Respect: The Poetry of Detroit Music

We welcome contributors to Michigan State University Press's anthology Respect: The Poetry of Detroit Music. Free and open to the public. A signing will follow.

About the book: While there have been countless books written about Detroit, none have captured its incredible musical history like this one. Detroit artists have forged the paths in many music genres, producing waves of creative energy that continue to reverberate across the country and around the world. This anthology both documents and celebrates this part of Detroit's history, capturing the emotions that the music inspired in its creators and in its listeners. The range of contributors speaks to the global impact of Detroit's music scene--Grammy winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, and poet laureates all come together in this rich and varied anthology.

List of readers...

Charlie Brice is the author of Flashcuts Out of Chaos (2016), Mnemosyne's Hand (2018), and An Accident of Blood (forthcoming), all from WordTech Editions. His poetry has been nominated for the Best of Net anthology and twice for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in over eighty publications.

Cal Freeman is the author of the book Fight Songs. His writing has appeared in many journals including Southword, The Moth, Passages North, The Journal, Hippocampus, Drunken Boat, and The Poetry Review. He currently serves as music editor of The Museum of Americana and teaches at Oakland University.

Brian Gilmore is a native of Washington DC, poet, writer, public interest lawyer, and author of four collections of poetry, including the latest, 'come see about me, marvin,' (Wayne State Press), a 2020 Michigan Notable Books recipient. He has written for The Crisis Magazine, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Jazz Times, and is a long time columnist with the Progressive Media Project. He has also been an NAACP Image Award nominee, a Hurston-Wright Legacy Award nominee, and runner up for the Larry Neal Writers Award. He is a Kimbilio Fellow and a Cave Canem Fellow and currently teaches social justice law at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan.

Dennis Hinrichsen is the winner of Grid Poetry Prize for 2020 for his collection This Is Where I Live I Have Nowhere Else To Go which will appear later in the fall. His most recent work is [q / lear], a chapbook from Green Linden Press, and Skin Music, winner of the 2014 Michael Waters Poetry Prize from Southern Indiana Review Press. His previous books include Rip-tooth (2010 Tampa Poetry Prize), Kurosawa’s Dog (2008 FIELD Poetry Prize), and Detail from The Garden of Earthly Delights (1999 Akron Poetry Prize). From May 2017 - April 2019, he served as the first Poet Laureate of the Greater Lansing [MI] area.

Zilka Joseph has been published in literary journals such as Poetry, Poetry Daily, and Kenyon Review Online. Her chapbooks Lands I Live In and What Dread were nominated for a PEN America and Pushcart award, respectively. Her book Sharp Blue Search of Flame  (Wayne State University Press) was a Foreword INDIES Prize finalist. She teaches creative writing workshops in Ann Arbor and is a manuscript coach. www.zilkajoseph.com

M.l. Liebler is author and editor of several books including 2016 award winners Heaven Was Detroit, I Want to Be Once and Bob Seger’s House (all Wayne State Press). His newest co-edited (with Jim Daniels) book is RESPECT: Poets on Detroit Music (2020 MSU Press). He has taught at Wayne State in Detroit since 1980, and he directs The Detroit Writers Guild.

Dawn McDuffie’s poems explore the landscape of Detroit and an inner world of memory, imagination and dreams. She’s published four chapbooks: Carmina Detroit, Bulky Pick Up Day, Flag Day in Detroit, and Happenstance and Miracles. Her poem, Motor City Tirade was published in the anthology, Good Poems–American Places edited by Garrison Keillor, and her most recent Detroit poem, Dear Detroit Earthquake, is included in R.E.S.P.E.C.T., the collection we’re honoring tonight.

Ken Mikolowski is the author of six books of poetry, most recently THAT THAT.  His poems have been recorded by the Frank Carlberg Group and with Michael Gould in Remember Me.  Mikolowski taught poetry writing at the University of Michigan for thirty-eight years. Along with his wife Ann, he was publisher, editor and printer of The Alternative Press.  He lives in Ann Arbor.

Linda Nemec Foster is the author of 11 collections of poetry including Talking Diamonds (New Issues Press), Amber Necklace from Gdańsk (LSU Press), and The Lake Michigan Mermaid—with Anne-Marie Oomen—(WSU Press) which was a 2019 Michigan Notable Book. From 2003-2005, she was honored to serve as the first Poet Laureate of Grand Rapids. Her new book, The Blue Divide, will be published by New Issues Press in Spring of 2021. Foster is the founder of the Contemporary Writers Series at Aquinas College.

Sonya Marie Pouncy is a mechanical engineer working in the field of building energy management. She is also a graduate of the Creative Writing Program at Central Michigan University and a Callaloo Fellow. Her work has appeared in Callaloo; Temenos; the Central Review, Aunt Chloe: A Journal of Artful Candor; Drum Voices Revue; and Seeds as well as the anthologies Poet in the House; Abandon Automobile; and Eclipsing A Nappy New Millennium. For Sonya, writing is a serious avocation and she hopes to eventually make it a more substantial part of her life.

Keith Taylor's most recent full collection is The Bird-while. In 2018 he retired from teaching writing at the University of Michigan.