All Write in Sin City

Karen Dionne is the USA Today and #1 internationally bestselling author of the award-winning psychological suspense novel, The Marsh King’s Daughter. It was published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons. 

Karen has been active in the writing community for over twenty years. She co-founded the online writers community Backspace, organized the Backspace Writers Conferences in New York and the Bahamas, and served on the board of directors of the International Thriller Writers organization.

Originally from the Detroit area, Karen and her husband moved to ten acres in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula when they first married. They lived there for 30 years before moving back to Greater Detroit. She has described her previous book, The Marsh King’s Daughter, as a love letter to the Upper Peninsula. Her new book, The Wicked Sister, is also set there. She joins us to talk about the new book, launching on August 4th. 

https://www.karen-dionne.com/

Esperanza Cintrón is the author of three books of poetry: Visions of a Post-Apocalyptic Sunrise (Stockport Flats Press, 2014), the 2013 Naomi Long Madgett Award winner What Keeps Me Sane (Lotus Press, 2013) and Chocolate City Latina (Swank Press, 2005). Her poetry has been anthologized many times. She has been awarded a Michigan Council for the Arts Individual Artist Grant, the Metro Times Poetry Prize, Callaloo Creative Writing Fellowships at Oxford and Brown Universities and a National Endowment for the Humanities scholarship. A native Detroiter, she is co-founder of The Sisters of Color Writers Collective and creator of its literary journal Seeds for which she served as Editor until 2006. Cintrón holds a doctorate in English Literature and teaches writing, film and literature at Wayne County Community College. Her latest work is Shades: Detroit Love Stories, a collection of interconnected short stories published by Wayne State University Press.
https://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/shades

Dr. Heidi L.M. Jacobs was born and raised in Edmonton. A graduate of the University of Alberta, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Western University, she is currently the English and History Librarian at the University of Windsor. Those of you who are regular listeners may recall that we interviewed Jacobs last June, just after the release of her debut novel, Molly of the Mall: Literary Lass and Purveyor of Fine Footwear. Recently, Heidi L.M. Jacobs was announced as the winner of the 2020 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour for her novel. We’ve invited her to come back and celebrate with us. 

Find out more about the book here: https://newestpress.com/

Carlinda D’Alimonte grew up in Amherstburg and has lived in the Windsor area most of her life. She was Head of English at Walkerville Collegiate Institute, where she taught English and Creative Writing. Prior to her teaching career, she worked for CBC television in Windsor researching and writing for a current affairs program, and for the University of Windsor where she wrote and produced instructional and promotional works in a variety of media. D’Alimonte has been writing poetry since she was 13. Her poetry has appeared in several anthologies and in Contemporary Verse 2 and The Windsor Review. She is the author of three collections of poetry, Now That We Know Who We Are, Other Living Things, and Morning Song, and she contributed nine poems to the anthology Because We Have All Lived Here: Poems Along the South Shore.

Brian G. Gilmore was born and raised in Washington, D.C. He is the author of three previous collections of poetry, including We Didn’t Know Any Gangsters, a 2014 NAACP Image Award Nominee. He is both a Cave Canem Fellow and a Kimbilio Fellow, and he currently teaches social justice law at Michigan State University.

Brian joins us today to talk about his Michigan Notable Book of poetry, Come See About Me, Marvin from Wayne State University Press. In this latest collection, Brian imagines a dialogue between himself and Marvin Gaye, another black man from Washington D.C. who moved here to follow his career. The poems were written, in part, as a way of coping in a strange new land.

Check out the book here: https://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/come-see-about-me-marvin

Herb Colling has an abiding interest in, and respect for, local history. His first two books deal with the auto industry in Windsor. He cut his teeth in 1993 on Pioneering the Auto Age, about Windsor as an automotive capital of Canada, and went on to write 99 Days: The Ford Strike In Windsor, 1945, in 1995, and Turning Points: The Detroit Riot of 1967, a Canadian Perspective. His most recent book is Radio Transcriptions: Historical Vignettes of Essex County, which was edited for the Essex County Historical Society. He is a retired CBC radio Windsor broadcaster.
http://biblioasis.com/brand/colling-herb/

https://www.dundurn.com/books/Turning-Points

Dorothy Mahoney is the author of several poetry collections including, Off-Leash (Palimpsest Press, 2016). Her poetry has been included in numerous anthologies, most recently Heartwood, poems for the love of trees (The League of Canadian Poets, 2018). Her haibun, M PATHY, won an Honourable Mention in the Genjuan International Haibun Contest in Japan, 2017.  Dorothy is a former member of the Literary Arts Windsor board. She is a Hospice volunteer in Windsor.

You can find out more about her new book at palimpsestpress.ca.

The Windsor Review has been in publication for half a century, an important accomplishment for a Canadian literary journal. André Narbonne is a lecturer in English literature and an award-winning poet and fiction writer. He is the fiction editor of the Windsor Review and oversaw the publication of the 50th anniversary issue as the general editor. Marty Gervais is a publisher, poet, developer of the Publishing Practicum course at the University of Windsor, and Poet Laureate Emeritus of the City of Windsor. He is was a long-time editor for the Windsor Review. Join us for a remarkable conversation about the establishment and development of a unique, cosmopolitan writing community and culture. The 50th anniversary edition of the review can be found online:
https://ojs.uwindsor.ca/index.php/windsor_review

Aimée Parent Dunn is the publisher of Palimpsest Press, a local independent literary press. Aimée has a degree in English Literature and Language from the University of Windsor and a graduate certificate in Publishing from Ryerson University. She has over 15 years of experience editing fiction and is the literary fiction editor at Palimpsest. She is on the board for Literary Arts Windsor and the programming committee for BookFest Windsor. She lives in Windsor with her husband and two children. Her pronouns are she/her.

In 2012, she became a publishing assistant at Palimpsest Press, which had been founded by Dawn Kresan in 2000. Just over a year later, with the support of her husband Shaun Dunn, she bought the press and became its publisher. Palimpsest Press publishes beautifully designed books of poetry, fiction, and literary non-fiction. A palimpsest, by the way, is a piece of writing material manuscript on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for other writing. Palimpsest Press celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

https://palimpsestpress.ca/

Rebecca Ledingham-Gbadebo grew up in Windsor, Ontario, and attended the University of Windsor. She has been an elementary school teacher since 1995 and a member of Most Precious Blood Catholic Church in Windsor since 1983. She’s also been an avid volunteer around Windsor through the years, committed to causes that benefit children and youth.  Rebecca’s new book, published by Cranberry Tree Press, is Movin’ On: Life after the Diagnosis. Rebecca’s epilogue includes these words: “A passion to write has been ignited to help others who are facing challenges. This isn’t only a story about multiple sclerosis: it’s about life.”

For more information on the book, email: [email protected]