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Are you looking for accountability and camaraderie? Then please join fellow Michigan Writers for virtual co-writing sessions. Membership Chair Mandy Keskes hosts 90-minute virtual sessions twice a month for members to write alongside one another. 

Register here to join the email list and receive updates.

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Visit The Folded Leaf to learn about a compelling memoir about coming of age in the stay-at-home daughter movement and the quest to piece together a future on your own terms. Rachel Zemanek and Cait West, local author of Rift, will discuss the impacts of religious fundamentalism and what healing looks like on the other side.

About Rift:

An essential story for understanding what’s at stake when women’s rights are stripped away

Cait West was five years old when she was first told her swimsuit was too revealing. By the time she turned eighteen, the rules in her home were ironclad: no college, no career, no choices of her own. As a stay-at-home daughter in the Christian patriarchy movement, she was trained for one purpose―to serve the man her father would eventually allow her to marry. She learned to cook, to clean, to disappear. She learned that her body was a threat and freedom was sin. Her life would never be her own.

Until she broke free.

While dystopian novels like The Handmaid’s Tale explore the extremes of patriarchy as fiction, Rift tells a true story of gender oppression―one that many American women are experiencing now behind closed doors at home and at church. Weaving together her own gripping story with lyrical meditations on the geology of displacement and fracture, West maps the fault lines of her own breaking: the isolation that kept her silent, the forbidden relationship that became her escape route, and the complex aftermath of choosing herself over everything she’d been taught to believe. Heartbreaking, hopeful, and blazingly honest, Rift is both exposé and invitation―a reminder that freedom and healing are possible for those determined to claim a different life for themselves.

About Cait West:

Cait West is a writer, editor, and survivor advocate working to spread
awareness about the harms of religious patriarchy and authoritarianism. She was featured in the documentary For Our Daughters, and her work has been published in Dunes Review, The Revealer, Fourth Genre, Hawai'i Pacific Review, and Newsweek, among others. She lives in Traverse City, Michigan, with her cat, Sherlock. Follow her at caitwest.com.

Grab a drink and join fellow writers each week to show up, sit down, and get words on the page. It can be easier to write when we're surrounded by the quiet energy of others who are engaged in the same pursuit, so come join us and see if it works for you! Any kind of writing or skill level welcome. No one will see what you've written or offer feedback or critique.
For more details: https://www.shutupwrite.com/series/id2x23Q2EgAJ

https://schulerbooks.com/event/2026-10-08/evening-kate-broad-and-sara-maurer

An Evening with Kate Broad and Sara Maurer

Join us for an evening with authors Kate Broad and Sara Maurer at our Ann Arbor location!

We’re excited to celebrate and discuss Greenwich, by Kate Broad, and A Good Animal, by Sara Maurer. 

We hope to see you there!

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/kate-broad-and-sara-maurer-sba2

About Greenwich:

A People Magazine "Best New Books" • A Vanity Fair Summer Read

"A stunning debut...Fast-paced, beautifully written, vividly peopled, Greenwich is impossible to put down.” — Adrienne Brodeur, bestselling author of Little Monsters

Summer, 1999. Rachel Fiske is almost eighteen when she arrives at her aunt and uncle’s mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut. Her glamorous aunt is struggling to heal from an injury, and Rachel wants to help—and escape her own troubles back home. But her aunt is oddly spacey and her uncle is consumed with business, and Rachel feels lonely and adrift, excluded from the world of adults and their secrets. The only bright spot is Claudia, a recent college graduate, aspiring artist, and the live-in babysitter for Rachel’s cousin. As summer deepens, Rachel eagerly hopes their friendship might grow into more.

But when a tragic accident occurs, Rachel must make a pivotal choice. Caught between her desire to do the right thing and to protect her future, she’s the only one who knows what really happened—and her decision has consequences far beyond what she could have predicted.

A riveting debut novel for readers of Celeste Ng and Liane Moriarty, Greenwich explores the nature of desire and complicity against the backdrop of immense wealth and privilege, the ways that whiteness and power protect their own, and the uneasy moral ambiguity of redemption.

About Kate Broad:

Kate Broad is the author of the Greenwich, which was named one of People’s Best New Books, a Vanity Fair Summer Read, and an Amazon Editors’ Pick for Best New Literature and Fiction. She is the recipient of the Gina Berriault Award, a Bronx Council on the Arts BRIO grant, and a Vermont Studio Center fellowship. Her writing has appeared in Literary Hub, Electric Literature, The Rumpus, No Tokens, Bellevue Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her next novel, Vanishing Points, will be out in summer 2027.  

About A Good Animal:

"A stunning, unforgettable, and deeply American novel." —Julia Phillips, National Book Award finalist and bestselling author of Bear and Disappearing Earth

"Maurer’s prose is undeniably beautiful and evocative." —Kirkus Reviews

A heart-wrenching coming-of-age debut novel by a stunning new voice in fiction, for readers of Barbara Kingsolver and Ann Patchett.

Staying is his dream. Leaving is hers. One secret threatens them both.

In the farm country outside Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan—a border town where life moves slow and dreams run fast—most kids want out. Not Everett Lindt. He’s set on staying put, rebuilding his family’s sheep farm, and carving a future from the land he loves.

Then he meets Mary, a new girl in town with restless energy and bigger plans. When their relationship reaches a crossroads, Everett sees a life together. Mary, however, is desperate to find a way out. Together, they make an impulsive choice—one that could change everything.

Tense, lyrical, and deeply felt, Sara Maurer's unforgettable debut breathtakingly captures the ache of first love, the beauty and brutality of rural life, and how one decision can echo through generations and shape who we become.

About Sara Maurer:

Sara Maurer is the author of A Good Animal, a Book of the Month Club pick and one of Chicago Review of Books' Most Anticipated Books of 2026. She earned her bachelor's degree from Albion College and her master's from Eastern Michigan University, and honed her creative writing craft while completing Stanford's Continuing Studies Novel Writing Certificate program. Her short fiction can be found in Dunes Review, Hominum Journal, and The Twin Bill. She lives with her family in Sault Ste. Marie. 

Bring your current writing project so you can enjoy some focused writing time while sipping fabulous tea alongside fellow Michigan Writers!

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Are you looking for accountability and camaraderie? Then please join fellow Michigan Writers for virtual co-writing sessions. Membership Chair Mandy Keskes hosts 90-minute virtual sessions twice a month for members to write alongside one another. 

Register here to join the email list and receive updates.

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2026 FALL CONFERENCE

19th Annual Rochester Writers’ Conference Overview

Fiction, Non Fiction, Craft, and Business Topics presented as Lectures, Workshops, and Panel Discussions. Featuring Michigan Authors, Speakers, Agents, and Educators.

• Saturday | October 17, 2026 | 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
  Held in the Oakland Center at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan
• Morning Keynote Address – Sara Maurer
• Afternoon Featured Speakers – Author Illustrator Team Karen and Darrin
• Literary Agent Panel – Meet our literary agents with this engaging Q&A session
• Self-Published Indie Author Panel – Q&A self-publishing session with three indie authors
• The Top Three Revision Techniques I Learned from my Editor
• Audio Book Narration
• Making The Most Of Your Book Signing
• Your Book Contract Is a Business Strategy: Understanding the Agreements That Shape Your Career
• First Page Critiques
• And More

Circulate! is a 1.5 hour workshop geared for authors in all stages of their careers. The workshop walks you through everything you need to know to get your books into bookstores and libraries from creating sell sheets to what distributors you need to be in, and lots more. Ealry bird pricing of $24 is on sale until 10/1. For more details 👉🏻 https://bit.ly/4yZPHji

This event is free and open to the public. 

Interested poets and attendees can register at:  https://www.saginawlibrary.org/event/hoyt-2nd-annual-poetry-slam-37035.

Poets will be competing for a $50 Visa Gift Card. 

There will be a panel of three judges: Elizabeth Detloff, Tanya Upthegrove Gregory, and Keairra Jones.

Bring your current writing project so you can enjoy some focused writing time while sipping fabulous tea alongside fellow Michigan Writers!

WRITE ACROSS GENERATIONS: A PROSE & POETRY WORKSHOP ROOTED IN MEMORY

Set in the quiet beauty of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, this workshop invites writers to explore how memory shapes our creative lives. Join Helen Raica-Klotz and Ellen Lord for a day of prose and poetry inspired by the stories we inherit, the places that hold us, and the moments that stay.

Helen will guide participants through prose exercises that transform lived experience into vivid narrative. Ellen will lead a poetry session focused on emotional truth, sensory recall, and the deep-rooted landscapes of personal history.

This generational workshop welcomes writers of all ages and experience levels. Come ready to remember, reflect, and write.

The schedule could be as follows:

10 am: coffee and introductions

10:30 am – 12 pm: Workshop One: Poetry with Ellen

12 – 1 pm: lunch and author panel discussion/reading

1 – 2:30 pm: Workshop Two: Prose with Helen

2:30 – 3 pm: readings from participants

Workshop Fee: $60 Per person, includes coffee/water, lunch and materials.

To Register: Call 906-484-1333 or REGISTER ONLINE

Nancy Houser-Bluhm and Josephine Jordin will be with The Crooked Nook Books offering books for sale and fun book swag. Come enjoy a glass of wine and fall colors while perusing books.

Nancy Houser Bluhm and Josephine Jordin will be with The Crooked Nook books Sunday October 25th. Come say hi and enjoy a little wine.

Bring your current writing project so you can enjoy some focused writing time while sipping fabulous tea alongside fellow Michigan Writers!

Two Michigan Writers members will be selected to read their spooky, ghost-themed, or otherwise paranormal and haunted writing by Bonnie Jo Campbell at her book launch and reading for The Spirits. 

About The Spirits: In this contemporary Christmas Carol, Bonnie Jo Campbell has created a complex, gritty, spooky, and ultimately heartwarming holiday story that unfolds in an isolated farmhouse. farmhouse. It is the night before Christmas in a small town in Michigan, and a young woman is haunted by her father’s death. She has been silently penitent for nine years, but being stuck in the past has embittered her, made her cut herself off emotionally from her community and her family, despite her deep devotion to them. When a surprising guest appears at the (dreaded) Christmas Eve dinner, the family opens up to reveal their secrets.  
Bonnie Jo Campbell is the author of The Waters, a Today Show “Read with Jenna” Book Club selection. Her other novels include Once Upon A River, a National Bestseller that was adapted into the award-winning film, and Q Road. Campbell’s short story collections include American Salvage, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award, and Women and Other Animals, an AWP Grace Paley Prize winner. She is a Guggenheim Fellow, and a recipient of the Eudora Welty Prize and Mark Twain Award. She lives outside Kalamazoo on a small farm with her husband and donkeys. Visit www.bonniejocampbell.net.