COFFEE WITH THE AUTHORS BOOK DISCUSSION

The Glen Arbor Arts Center hosts Leelanau County writers Jacob Wheeler and Anne-Marie Oomen for coffee and conversation about their newly published nonfiction books. The Coffee With The Authors book discussion is November 26, 11 am at the GAAC, 6031 S. Lake St., Glen Arbor. Both writers have won recognition for their writing, but their writing springs from different sources: Anne-Marie’s from personal history; Jacob’s from deeply researched journalism. Both writers will talk about the process of making, and publishing their books.

In his second book, Angel of the Garbage Dump, Jacob Wheeler executes an in-depth, feeling portrait of Maine native, the late Hanley Denning, who saw poverty and desperation in its ugliest form, and refused to turn a blind eye. A former track star at Bowdoin College, Denning was struck by what she saw at a city dump in Guatemala: garbage pickers competing with vultures for the food dumped by trucks, toddlers playing amidst rats. Wheeler details Denning’s efforts to create Safe Passage, a nonprofit organization focused on bringing significant and lasting change to the garbage pickers and their children. Wheeler is editor and publisher of the Glen Arbor Sun, which he founded in 1996; adjunct faculty with Northwestern Michigan College; and adviser to the staff of NMC’s White Pine Press.

As Long As I Know You narrates Anne-Marie Oomen’s journey to finally knowing her mother – as her mother’s memories are being erased by dementia. It explores how humor and compassion grow belatedly between a mother and daughter who don’t much like each other. It’s a personal map to find a mother who may have been there all along, then losing her again in the time of Covid. As Long As I Know You is the recipient of the Sue William Silverman Prize for Creative Nonfiction. Oomen is the author of six books of prose and poetry, and seven plays.

Coffee With The Authors is free. For more information, go to GlenArborArt.org, or call 231/334-6112.