The Meijer Visiting Writers Series featuring Jeff Kass

Name: The Meijer Visiting Writers Series featuring Jeff Kass
Start: 2025-11-13T19:00:00-05:00
Location: Anspach Hall

Schedule

Thu, 13 Nov, 2025 at 07:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

Anspach Hall | Mount Pleasant, MI

Please join us on Thursday, November 13 at 7pm in Anspach Hall, Room 161 at Central Michigan University for a reading by poet, Jeff Kass!
Kass's new book, TRUE BELIEVER features poems inspired by the Marvel universe, and engages with not only the larger-than-life comic characters—but also the other ordinary heroes and villains among us.

This event is free and open to all, will feature a Q and A and a book signing, and refreshments will be provided.

Please plan to be there, and spread the word to anyone you know who loves Marvel, and/or awesome poetry!
Jeff Kass teaches Tenth Grade English and Creative Writing at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor MI. He’s the award-winning author of Knuckleheads, Independent Publishers Best Short Fiction Collection of 2011, as well as two previous full-length poetry collections, My Beautiful Hook-nosed Beauty Queen Strut Wave and Teacher/Pizza Guy, a 2020 Michigan Notable Book and runner-up for Midwest Book Award. He is the winner of the 2024 Toledo Museum of Art Ekphrastic Poetry Contest and a featured poetry instructor with the Michigan Learning Channel. He’s taught poetry classes and workshops to thousands of students, and is a recipient of a prestigious 2023 Jack Hazard Fellowship for writers who teach in public schools. His newest poetry collection, True Believer, from Dzanc Books, consists of poems that spin around and through Marvel Comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Here is some praise about Kass and his new book:

“In a world where problems can feel insurmountable, True Believer reminds us that no gift is too small to make a make; reminds us that there’s a hero in us all if we can find a way to trust in ourselves and each other.” (—Lauren Whitehead, writer, performer, professor at NYU Tisch School of Arts)

“Kass will smash! In this clever, wise, and dare I say FUN collection your soon-to-be favorite poet-storyteller smashes Marvel superheroes against Jewish folklore, against systemic American violence, against masculinity—all with earnest grace. I turned these pages expecting to see love donning a cape and washboard abs as it pulled the wounded from a burning building. Instead, I walk away feeling that love is how any one of us, at any moment, might rise into private, extraordinary courage.” (—Shira Erlichman, author of Odes to Lithium)

Hope to see you there!