John Jeffire

POETS FOLLIES READINGS SERIES
Presents John Jeffire Thursday, May 21, 7pm
John Jeffire is the author of Motown Burning, a novel set during the 1967 Detroit Riot and its aftermath.   In 2005, the book was named Grand Prize Winner in the Mount Arrowsmith Novel Competition and won a Gold Medal for Regional Fiction in the Independent Publisher Awards.  Jeffire’s stories, poems, and essays have appeared in magazines and journals such as Parenting, The English Journal, America , Into the Teeth of the Wind, and The South Coast Poetry Journal.  His first book of poetry, Stone + Fist + Brick + Bone, is now available at The Aquarius Press on its Living Detroit Series.  Pulitzer Prize winner Philip Levine calls the book “a terrific one for our city.”

Jeffire, this year’s winner of Springfed Arts-Metro Detroit Writers Fiction Contest for The Deep End, also won first prize in 2007 for an excerpt from River Rouge.

In 2008, the full manuscript for River Rouge was a finalist for the University of Michigan Literary Fiction Awards, while Stone + Fist + Brick + Bone has been nominated for the 2009 Michigan Notable Book Award.

Born in Detroit of Armenian descent, he was raised in the East End of Dearborn, a southern suburb of Detroit.  Later, his parents bought a bar in Ohio , where he spent his formative years tending bar, bouncing, and cooking.  He was formally educated at St. Lawrence University, Northeastern University, and Boston University.  He has taught at Northeastern, Heidelberg College, The University of Findlay, and for three years at The Allen Correctional Institute, a medium security prison.

Wrestling has also been an important part of his life.  He took part in several hundred bouts as an athlete, and his 1995 team at The University of Findlay won the small college national championship, earning Jeffire NAIA national collegiate coach of the year honors.  In 1997, he was enshrined in the Hancock County (OH) Athletic Hall of Fame and in 2006 he was inducted into The University of Findlay’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

He currently lives in Clinton Township, MI, with his wife, daughter, son, and two hyperactive Jack Russells.

Tonja Bagwell, Wixom poet and SA-MDW member, will read before John Jeffire.
She has a BA in English/Journalism and is a full-time graduate student working on an MA in Professional Counseling. She is the author of a book of poetry, ‘Sunrise of Revelations’, available at www.jafansta.com. She also writes letters, essays, articles, and short stories.

The Poets Follies Reading series is a free admission event held at Ewald Branch Library, 15175 East Jefferson, Grosse Pointe Park, 48230, 313-343-2071. Free and open to the public.