| Author | Biography | Book Cover(s) |
|---|---|---|
Ruth Behar | Ruth Behar was born in Havana, Cuba and grew up in New York. She is a cultural anthropologist, poet, and writer of fiction for young people. Behar is known for the compassion she brings to her quest to understand the depth of the human experience. She has lived in Spain and Mexico and returns often to Cuba to build bridges around culture and art. She writes about her journeys in her ethnographies, which include An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba and Traveling Heavy: A Memoir in Between Journeys. The 25th anniversary edition of her classic book, The Vulnerable Observer Anthropology That Breaks Your Heart, was published in 2022. Her bilingual poetry appears in Everything I Kept/Todo lo que guardé. Behar won the Pura Belpré Author Medal for her debut middle grade novel, Lucky Broken Girl, and her second novel, Letters from Cuba, is a Sydney Taylor Notable Book and received an International Latino Book Award. Behar's debut picture book, Tia Fortuna's New Home, and in Spanish, El nuevo hogar de Tía Fortuna, a Cuban Sephardic story about intergenerational memory. A second picture book, Pepita Meets Bebita, is co-authored with her son, Gabriel Frye-Behar. Behar is the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius" Grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and was named a "Great Immigrant" by the Carnegie Corporation. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and is the James W. Fernandez Distinguished University Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. | |
Crysta K. Coburn | Crysta K. Coburn has been writing award-winning stories for most of her life. Her first short story was published at the age of sixteen after winning runner-up in a local writing contest. She earned her bachelor's degree in creative writing from Western Michigan University in 2005. She is a journalist, fiction writer, poet, playwright, editor, podcast co-host, and one-time rock lyricist. She served as editor for The Queen of Clocks and Other Steampunk Tales; Cogs, Crowns, and Carriages; and Gears, Ghouls, and Gauges (the latter two with Phoebe Darqueling). | |
Steven Harper Piziks | Steven Harper Piziks was born with a name that no one can reliably spell or pronounce, so he often writes under the pen name Steven Harper. He lives in Michigan with his family. When not at the keyboard, he plays the folk harp, fiddles with video games, and pretends he doesn’t talk to the household cats. In the past, he’s held jobs as a reporter, theater producer, secretary, and substitute teacher. He maintains that the most interesting thing about him is that he writes books. Steven is the creator of The Silent Empire series, the Clockwork Empire steampunk series, and the Books of Blood and Iron series for Roc Books. All four Silent Empire novels were finalists for the Spectrum Award, a first! Fortunately, his story “Eight Mile and the City” in the anthology When Worlds Collide won the 2022 Washington Science Fiction Association Award for small press. You can find him elsewhere on-line by searching for his social media. | |
Claudia Whitsitt | Claudia Whitsitt began creating stories when she was very little, and once in the 5th grade, she spent hours recording them in longhand on looseleaf paper. When she wasn't writing, she was reading. Claudia grew up to be a teacher and mother, but after raising her children, went back to writing. She is proud to be an author of both children's and adult novels. In addition to writing the award-winning historical fiction Kids Like You Series, Claudia has also authored The Wrong Guy, loosely based on the Michigan Murders of the late sixties. She is the author of the Samantha Series as well, including Identity Issues, Intimacy Issues, Internal Issues, and Inherited Issues. Recently, she has released three books in her new Love and Loss Series, Black Ice, Lake Fog, and Lingering Clouds. This series is unique in that the characters in each book are different, and the series focuses on the themes of love and loss. | |
Liz Crowe | A Kentucky native and graduate of the University of Louisville living in South Carolina, Liz Crowe lived in Ann Arbor for almost 20 years. Many of Liz’s books take place in southeast Michigan, and one in Ann Arbor specifically. She's spent her time as a three-continent expat trailing spouse, mom of three, real estate agent, brewery owner and bar manager, and is currently a digital marketing and fundraising consultant, in addition to being an award-winning author. With stories set in breweries, on the soccer pitch, inside fictional television stations and successful real estate offices, and even in exotic locales like Istanbul, Turkey, her books are compelling and told with a fresh voice. The Liz Crowe backlist has something for any reader seeking complex storylines with humor and complete casts of characters that will delight and linger in the imagination long after the book is finished. | |
Petra Kuppers | Petra Kuppers (she/her) is a disability culture activist, a writer, and a community performance artist. Petra grounds herself in disability culture methods, and uses ecosomatics, performance, and speculative writing to engage audiences toward more socially just and enjoyable futures. Her third poetry collection, Gut Botany, was named one of the top ten US poetry books of 2020 by the New York Public Library, and won the 2021/22 Creative Book Award by the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment. Petra is Artistic Director of The Olimpias, an international disability culture collective, and she co-creates Turtle Disco, a somatic writing studio. She is the Anita Gonzalez Collegiate Professor of Performance Studies and Disability Culture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. | |
Ron Eglash | Ron Eglash grew up in California during the 1960s, where a mix of bohemian scientists and social activism inspired his undergraduate studies in cybernetics. Following a masters in systems engineering, he briefly worked in the silicon valley’s chip manufacturing industry, and then returned for a doctorate in the History of Consciousness program at UCSC. Encouraged by his advisor Donna Haraway to “stay in touch with your inner scientist”, Eglash began an investigation of fractal patterns in aerial photos of African villages. A postdoctoral Fulbright in West and Central Africa allowed him a year to conduct ethnographic research, where he documented how indigenous concepts of recursion created fractal patterns throughout African design practices. His book African Fractals: Modern Computing and Indigenous Design became a TED talk with over 1.5 million views; a simulation used in math and computing education; and a broad influence in black studies. Fractals inspired by Eglash’s work now appear in black literature such as Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti; in AfroFuturist arts, and even in contemporary African architecture. His most recent work, “Generative Justice,” develops an alternative economic theory. “Both the political right and political left” Eglash explains “are focused on value extraction: socialism to the state and capitalism to corporations.” His alternative model would keep value in unalienated forms at the grassroots, and circulate it rather than extract it--a process he maintains is already happening with the rise of makerspaces, urban agriculture and the “artisanal economy”. His work in this area examines how digital fabrication, AI and other innovations can be used to nurture and sustain generative justice. | |
Stephanie Tharp | Stephanie Tharp is an industrial designer and educator— currently an Associate Professor and an Undergraduate Program Co-Director at the University of Michigan’s Stamps School of Art & Design. Her recent research surrounds the theory and practice of discursive design. One current project is a collaboration with chronic pain specialists exploring public engagement with medical research and challenging popular stigmas of pain sufferers. |  |
Lauren Ranalli | Lauren Ranalli is an award-winning children's book author and marketing coach for aspiring and self-published authors. Born and raised in Ann Arbor, Lauren describes herself as "a fully-grown adult who still gets excited about the Scholastic book catalog. I can wander for hours in bookstores. I absolutely love a freshly sharpened pencil. And I have found so much joy in pursuing my dream of being a children’s book author. Inspired by my own high-spirited children, I aim to create stories that excite curiosity and broaden our sense of community." Lauren's current work includes "The Great Latke Cook Off," "Places We Have Never Been," "Let's Meet on the Moon," and "Snow Day at the Zoo." You can order books, download free activity sheets, or sign up for her author services on her website, and follow her journey on instagram: @lauren.ranalli_author. | |
Devika Dibya Choudhuri | Devika Dibya Choudhuri is a Professor of Counseling at Eastern Michigan University. A Professional Counselor (MI/CT), Board-Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor, Approved Clinical Supervisor, and Certified EMDR Therapist. She has 20 years of clinical experience with refugees, immigrant and multicultural populations, as well as trauma survivors of violence, sexual assault, grief, and loss. Her scholarship focuses on diversity, equity, inclusion, and access issues in counseling, supervision and pedagogy. She served as Director and Chair on the National Board of Certified Counselors from 2009-2015, the Minority Fellowship Advisory Council from 2015-2018, and as President of the Association for Specialists in Group Work in 2020. She is an Editorial Board member of the Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling, the Journal of Multicultural Counseling & Development, and a Reviewer for Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. She is a recipient of several awards and a 2015 American Counseling Association Fellow. | |
| Author | Biography | Book Cover(s) |
