Today in Lansing: REO Town Reading Series at Blue Owl Coffee

REO Town Reading Series

7:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Blue Owl Coffee

1149 S Washington Ave, Lansing

Click here for event page

THURSDAY, Jan. 31 一 Defrost yourself with a toasty latte as four of Lansing’s poetry and prose pioneers orate their original works for the REO Town Reading Series.

Readers Emily Wacyk, Anthony Mondal and Samantha Rose will open up the night before featured novelist Dawn Chevoya takes the stage. Matthew Rossi will host.

“I started telling this story to my grandkids since they were little boys,” Chevoya said. “ I thought one day maybe I’ll write it. It’s not like I lived my life wishing to be a writer 一 it was just fun.”

Set in 1995 in the tiny wooded town of Slapneck, Michigan, Chevoya will read two sections of her novel “Trapper’s Grounding.” The book details a young man discovering family secrets in the woods.

“I love and miss the woods. In the story, the family is bequeathed a 60-acre property and they go camping out there. Then something strange happens.”

Chevoya never actually went to Slapneck before writing the book, but the quirkiness of the word stuck with her, she said.

The main character is modeled after a hearty woodsy phenomenon 一 fungus.

“He is connected to a kingdom of fungus because fungus survives even in the most adverse conditions.”

Aside from writing, Chevoya spends her time working as a Cooley Law School librarian. She has been there for 21 years.

To be able to share original works with the community is a great thing, Chevoya said. “I feel very fortunate to be able to read from my book.”

She will be the subject of another reading at Everybody Reads Books and Stuff on Feb. 23

“This is the first one I’ve ever done and I’ve been practicing a lot.”

For more information, visit www.facebook.com/REOTownReading