We have 170 local authors in our directory!
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| Author | Biography | Book Cover(s) |
|---|---|---|
Polly Rosenwaike | Polly Rosenwaike’s story collection, Look How Happy I’m Making You, was published by Doubleday, and was named one of Kirkus Reviews’ “Best Short Story Collections of 2019” and Glamour’s “Best Books of 2019.” Her fiction and book reviews have appeared in O. Henry Prize Stories, Glimmer Train, the New York Times Book Review, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She lives in Ann Arbor, where she works as a freelance editor and serves as Fiction Editor for Michigan Quarterly Review. |  |
Jay Fiondella | Jay was born in a suburb of New Haven, Connecticut. He moved to Detroit in the early 1980s to pursue his dream of becoming a successful rock drummer. Thank God he became an electrician, or as he puts it, “My kids would have starved!” He has three children, Shane, Corin, and Victoria, who enjoy poking fun at their dad. He is also a proud grandfather of three beautiful young ladies who happen to love their Poppa Jay! He has continued his musical endeavors through the years and began entertaining thoughts of pursuing his love for prose, starting with his first book, But Dad, a personal narrative of fatherhood. In 2023, he retired, and he and his wife, Jenine, moved to Northern Michigan, where he continues to follow his passion for writing. Project Earth is his third self-published work and his first full-length science fiction novel. He enjoys beating the drums, now governed by his aching anatomy, and is currently working on a sequel to Project Earth. | |
Bruce Tharp | Believed to be the first industrial designer to receive a PhD in anthropology (University of Chicago), in 1998 Bruce began researching the material culture of Indiana's Old Order Amish, focusing on the production & consumption of value. He first earned a BS in mechanical engineering from Bucknell University and a master’s degree in industrial design from Pratt Institute. In between his schooling, he served as a US Army nuclear weapons officer (Captain) in Germany. After researching the future of work and the workplace for Haworth Inc.'s design research think-tank, the Ideation Group, he began his teaching career. Over the last fifteen years he has been a tenured professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and currently at the University of Michigan’s Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design. His and Stephanie's award-winning design studio has exhibited internationally, licensed designs for local and global companies, and self-produced commercial, experimental, and discursive products. |  |
Kathryn Orwig | Kathryn Orwig started out writing 400-page novels in her small hometown in Northern Michigan, and now divides her time between novels, short stories, poems, and screenplays. Her work was published in Confined Connections by Z Publishing House (2017) and in the anthology she founded with nine talented writer friends titled Bring Your Words: A Writer’s Community Anthology by Fifth Avenue Press (July 2021). Kathryn has won or placed highly in multiple screenwriting competitions including The Nicholl’s Fellowship, Page Awards, Roadmap Writer’s Shorts Grand Prize Winner, Roadmap’s Diversity Initiative July 2021 Winner, Austin Film Festival Second Rounder, The International Screenwriters Association Fast Track Fellowship Genre Winner, among others. She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan and is the recipient of a Summer Hopwood Award. Besides writing, she enjoys spending hours researching ancestors and learning their languages such as Russian, Scottish Gaelic, Italian, and Swedish, among many more. |  |
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 | |
Cassandra Caverhill | Cassandra Caverhill is a Canadian-American poet and editor. She is the author of the chapbook Mayflies (Finishing Line Press) and a winner of the 2021 AWP Intro Journals Award. Her work has most recently appeared in Atticus Review, Peninsula Poets, Coastal Shelf, Last Resort Literary Review, Reed Magazine, and Into the Void. She is a graduate of Bowling Green State University’s MFA program in Poetry. Cassandra earned a certificate in Editing from the University of Chicago and an honors BA in Drama and Communication Studies from the University of Windsor. Born and raised in Windsor, Ontario, Cassandra lives, writes, and edits with her husband in Ann Arbor, Michigan. |  |
Dale Fisher | As perhaps the world’s only artist-photographer working almost exclusively from the air, Dale Fisher has made a career of capturing images both on film and digitally through the door of a helicopter. While skimming over his subjects at ground speeds of 120 miles per hour, he transforms freeways, construction sites, rooftops, and parked vehicles into colorful graphic patterns. At just 17, Dale headed off to join the United States Navy where he began shooting (with a camera) from the skies as an aerial reconnaissance photographer. Upon his return home from service, he worked as a photographer at the Ann Arbor News. He has traveled the country towing his helicopter and captured many of the images that are in collections. According to Dale, “Low-level helicopter photography gives a distinctive perspective unmatched by photographs taken from airplanes, drones, or from the ground.” Dale grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan and currently resides at his 200-year-old farm in Grass Lake, called Eyry of the Eagle. The name is a nod to his photographic viewpoint above (like an Eagle) and translates to “the lofty nest of a bird of prey”. While Eyry of The Eagle farm holds many tales itself — its 100 acres of woods, water and fields is also home to Dale’s art galleries, wedding venue, and the Michigan’s Center for the Photographic Arts, a 501 (C) 3 Dale founded to provide artistic mentorship for youth. Dale enjoys spending his free time with family and friends, working on his property, traveling, and photographing the beautiful sites of Michigan. |  |
Kelly Murdoch-Kitt | Kelly Murdoch-Kitt is an Associate Professor at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design at the University of Michigan. She is a user experience designer and educator focused on people, systems, and interpersonal interactions. In her work and teaching, human connection drives the creation of effective and socially responsible concepts. She integrates visual communication, user experience, and service design with behavior change and social engagement, drawing on her industry experience as a user experience strategist in the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to joining U-M, Murdoch-Kitt served as an Assistant Professor in the School of Design at the Rochester Institute of Technology. She also taught in the Graphic Design Programs at the University of San Francisco and California College of the Arts. Her excellence in teaching and contributions to service within the discipline have been recognized by the Design Incubation Communication Design Educator Awards: Intercultural Design Collaborations in Sustainability; and the Decipher 2018 Design Educators Research Conference. Murdoch-Kitt and her research partner, Dr. Denielle J. Emans of Roger Williams University are co-authors of Intercultural Collaboration by Design: Drawing from Differences, Distances, and Disciplines through Visual Thinking (Routledge 2020). Based on their research, the book offers more than 30 visual thinking activities to support effective collaboration among diverse teams. Their research group, ORBIT Labs (Online Resource for Building Intercultural Teams), was recently recognized as a recipient of the 2022 Carol Hollenshead Inspire Award for Excellence in Promoting Equity and Social Change. Murdoch-Kitt and Emans are currently working together on a new book about the intersection of creative practice and psychological resilience, which argues that everyone can learn to become creatively resilient—and put methods of adaptability, flexibility, and optimism into practice. Its 15 case studies include various projects, practices, and activities that show readers how to utilize creative methods to work positively with uncertainty. |  |
Angela Verges | Author, comedian, and edutainer Angela Verges was born in Detroit, MI. One of her favorite books as a youth was, Are you there God, it's me Margaret, by Judy Blume. In fact, she liked it so much that she wrote a book report on it in 6th grade and again in 8th grade. Shhh, don't tell her teachers. Angie began writing in 5th grade when she received her first diary. She continued keeping a journal through high school and college. Angie is a graduate of Michigan State University and currently working in the field of recreation. Writing has always been her passion and any time she can sprinkle it with humor, she does. Angela has two adult sons who quite often fill her humor bucket with their antics. Her book Menopause Ain't No Joke started as a collection of blog posts, which have also accompanied her on stage in comedy sets. Her words continue to scream onto the pages of journals, the back of envelopes, napkins or anything handy. Angie likes to write books for children and blog about parenting experiences as she practices being a grown up. | |
Bernice Baran | Bernice Baran started her website, Bakery Baran, as a place to document all of the adventures in her everyday life. It was a creative outlet on days off of working as a nurse, and a place to come and look back on 10 years from now and see all her photos and thoughts from this time in her life. That quickly and exclusively turned into her baking and sharing her recipes. Over the last five years, Bernice stopped nursing, had two babies, and took Baran Bakery full-time. She wrote a cookbook, Frosted, and hosts cake decorating workshops. She can't wait to see what the next five years bring, but whatever it is, she knows it'll be sweet. |  |
| Author | Biography | Book Cover(s) |
