Poet Glenn Shaheen
Audience members at the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center last Saturday, may have heard readings from poet Glenn Shaheen.
Click to hear part of “Moderate Division Techniques.” It’s one of many poems from Shaheen’s book Predatory that came out last summer. Shaheen teaches at Western Michigan University and is working on his Ph.D in creative writing. A lot of Shaheen’s poetry centers around shared emotions and experiences in American society. Shaheen says Predatory focuses on fear.
[Glenn Shaheen] “It’s a very sort of ADHD of ideas and imagery in an attempt to replicate this panic that we feel as a society that, in a large part, I feel is unjustified—the panic. It’s in politicians best interests and in the media’s best interests for society or citizens to be in panic. If you can make people scared to not vote for the other person, then they’ll vote for you. If you can make people scared to not buy your product or tune into your TV station, then well...It’s a very carnal emotion and a very powerful emotion.”
But Predatory isn’t just about using fear to control the masses, Shaheen says it’s also about the fear of losing love and how fear has the ability to bring people together.
[Glenn Shaheen] “Because when something really terrible happens, it’s a way that people can reevaluate their lives or think ‘Well, I’m a part of this awful thing.’”
Shaheen emphasizes this idea in the book’s title poem, “Predatory,” where he writes ‘Let’s all reminisce about September 11th again, where we were, what we were doing.’ Though these poems may seem a little dark, Shaheen uses humor and sarcasm to balance out the gloom.
Shaheen says his next works will focus on the feeling of being part of a community…or the lack thereof.
[Glenn Shaheen] "Connectivity exists from a legal standpoint but not from a personal or emotional standpoint in the way that it should. You know, somebody cuts us off, we shouldn’t honk at them or flash our lights at them. Or somebody’s driving too slow, we shouldn’t pull a gun out of the glove box and wave it at them. Clearly, that’s illegal. But people should take into consideration others and the fact that we’re all part of a community.”
Click here to see Glenn Shaheen's scheduled poetry readings.
A writer's struggle after achieving success
Southwest Michigan novelist D.E. Johnson is author of “The Detroit Electric Scheme,” which was released in 2010, and now “Motor City Shakedown,” which came out late last year. Johnson is gaining perspective and experience in the world of writing and publishing sellable books. WMUK’s Lorraine Caron has this report:
When Dan Johnson and I first talked 16 months ago, his mystery “The Detroit Electric Scheme” had just hit bookstores. Since then he’s received a Michigan Notable Book Award for his historically sound debut novel, which is set in Detroit 1911, and he’s written and published the follow-up “Motor City Shakedown.” That one came out late last year and it, too, has won a Michigan Notable Book Award. Now Johnson is editing the third book in the series. Due out this fall “Detroit Breakdown” continues the saga of Will Anderson, a fictional member of a real early 20th-century family that owned the Detroit Electric auto company. In the book Anderson is seeking revenge for a murder.
Johnson is 53-years-old and, by day he’s a manager for a Kalamazoo-area real estate office. He says he’s always been driven to write, and his family has given him lots of support for his writing over the years. And, while Johnson is happy for the success his books are starting to achieve, and the feeling of validation that brings him, he says he would still be writing, even without the accolades.
[D.E. Johnson] “I was happier during the time that I was learning how to write that I had ever been before. And, I worked 60-70 hours a week on writing. That’s all I did. Nowadays, I get up at 5 in the morning so I’ve got time to get in a couple hours of writing. And when I get home from work is when I tend to work on marketing and other things for my books. But, I look forward to getting up early to write…it’s who I am. The attraction for me is that it transports me even more than it would a reader. I get to live in the world of the book and really be the primary participant.”
In 2010, flush with the excitement of the successful debut novel under his belt, Johnson says he eagerly set about writing the second. During that process he says he learned a lot about his art-form and the whole business of writing.
[D.E. Johnson] “I started with a two-book contract from St. Martin’s, so the first book was done and I started writing the second one and in about a year I delivered a manuscript to my editor and she was much less enthusiastic than I was. (laughs) I had made a tactical error in not writing a mystery. I thought the second and possible third books would be books of revenge, or thrillers, rather than mysteries. But she said that would probably end my career, because people who had read the first book would no longer think of me as a mystery writer and we’d lose audience. She was right! So I spent four months revising, really rewriting the book, and it ended up being much stronger.
[Johnson] "And, I think from her perspective and from the publishers perspective what I’ve done now is written what they consider to be the right type of book for commercial success. They are in business to make money by selling books and if the books don’t sell well enough, that’s the end. So it really isn’t about the art so much as it is about the commercial success of a project.”
The author has now received a contract from St. Martin’s Publishing for a fourth book in the series.
D.E. Johnson will discuss his new book “Motor City Shakedown” Tuesday, February 7th at 6:30 p.m. at the Washington Square Branch of the Kalamazoo Public Library.
Other Events:
A Civil War style band will be playing at the Michigan Historical Museum in Lansing on Saturday, February 4th at 1 p.m. The 5th Michigan Volunteer Infantry will be playing as part of the last weekend visitors can see Plowshares Into Swords, the museum’s Civil War exhibit.
Listen to the music of Charlene Jones Clark and other artists while helping to end heart disease on Saturday. Money from the Women with Heart Rock concert at the Livery benefits the American Heart Association. The performance starts at 8 p.m.
The Girl Scouts Heart of Michigan is hosting their annual Girls Development summit on Saturday in the Fetzer Center on Western Michigan University’s campus. The summit is designed to help parents, mentors, and youth professionals to teach girls how to life healthy and successful lives as they mature. Click here to get more details.
Come meet author of The Green-Eyed Necklace: The Revolution of Xerta, Christ Walker, on Saturday. The fantasy author will be holding a book signing from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Take a free public tour of the Kalamazoo Institute of Art’s collection of works from African American Artists. The tour starts at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
Opera Star Samuel Ramey will be performing for free in Miller Auditorium at WMU on Sunday. Ramey will be accompanied by the WMU Collegiate Singers and the University Orchestra. The concert will be at 3 p.m.
