| Author | Biography | Book Cover(s) |
|---|---|---|
Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes | Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes is an Ann Arbor-based Puerto Rican writer. He is author of Queer Ricans: Cultures and Sexualities in the Diaspora (University of Minnesota Press, 2009) and of Escenas transcaribeñas: Ensayos sobre teatro, performance y cultura (Isla Negra Editores, 2018) and coeditor with Deborah R. Vargas and Nancy Raquel Mirabal of Keywords for Latina/o Studies (New York University Press, 2017). His book Translocas: The Politics of Puerto Rican Drag and Trans Performance was published by the University of Michigan Press in 2021 as part of the Triangulations: Lesbian/Gay/Queer Theater/Drama/Performance series and received the 2021-2022 Sylvia Rivera Award in Transgender Studies from CLAGS, the Center for LGBTQ Studies at the City University of New York. He has published two books of fiction: Uñas pintadas de azul/Blue Fingernails (Bilingual Press, 2009) and Abolición del pato (Terranova, 2013). He is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of American Culture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the former director and core faculty member of the Latina/o Studies Program. He is also Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and of Women's and Gender Studies. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he received his AB from Harvard (1991) and his MA, MPhil, and PhD from Columbia (1999). He has coedited queer issues of CENTRO Journal, Sargasso, and Hostos Review/Revista Hostosiana and has published two books of fiction, Uñas pintadas de azul/Blue Fingernails and Abolición del pato. Larry performs in drag as Lola von Miramar since 2010, and has appeared in several episodes of the YouTube series Cooking with Drag Queens. | |
Katherine Larson | Katherine Larson illustrated the covers for the Ann Arbor Observer for 22 years and her book “Ann Arbor Observed, the stories behind the Ann Arbor Observer Covers” tells her unique story. Katherine is also a classical singer and muralist who is known to many from her solo guest appearances with the Ann Arbor Symphony and UMS. She is an accomplished fine artist as well as an illustrator and has made her living as an artist from her youth. Her book about Ann Arbor is unique in that it reveals her painting techniques as well as what was happening in her life at the time of each painting. It gives the reader an inside look at life in Ann Arbor from the perspective of an artist and singer. The book is a large, hardbound “coffee table” size which showcases each cover illustration in a large format. Subjects include the University of Michigan, local events, neighborhoods and downtown landmarks. It makes a great gift for anyone who loves Ann Arbor. |  |
Margaret A. Leary | I became intensely curious about "Who was William W. Cook?" when I joined the faculty at the University of Michigan Law School in 1973, after growing up in Oberlin, OH, and earning a B.A. (Cornell University), M.A. University of Minnesota), and J.D. (William Mitchell College of Law). My job in the Law Library provided an office in the magnificent Law Quadrangle, five buildings all given to Michigan by Cook. But no one knew who Cook was, where he worked, how he earned a fortune, and why he had given so much to the Michigan Law School. I was able to answer those questions only near the end of my career, when I spent six years researching Cook's life. In addition to being Director of the Law Library, I served on the City Zoning Board of Appeals and then Planning Commission; was elected to three terms on the Ann Arbor District Library Board, and was active in Habitat for Humanity of Huron Valley, as well as professional library associations. https://michigan.law.umich.edu/faculty-and-scholarship/our-faculty/margaret-leary | |
Paul Leighton | Paul Leighton is a Professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology at Eastern Michigan University. His interest is in how inequalities in society impact criminal justice, and how biases in criminal justice recreate social inequalities. He is a co-author of the Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison. Leighton is also a co-author of Class, Race, Gender & Crime. He co-authored one of the first books about private prisons, Punishment for Sale: Private Prisons, Big Business and the Incarceration Binge (Rowman & Littlefield 2010). Leighton has been an editor of Critical Criminology: An International Journal, and has delivered many invited keynote addresses in the U.S., Canada and Norway. He regularly teaches classes on white collar crime, domestic violence, crime and technology, and marijuana decriminalization. Leighton is a past President of the Board of the local domestic violence shelter and currently heads the advisory board of the food pantry serving the university. | |
Cynthia Leitich Smith | Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee citizen) is a NYT bestselling author and was named the 2021 NSK Neustadt Laureate. Her novel HEARTS UNBROKEN won an American Indian Youth Literature Award, and her recent books include ANCESTOR APPROVED: INTERTRIBAL STORIES FOR KIDS, an ALA Notable Book and winner of the Reading of the West Book Award for Young Readers as well as SISTERS OF THE NEVERSEA, which received six starred reviews and made numerous “best of the year” lists. Her debut tween novel RAIN IS NOT MY INDIAN NAME was named one of the 30 Most Influential Children’s Books of All Time by Book Riot. Her 2023 release is the YA novel HARVEST HOUSE. Cynthia is the author-curator of Heartdrum, an imprint of HarperChildren’s and was the inaugural Katherine Paterson Chair at the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program. |  |
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 | |
Brian Love | Brian Love and Mike Burns, co-authors of Corked, both have day jobs as academics at the University of Michigan, Brian in Engineering and Mike in Medicine. They wanted to consider how different it would be to write short form content than what constitutes normal communication as part of their day jobs as Professor and Clinician. Brian had saved up a lot of stories that formed the backbone of the content, and it was a matter of doing the analytics dive to resolve what actually mattered in linking with the stories. Hence Corked. Brian has been at Michigan since 2008, and worked at Virginia Tech in Engineering from 1993 prior till his arrival in Ann Arbor. Brian is seen around town getting coffee, engaging with his kids sports which included diving and baseball, and occasionally playing tennis when not afflicted by arthritis. | |
| Author | Biography | Book Cover(s) |
