and readers from around the world to talk books in Ann Arbor.
Just a few things to look forward to at this year’s event:
- Dave Eggers will present a new Omnibus anthology and host the 2012 Best American Nonrequired Reading Anthology world release and conversation, both publications from his national literacy organization 826Valencia‘s Michigan location.
- Visit the all-day book fair, where literary powerhouses such as the following will be in force: Fiction Writers Review, 826michigan, The National Writers Series, Dzanc Books, the Neutral Zone, Red Beard Press, InsideOut Literary Arts Project, Hobart, [PANK], Wayne State University Press, Absinthe, Michigan Quarterly Review, Canarium, The University of Michigan Press, Zingerman’s Press, Xylem, Fortnight, and Unsaid.
- Learn about innovative publishing, literary journalism, and first books, during presentations from world-class writers like Jeremiah Chamberlin, Matt Bell, Carlina Duan, Jane Hoehner, M. Bartley Seigel, Eileen Pollack, V.V. (Sugi) Ganeshananthan, Donovan Hohn, Michael Paterniti, Doug Stanton, Natalie Bakopoulos, Benjamin Busch, Angel Nafis, and Jay Baron Nicorvo.
- And conclude the evening with award-winning writer Charles Baxter and United States Poet Laureate Philip Levine’s on-stage keynote conversation.
Free and open to the book-loving public. We promise you that The State of the Book will be worth the drive, the walk, the train ride of any distance.
On October 6, 2012, please come to the Rackham Auditorium (also headquarters of Michigan Quarterly Review) to see what all the fuss is about.
And join the Great Write-Off here, especially if you can’t make the trip around the world this time, but would like to write–or donate–as a part of our celebration.