Am I thrilled that Your Silent Face gets a brief mention in Kelsey Ronan’s article, “7 Books That Tell the Stories of Flint and Detroit”? You’re dang right, I am.

I will never forget reading Ben Hamper’s Rivethead in the early 90s at 8104 Carroll Lane, Silver Spring, Maryland. When I finished the last page, I rolled over in my bed and wept. For about six months, I seriously wondered if I should ever write anything remotely connected to Flint ever again (ha! but seriously). I had left and it was unlikely that I would ever capture it the way Ben Hamper did, or so I thought at the time. I was 23 or 24 years old. I had yet to figure out how I wanted to do it. I was at the time primarily a poet, but I was trying to write stories, too.

Check out Kelsey’s article. Kelsey and I will be reading at The Robin Books, 1105 S. Washington, Lansing, at 3p.m. on Saturday, May 14.