| Author | Biography | Book Cover(s) |
|---|---|---|
Thomas Zimmerman | Thomas Zimmerman is a poet, teacher, and editor. Tom teaches English, directs the Writing Center, and edits The Huron River Review, The Big Windows Review, and the WCC Poetry Club at Washtenaw Community College, in Ann Arbor, MI. | |
Jessica Litman | Professor Jessica Litman, the John F. Nickoll Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, is the author of Digital Copyright and the co-author, with Jane Ginsburg and Mary Lou Kevlin, of the casebook Trademarks and Unfair Competition Law: Cases and Materials. Before rejoining the Michigan faculty in 2006, Litman was a professor of law at Wayne State University in Detroit, a visiting professor at New York University School of Law and at American University Washington College of Law, as well as a professor at Michigan Law from 1984 to 1990. In addition, she has taught copyright law at the University of Tokyo as part of the Law Faculty Exchange Program. Litman is an adviser for the American Law Institute's Restatement of Copyright, a past trustee of the Copyright Society of the USA, a past chair of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Intellectual Property, and a past member of the Future of Music Coalition's advisory council and the advisory board for Public Knowledge. https://michigan.law.umich.edu/faculty-and-scholarship/our-faculty/jessica-litman | |
Julie Babcock | Julie Babcock is a poet and fiction writer who has lived in Ann Arbor since 2004. Her hybrid poetry collection, Rules for Rearrangement, wrought in response to the sudden death of her husband, won the 2019 Kithara Book Award and was published in December 2020. She is also the author of Autoplay, described as both an ode and an elegy to her Midwestern upbringing. Her poetry and fiction appear in The Rumpus, PANK, december magazine, and has been anthologized in New Poetry from the Midwest. She is the recipient of a Vermont Studio fiction fellowship and several Pushcart nominations. She is faculty in the Minor in Writing Program at University of Michigan and is deeply committed to helping students connect their embodied experiences to research-based academic work to support stories that have been silenced and/or suppressed. | |
Juan Cole | Juan R. I. Cole is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. Cole has devoted his career to understanding the Middle East and the Muslim world more generally, and to critically evaluating its relationship with the North Atlantic states. His most recent book is The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: A New Translation from the Persian. Among his other recent works are Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires (Bold Type Books, 2018) and The New Arabs: How the Millennial Generation is Changing the Middle East (Simon & Schuster, 2014). He has translated works of Lebanese-American author Kahlil Gibran. He has appeared widely on media, including the PBS NewsHour, ABC World News Tonight, Nightline, the Today Show, Anderson Cooper 360, Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes' All In, CNN, the Colbert Report, Democracy Now! and many others. He has written about Egypt, Iran, Iraq, the Gulf and South Asia and about both extremist groups and peace movements. He is proprietor of the Informed Comment news and analysis site. Cole conducts his research in Arabic, Persian and Urdu and Turkish as well as several European languages. He knows both Middle Eastern and South Asian Islam. He lived in various parts of the Muslim world for more than a decade, and continues to travel widely there. He has written, edited or translated 21 books and authored over 100 articles and chapters. | |
Peter G. Stipe | Peter G. Stipe was born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He retired from the Ann Arbor Police Department in 2004 as its most highly decorated officer. His assignments included the Special Tactics Unit, Detective Division, Field Training Officer and District Coordinator. A writer and Film Noir buff, he is the Author of “Badge 112”, a memoir. He resides in Michigan’s Irish Hills. | |
Dave Coverly | Dave Coverly, a native of Plainwell, Michigan, earned his BS with a double major in Imaginative Writing and Philosophy at Eastern Michigan University in 1987, and received his MA in Creative Writing from Indiana University in 1993. In 2011, EMU awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts. He is the creator of the cartoon panel Speed Bump, which runs internationally in about 400 newspapers and websites, including the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Detroit Free Press. His cartoons have also appeared in The New Yorker, USA Today, The New York Times, Newsweek, Esquire, and were a regular feature in Parade. Speed Bump has been named "Best in Newspaper Panels" by the National Cartoonists Society in 1995, 2003, 2014, and 2022. In 2009 the same organization gave him its highest honor, the prestigious Reuben Award, for "Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year". He has also traveled extensively with the USO, drawing cartoons for wounded soldiers and those stationed at bases in the Middle East. Coverly is also the author and/or illustrator of numerous children's books published by Macmillan, including Sue MacDonald Had a Book (with Jim Tobin), The Very Inappropriate Word (with Jim Tobin), and How to Care for Your Pet T-Rex (with Ken Baker). His chapter book series began with Night of the Living Worms: The Misadventures of Speed Bump & Slingshot, and continued with Night of the Living Shadows, and Night of the Living Zombie Bugs. His most recent cartoon collection is Speed Bump: A 25th Anniversary Collection (IDW). His cartoons are also featured on hundreds of greeting cards with NobleWorks, RSVP (including calendars), American Greetings, and Woodmansterne (UK). He has two daughters, Alayna and Simone, and lives with his wife, Chris in Ann Arbor, Michigan. | |
Vicki Brett-Gach | Vicki Brett-Gach is the creator of the Ann Arbor Vegan Kitchen blog, and the author of "The Plant-Based for Life Cookbook: Deliciously Simple Recipes to Nourish, Comfort, Energize and Renew” – published by Brooklyn Writers Press. Vicki is a Whole-Food Plant-Based Culinary Instructor, Certified Personal Chef, and Master-Certified Vegan Lifestyle Coach, and has been trained in Nutrition for a Healthy Heart, and in Dietary Therapy for Reversing Common Diseases. Vicki is Forks Over Knives Plant-Based Certified, and a graduate of Dr. McDougall’s Starch Solution Certification program, with certificates in Culinary Coaching (through Harvard Medical School and The Institute of Lifestyle Medicine), in Plant-Based Nutrition (through the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies), and in Wellness Counseling (through Cornell University). |  |
Nancy Nishihira | Nancy Nishihira is an Asian-American artist of Ryukyuan descent. Her poetry is featured in the local anthology Love and Other Futures; Poetry from Untold Stories of Liberation & Love, a women of color poetry anthology of Black, Latinx, Arab, Indigenous, and Asian women in and around Washtenaw County Michigan. Nancy has been published as a writer and photographer in the inaugural issue of Shimanchu Nu Kwii and she exhibits her painting in local art shows. Nancy is a longtime musician and singer/songwriter. Her music can be found on multiple streaming sites including Bandcamp and Soundcloud. | |
Grace Shackman | Grace Shackman is an Ann Arbor writer who has published four books on local history as well as many local history articles for the Ann Arbor Observer and other local publications. Her books include Ann Arbor Observed, published by the University of Michigan Press, 2006, Ann Arbor in the 19th Century, Ann Arbor in the 20th Century, both published by Arcadia Publishing, 2001 and 2002, and Webster: A Time, A Place, A People, published by the Webster United Church of Christ and the Webster Township Historical Society, 2007. Her Ann Arbor Observer articles can be accessed on the Ann Arbor District Library's web page under "Local History." She also worked as a reporter for the Chelsea Standard for three years. Shackman received a B.A.in history from the University of Michigan and a M. A. in history at Eastern Michigan University. In addition to writing, she has taught local history at Washtenaw Community College in their Community Enrichment Program and at the Adult Learners Institute located in Chelsea. She was elected and served as a Washtenaw County Commissioner, 1986-1994. She is at present on the board of A2Modern, a group researching and championing local mid-century architecture. | |
Rodolfo Alvarado | Rodolfo Alvarado is an eclectic American writer living in Michigan. His fictional work has been published by Arte Público Press' Piñata Books, The Americas Review, The Latino Book Review, Texas A&M University Press, Caballo Press, and Somos en escrito: The Latino Literary Online Magazine. His academic works have been published by the University of Michigan Press, Michigan State University Press, The Texas Observer, Texas A&M University Press, and Alpha Books of New York. In 2020 and 2021, he was named an Emerging Latino Author by The Latino Book Review. His biography, The Untold Story of Joe Hernandez: The Voice of Santa Anita won the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award. He holds a Fine Arts Ph.D. and an MFA in Playwriting from Texas Tech University, as well as an MA in History from Eastern Michigan University, where he was a University Fellow and a Parks/King/Chavez Fellow. | |
| Author | Biography | Book Cover(s) |
