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“Annual Midwest Literary Walk”: Chelsea District Library
A major event in the local literary year, this day of readings and talks at different Chelsea locations is highlighted by Nathan Pyle (4:30 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 128 Park), who discusses his insightful, weird, perspective-shifting comic collections Strange Planet, Stranger Planet, and NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette, as well as his children’s books such as Tuck Me! Strange Planet began as a webcomic series, was published as a book, and finally, adapted into an Apple TV series in 2023 with Pyle as executive producer. Also, Métis storyteller Chris La Tray (1 p.m., Main Street Church, 320 N. Main), an enrolled member of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians and Montana’s Poet Laureate from 2023–2025, reads from his lauded memoir Becoming Little Shell, which combines a history of the Métis people with La Tray’s own search to find a place within them; and Romanian-born prize-winning poet Carmen Bugan (3 p.m., First Congregational Church, 121 E. Middle) reads from her memoir, Burying the Typewriter, and her poetry collections Time Being and Crossing the Carpathians, which draw inspiration from her family’s oppression and rebellion in 1980s Romania. The day begins with a Purple Rose Theatre Company Concert Reading (10 a.m., Purple Rose Theatre, 137 Park, preregistration required at tinyurl.com/mlw-purple-4-18-26), where company members perform scenes from several plays written by Michigan playwrights, including a new work by founder Jeff Daniels (who is not present today); the audience is invited to give feedback. 10 a.m.–6 p.m., various downtown locations, Chelsea. Free. midwestliterarywalk.org.
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