Tagged: writing

This piece featured on Stateside is part of an ongoing series called The Living Room, curated by Allison Downey.

"There are those for whom fishing is not only a family tradition, but a creative act: Michigan-based writer and fisherman, Pete Markus is in that category. The river and fishing inspire his work. And his writing is a hybrid of fiction and poetry. He's got this tendency to say volumes with just a few words that he repeats over and over again. Words like fish, river and Bob," Downey reported.

Pete Markus is a 2012 Kresge Literary Arts Fellow, who teaches writing in Detroit Public Schools. Producer Zak Rosen spent time fishing and talking with Markus on the Detroit River. You can listen to the audio above.

Written by Jack Nelson

Written by Katie Caralis

It's been more than 13 years, but I can still hear the voice of the man who spent my childhood selling peanuts outside Tiger Stadium. “Threee dollas innsiiide, ooone dolla heeere!” My dad always bought the one-dollar peanuts knowing half the shells would be empty, just like the half-empty seats, the Tigers being a losing team for most of the '90s, and the half-empty city, Detroit on the decline. Beaming, Dad would take my excited hand and lead me across the long bridge, over the broken glass and potholes, passed the burned-out buildings, up the winding blue ramp and inside the park we knew was magic, inside the city we knew was beautiful.

Katie Caralis is one of the winners of Michigan Radio's One Minute Michigan Story Writing Contest. Allison Downey read the story.

Written by Timothy Kooy

Throw out the nostalgic native story about a mother protecting her cubs and Sleeping Bear Dunes is a fiery heat trap.  My family and I set off on a leisurely hike across the picturesque, gently rolling dunes.  The sun blared down on the sand dune inferno, and what had begun as leisure quickly morphed into hellish wandering.  We had our map and we had our destination, but the scorching sun never ceased.  Like a family of desert nomads we wandered up and down the zillion hills.  Finally, at the bottom of THIS dune we saw the perfect oasis, the cool blue gaze of Lake Michigan inviting us to quench our sweltering, sweat-dripping bodies.

Timothy Kooy was one of the winners of Michigan Radio's One Minute Michigan Story Writing Contest. Keith Taylor read the story.

Seven years ago, political science professor Ron Stockton was mentoring a student from Poland who was struggling with a writing assignment. So Stockton told her to imagine she was writing a letter to her great-grandchildren describing her life here as an immigrant. The student loved the idea, got super excited, and spread the word about Stockton’s technique.