All Write in Sin City

Jeff Kass is a 23-year teaching veteran of Pioneer High School. His book, Teacher/Pizza Guy chronicles Kass’s experiences working as a full-time English teacher, a part-time teen literary arts director, and a part-time pizza delivery driver during the 2016-17 school year. The book travels back and forth between Kass’ experiences in the classroom and the pizza shop. 

His poetry addresses some of the challenges and crazy events that happen in school and service industry jobs, aging, and his relationships with his colleagues at both jobs and his students. The book, published by Wayne State University Press, has been selected by the Library of Michigan as one of 20 Michigan Notable Books for 2020.

https://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/teacherpizza-guy

All Write in Sin City Short: https://youtu.be/Y1MLspffW5g

Born in Somalia, Fartumo Kusow immigrated to Canada in 1991, at the start of the civil war. After arriving in Canada with fluency in Somali and Arabic but with no knowledge of English, she went on to earn an Honours B.A. in English Language and Literature and a Bachelor of Education from the University of Windsor. She is now a high school English teacher for the Greater Essex County District School Board. Her first novel, Amran, was published in 1984 in Somalia. Her second novel, Tale of a Boon’s Wife, was published in 2017 by Second Story Press, and is her debut novel in English. Set in the fifteen-year period before Somalia’s civil war, Tale of a Boon’s Wife focuses on a young Somali woman whose decision to marry the man she loves, in defiance of tradition and her family’s wishes, transforms her life in very difficult ways. The novel has received positive reviews. Fartumo Kusow is a mother of five and lives in Windsor, Ontario.

https://secondstorypress.ca/adult/tale-of-a-boons-wife

Check out the short version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/O3AiWTNKoH8

Laurie Smith is a graduate of the Creative Writing program (M.A.) from the University of Windsor.  She has been publishing for over thirty years, as well as editing the work of others and facilitating workshops. She is co-publisher/editor of Cranberry Tree Press in Windsor. Laurie’s work has appeared in many publications across Canada and in the U.S. Collections include menagerie, The Truth about Roller Skating, smack in the middle of spotlit obvious, and Said the Cannibal with Urban Farmhouse Press. In addition, she recently edited By the River – a literary anthology featuring Windsor writers. She has earned several writing prizes. She is a two-time winner of the Mayor’s Award of Excellence in the Arts for literary endeavors and presence in the community. She is working on new poetry manuscripts. Her latest work to be released April 2nd is Suck and Spit in collaboration with the Publishing Practicum program at the University of Windsor, and published by Black Moss Press. 

https://cranberrytreepress.com/

http://blackmosspress.com/productcat/poetry/

Justin Rogers is a Black poet, educator, coach, and editor from Detroit. He most recently has work published in Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Gramma Press, is author of micro-zine Nostalgia as Black Matilda (Rinky Dink Press 2017) and he released his chapbook Black, Matilda in 2019 with Glass Poetry Press. 

He is also the coordinator of InsideOut’s after school program, Citywide Poets. Justin’s journey with InsideOut began first as a student at Cody High School where a Writer-in-Residence encouraged his writing and recruited him to join Citywide Poets. Since then, Justin has performed for international audiences and published his writing widely. Justin now coordinates our Citywide Poets program, elevating youth voice through weekly sessions around the city, guest writer workshops, performances, and open mic opportunities for youth.

He is also the Detroit representative for Poets & Writers. Founded in 1970, Poets & Writers is the nation’s largest nonprofit organization serving creative writers by fostering the professional development of poets and writers and promoting communication throughout the literary community.
https://justinrogerspoetry.weebly.com/
https://insideoutdetroit.org/
https://www.pw.org/

Dorene O’Brien is a Detroit-based creative writing teacher and writer. Her stories have won the Red Rock Review Mark Twain Award for Short Fiction, the Nelson Algren Award, the New Millennium Writings Fiction Prize, and the international Bridport Prize. She has won fellowships from the NEA and the Vermont Studio Center. Her work has appeared in the Baltimore Review, Madison Review, Chicago Tribune, Montreal Review, and others. Voices of the Lost and Found, her first fiction collection won the USA Best Book Award for Short Fiction. 

Her second full-length collection, What It Might Feel Like to Hope, released in 2019 by Baobob Press was named first runner-up in the Mary Roberts Rinehart Fiction Prize and won a gold medal in the 2019 Independent Publishers Book Awards (IPPY).

The stories take place in Detroit and small towns in the upper Midwest, and they’ve been described as “gritty.” They feature characters ranging from a man barely surviving eight compulsory blind dates with daughters of his mother’s friends, to a tarot card reader who schemes to save Detroit from blight and casinos, to a research scientist whose Alzheimer’s diagnosis leads him to find new meaning in the crystals he can no longer study.

https://baobabpress.com/books/what-it-might-feel-like-to-hope/
https://www.doreneobrien.com/

Dr. Karl Jirgens was born and raised in Toronto, and attended University of Toronto for his BA, Ontario College of Art for his BFA, and York University for his MA and PhD. He is a specialist in literary theory, contemporary literature with a focus on Canadian literature, and creative writing and publishing. He currently lectures at the University of Windsor.

He is the author of several works on literary and art criticism, and digital culture and performance, and has published in several journals and periodicals. His fictional works have been anthologized by Coach House Press, Black Moss Press, Mercury Press and Texteditions. His theatre/performance works have been presented nationally and internationally including at the Ultimatum Fest in Montreal and at the INTER-Festival in Quebec City.

Karl Jirgens founded and edited Rampike, the international literary journal of contemporary art, writing, and theory, from 1979 to 2016. The entire 36-year print-run is now available through the U Windsor scholar’s portal care of the Leddy Library at the University of Windsor.

https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/rampike/about.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Jirgens

Veronique Perrier Mandal has had a long and celebrated career, having won many awards for her work in both radio and print journalism, including Ontario Journalist of the Year, Windsor Woman of the Year, and the Queen’s Jubilee Medal. She currently coordinates and teaches full-time in the Journalism and Media Convergence programs at St. Clair College in Windsor, and she is the host of the show Scribes and Songsters on YourTV. Veronique is also a successful author, writing both fiction and non-fiction books, including The Pink Hat in 2012 and Chasing Lightning in 1999, a book she co-authored with her husband, veteran journalist Chris Vander Doelen.

Her latest book, Getting Off, which details the rise, fall, and redemption of the legendary, late Windsor lawyer Don Tait, was recently recognized as a finalist in the 2019 Best Book Awards sponsored by American Book Fest.

https://www.windsorpubliclibrary.com/?page_id=62276
https://twitter.com/veroscribe?lang=en
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgDN2ixYFrT1_WRKV32x0dw

Today’s podcast features a live reading from the Explorers Room in the Detroit Public Library main branch. It’s an edition of Poets and Pies, a reading series sponsored by the Detroit Writers Guild and other literary organizations. It features: 

• A rare treat for fans of rock legend Frank Zappa, a Detroit reading from Los Angeles Poet, Memoirist and Musician Rubén Guevara
• Detroit Essayist Lori Tucker Sullivan
• Detroit Poet Justin Rogers
• and The Rev. Michael Jones The Dancing Poet

The event was emceed by the Detroit Writers Guild president, internationally-known poet M.L. Liebler.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ruben-guevara-mn0000354319/biography
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lori-tucker-sullivan-464a6015/
https://justinrogerspoetry.weebly.com/
https://www.facebook.com/events/198212394668706/

On today’s podcast, we’ll visit the By the River reading series hosted by Urban Farmhouse press. This event took place at historic Mackenzie Hall here in Windsor, and it features readings by three poets:

• Samantha Badaoa, Windsor' Youth Poet Laureate. Listeners have heard an interview with Samantha on an earlier episode
• Sandra Ridley, an award-winning writer of four books of poetry: Fallout, Post-Apothecary, The Counting House, and Silvija—a finalist for the 2017 Griffin Poetry Prize. She was also nominated for the KM Hunter Artist Award for Mid-Career Writer in 2015.
• Peter Hrastovec, Windsor author of Sidelines and In Lieu of Flowers, two books of poetry published by Black Moss Press

This event was emceed by poet and publisher Daniel Lockhart.
 
 https://www.citywindsor.ca/residents/Culture/Pages/Samantha-Badaoa.aspx
https://www.sandraridley.com/
http://blackmosspress.com/peter-hrastovec/

Melanie Janisse Barlow is a poet and a visual artist. Her first collection of poetry, Orioles in the Oranges (Guernica, 2009), was listed for the Relit Award, and her essay poems Detroit were listed in Best American Essays (2013). She has published in a variety of anthologies and journals in Canada and the US, and her painting practice includes The Poets Series, a popular portraiture series of contemporary poets which has been widely received and reviewed, most recently in Poets and Writers, Taddle Creek, The Humber Literary Review, and Quill and Quire. Her latest book, Thicket, was released in Fall 2019 by Palimpsest Press. Melanie Janisse Barlow lives between her home in Windsor, Ontario and her wooden boat Kalinka in Toronto.

https://palimpsestpress.ca/books/thicket/
https://www.melaniejanissebarlow.com/