EVENT: IS/LAND Angel Island - Until We Fill the Ocean

IS/LAND Asian American Pacific Islander Performance Collaborative
Sat., Nov. 15, 2-3pm EST, Detroit Public Library 

https://www.eventbrite.com/o/detroit-public-library-4535003353

EVENT AADL Writing to Save the World Fri Nov 14 5:30pm

Writing to Save the World, with Frances Kai-Hwa Wang

Friday November 14, 2025: 5:30pm to 7:30pm 

Ann Arbor District Library Downtown Library: Lower Level Program Room

How do we use our writing to create real world change? How do we find our voices and get our message out? How do we use writing to touch, inspire, persuade, and provoke readers to action? Learn simple but powerful methods to get the ideas out of our heads and onto the page. Part writing, part activism, a lot of heart, this class aspires to use the written word to create the change you want to see in the world. Bring a notebook and a pen.

Big thanks to CultureSource and Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation (AAACF) for the Washtenaw Artist Grant to help develop this writing workshop. 

And Thanks to AADL the best library there is!

https://aadl.org/node/646269

2025 A2 Community Bookfest at AADL Nov 9

2025 A2 Community Bookfest will be on Sunday, November 9 from 10AM - 5PM at the Downtown Library! 

Join us for a day celebrating books at the A2 Community Bookfest! Formerly the Kerrytown Bookfest, the A2 Community Bookfest is thrilled to return to downtown Ann Arbor for 2025!

Booksellers, publishers, authors, and more will be on the vendor floor from 10am-5pm and various activities for all ages, such as keynote author talks, hands-on crafts for kids and adults, storytimes, and discussion groups, will take place throughout the day. Additionally, the Fifth Avenue Press annual author reception will celebrate books published by the Library in the prior year.

The 2025 A2 Community Bookfest Headliner:

K-Ming Chang is the author of the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction finalist Bestiary, an inventive novel that pays homage to earlier Asian American brilliance while pushing up against—and innovating past—its boundaries. With a poetic voice full of energy, Chang speaks on paying homage to history, mythology, and family to reinvent the genre. Chang is also the author of Gods of Wants, Organ Meats, and Cecilia.

Wayne State Univ Press will be there and I'll be there for a little bit to sign books too!

https://aadl.org/bookfest

Event AADL Writing to Save the World

Writing to Save the World, with Frances Kai-Hwa Wang

Friday November 14, 2025: 5:30pm to 7:30pm 

Ann Arbor District Library Downtown Library: Lower Level Program Room

How do we use our writing to create real world change? How do we find our voices and get our message out? How do we use writing to touch, inspire, persuade, and provoke readers to action? Learn simple but powerful methods to get the ideas out of our heads and onto the page. Part writing, part activism, a lot of heart, this class aspires to use the written word to create the change you want to see in the world. Bring a notebook and a pen.

Big thanks to CultureSource and Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation (AAACF) for the Washtenaw Artist Grant to help develop this writing workshop. 

And Thanks to AADL the best library there is!

https://aadl.org/node/646269

1990 Institute newsletter, October 2025, Volume 5, Issue 10

1990 Institute newsletter

October 10, 2025, Volume 5, Issue 10

How can historical mooncakes inspire us in America today?

https://1990institute.salsalabs.org/1990newsletter_vol5_issue10?wvpId=3472bc42-b4b5-46d4-8347-f928d14e9f4f

Event How to Live the Time of Your Life: Author Reading at CLUSTER

How to Live the Time of Your Life: Author Reading

Thursday, October 9, 2025, 7:00 PM  8:30 PM

CLUSTER

307 North Main StreetAnn Arbor, MI, 48104United States (map)

How to Live the Time of Your Life is from a Zadie Smith quote who questions, within our fragile, short existences, how do we spend our time, what is our truth, what guides meaning in our lives?

This inaugural literary event features 9 writers whose pieces are inspired by the 20 Lessons from Timothy Snyder’s book, On Tyranny: 20 Lessons from the 20th Century. 

Authors include Mouna Ammar, Ashwini Bhasi, A.E., Zilka Joseph, Ryan McCarty, Ruth Mella, Molly Raynor, Ciatta Tucker, and Frances Kai-Hwa Wang. This event is guest-curated by writer Kyunghee Kim and Cam Finch, writer & founder of PoetTreeTown.

“The question is: How to live the time of your life - the intimate time of your life- alongside the time of history. Which do you devote yourself to? Which deserves your attention? Which is real?” - Zadie Smith

*Author Events are best for ages 14 year and up unless noted. Learn more about our gallery on our Contact page.

https://clustermuseum.org/events/howtolivethetimeofyourlife

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cluster-how-to-live-the-time-of-your-life-author-reading-tickets-1743989352099

Moderating: Taiwan Travelogue: Unearthing Stories of Identity, Cuisine, & Friendship

I'll be moderating a booktalk for Michigan Taiwanese American Organization (MITAI) as part of its Taiwan Literature Exhibition: Reading Taiwan at AADL

Taiwan Travelogue: Unearthing Stories of Identity, Cuisine, & Friendship

Sunday September 28, 2025: 2:00pm to 3:30pm 

Ann Arbor District Library, Downtown Library: 1st Floor Lobby

Join author Shuang-Zi Yang and translator Lin King—2024 National Book Award winners for Translated Literature—for a conversation on Taiwan Travelogue, set in 1938 colonial Taiwan. Moderated by Frances Kai-Hua Wang, Kaori Ohara, and Wan-Thai Hsu, the discussion explores histories, power dynamics, friendship, and Taiwanese cuisine. A small food tasting from the book will follow, along with a book signing. Don’t miss this immersive exploration of Taiwan’s past and present.

Taiwan Literature Exhibition: Reading Taiwan is on display on the 2nd Floor of the Downtown Library from September 22nd, 2025-January 9th, 2026.

This event is in partnership with the Michigan Taiwanese American Organization and the Taipei Cultural Center of TECO in New York. It includes a signing with books for sale.

https://aadl.org/node/642431

Poetry Reading Live Coolidge-Wagner Anthology of Recorded Poetry AADL Sept 22

Live Reading | Coolidge-Wagner Anthology of Recorded Poetry

Monday September 22, 2025: 6:30pm to 7:30pm EDT

Ann Arbor District Library, Downtown Library: 4th Floor Program Room

Join us for a live poetry reading event showcasing four poets from the Coolidge-Wagner Anthology of Recorded Poetry. Featuring Kowólabi Aboyade, Frances Kai-Hwa Wang, Bryan Thao Worra, and Rebecca Biber.

The Library intends to provide a live stream of this event pending the presenter's permission. Please check back closer to the event for additional updates.

https://aadl.org/node/645310

Speaking on Susan Shapiro Secrets of Publishing Panel

I'll be speaking on Susan Shapiro Secrets of Publishing Panel, Wed., Sept. 17, 2025, 6-8pm EDT, Schuler's Books, West Bloomfield

Wednesday, September 17, 2025 - 6:30pm

Schuler Books

Gateway Center

7260 Orchard Lake Road,

West Bloomfield Twp, MI 48322

Are you curious about how to get your work published? Come learn from this fantastic panel of authors who will be sharing tips and tricks that they learned from their personal publishing experiences.

We love seeing who is planning to join us! Your RSVP helps us prepare to host you. You can RSVP here: https://events.humanitix.com/secrets-of-publishing-panel-sbwb

About the Panelists:

Frances Kai-Hwa Wang is a  poet, essayist, and activist chronicling issues of Asian Americans, race and justice.  She’s written for PBS NewsHour, NBC AsianAmerica, The Emancipator, PRI GlobalNation, AngryAsianMan, Cha Asian Literary Journal and Drunken Boat. She teaches Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies at University of Michigan and creative writing at Washtenaw Community College. She co-created a multimedia artwork for Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. She’s author of three chapbooks and a new book of poetry, “You Cannot Resist Me When My Hair Is in Braids,” at Wayne State University Press. Franceskaihwawang.com 

Detroit native Aaron Robertson is a writer, editor, and translator. His debut, The Black Utopians: Searching for Paradise and the Promised Land in America  (FSG, 2024), was a finalist for the 2024 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History and best book of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker and TIME. His Italian translation of Beyond Babylon by Igiaba Scego was shortlisted for the 2020 PEN Translation Prize and the National Translation Award. A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, he's written for The New York Times, Foreign Policy and The Nation. 

Joe Grimm teaches journalism at Michigan State University and was an editor a Detroit Free Press editor for 25 years. His books include "Coney Detroit" and "The Faygo Book," a Michigan Notable Books selection. His classes have published 25 books available on Amazon,  most in a series of 100-question cultural competence guides. He’s an adviser for the Great Lakes Books Series at Wayne State University Press and has taught classes in book publishing at Birmingham's Community House.

Aquilino Gonell is a former DC Capitol Police Sergeant who defended Democracy on January 6, 2021, the subject of his bestselling debut book AMERICAN SHIELD: The Immigrant Sergeant Who Defended Democracy. He left the Dominican Republic as a child, moved to NY, joined the US Army to pay for college,  served overseas honorably and had a decorated career as a Staff Sergeant. He was awarded  the Presidential Citizenship Medal, the Congressional Gold Medal, and the Carnegie Immigrant Award.  He’s been featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, CBS Mornings, NBC News, Fox-TV, MSNBC, Rolling Stone, Telemundo and Univision.

Susan Shapiro grew up in West Bloomfield Michigan. After graduating U of M, she moved to New York where she's  an award-winning writing professor who freelances for the NY Times, Washington Post, WSJ, LA Times, NY Magazine, Oprah, Wired & New Yorker online. She's the bestselling author of memoirs her family hates like Five Men Who Broke My Heart and The Forgiveness Tour  coauthor of the book American Shield.  She uses her writing/publishing guides The Book Bible and Byline Bible to teach her popular "instant gratification takes too long" courses at  NYU and in private classes & seminars  online. Follow her on Instagram at @Profsue123. 

Christina Wyman is a USA Today bestselling writer and teacher living in Michigan.  Her middle grade debut  Jawbreaker, a Publishers Weekly Best Book, follows a seventh-grader with a craniofacial anomaly that’s caught the attention of school bullies—including her own sister. Her sophomore novel, Slouch, is about a tall girl navigating friends, family, self-esteem, and boundaries. She grew up in a tiny apartment with her family in Brooklyn, New York, where she dreamed of becoming a writer. She’d written for New York Magazine, The Washington Post, Elle, Ms. Magazine and The Independent. 

https://www.schulerbooks.com/events-west-bloomfield

Speaking and Reading and Performing this fall

I'll be Speaking and Reading and Performing this fall

Panel: Susan Shapiro Secrets of Publishing Panel
Wed., Sept. 17, 2025, 6-8pm EDT, Schuler's Books, West Bloomfield
https://www.schulerbooks.com/events-west-bloomfield

Live Poetry Reading | Coolidge-Wagner Anthology of Recorded Poetry https://aadl.org/node/645310
Monday, Sept. 22, 2025, 6:30-7:30 pm EDT, Ann Arbor District Library, downtown, 4th floor

Moderating: Taiwan Travelogue: Unearthing Stories of Identity, Cuisine, & Friendship
Sunday September 28, 2025: 2:00pm to 3:30pm EDT
Ann Arbor District Library, Downtown Library: 1st Floor Lobby https://aadl.org/node/642431

Poetry reading as part of a private Taiwanese American event 
Sat., Oct. 25, 2025, 2:00 pm EDT, Rochester Hills, MI

Angel Island with IS/LAND Asian American Pacific Islander Performance Collaborative
Sat., Nov. 15, 2-3pm EST, Detroit Public Library, Detroit
https://www.eventbrite.com/o/detroit-public-library-4535003353