Labor Arts: The 35th Annual Bernard J. Firestone Labor Arts Tribute

The Wayne State University Employee Labor Relations Department, The Detroit Public Library, and The Detroit Writers' Guild present Labor Arts: The 35th Annual Bernard J. Firestone Labor Arts Tribute.

Featuring:

Jim Daniels

A native of Detroit, Michigan, poet and writer Jim Daniels lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His books include 2026 Michigan Notable Book winner An Ignorance of Trees: A Memoir in Essays (Cornerstone) and Late Invocation of Magic: New & Selected Poems (MSU Press 2026), The Luck of the Fall (Michigan State University Press, 2023), The Human Engine at Dawn (Wolfson Press, 2022) Gun/Shy (Wayne State University Press, 2021), and Rowing Inland (Wayne State University Press, 2017). With M. L. Liebler, he co-edited the anthology RESPECT: The Poetry of Detroit Music (Michigan State University Press, 2020).

Daniels has received support from two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and two fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts. His books have won four Michigan Notable Book Awards, the Brittingham Prize for Poetry, the Blue Lynx Prize for Poetry, the Tillie Olsen Creative Writing Award, the Milton Kessler Award, and three Gold Medals in the Independent Publisher Book Awards, among other honors, and his films have won awards in film festivals around the world. His work has been published in The Best American Poetry and in Pushcart Prize volumes.

Jan Beatty

Jan Beatty's eighth book, Dragstripping, was published by the University of pittsburgh Press in Fall 2024. She was featured in POETRY Magazine in December 2024. Beatty is the winner of the Red Hen Nonfiction Award for her memoir, American Bastard, October 2021. A chapbook, Skydog, was published by Lefty Blondie Press in 2022. Her sixth book, The Body Wars, was published in Fall 2020 by the University of Pittsburgh Press. In the New York Times, Naomi Shihab Nye said: Jan Beatty's new poems in "The Body Wars" shimmer with luminous connection, travel a big life and grand map of encounters. Beatty is at work on her ninth full-length book, a collection of essays about gender and censorship. Other books include Jackknife: New and Collected Poems (2018 Paterson Prize) named by Sandra Cisneros on LitHub as her favorite book of 2019. Sponsored by The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College, it's a national prize for the strongest collection of poems published in 2018. Of Jackknife, poet and Poetry Center Director maria Mazziotti Gillan said: "Jackknife is a book that secures Jan's place in American literature as one of the fiercest and bravest poets writing today." Beatty's fourth book, The Switching/Yard, was named by Library Journal as one of ...30 New Books That Will Help You Rediscover Poetry. The Huffinton Post called her one of ten "advanced women poets for required reading." Beatty's work has been published in The Atlantic, The New York Times Sunday magazine, Poetry, BuzzFeed, North American Review, and Best American Poetry.

Stephen Jones

A working-class singer songwriter and published poet. His music appears on several CDs and his poetry book from Moon Center Books in Philadelphia entitled Ruined Mountain.

Tony Paris

Tony Paris is a Detroit-based songwriter and performer, fronting the band Tony Paris & The Sugarburn. he also works for the Maurice & Jane Sugar Law Center for Economic & Social justice where he specializes in workers' rights and Detroit labor history.

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