{"id":75001,"date":"2026-07-01T00:47:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T04:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/?p=75001"},"modified":"2026-07-01T00:47:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T04:47:14","slug":"july-9-black-summers-at-southfield-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/2026\/07\/01\/july-9-black-summers-at-southfield-library\/","title":{"rendered":"July 9: Black Summers at Southfield Library"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Thursday July 9, from 6-8 PM join us at the Southfield Public Library<\/a> for a discussion on editor Desiree Cooper’s new anthology: BLACK SUMMERS.Authors Zig Zag Claybourne and Keith A. Owens will be joining Desiree Cooper for this event. Cooper’s appearance will be live via Zoom. Book Beat will have books already presigned   <\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n

Zig Zag Claybourne<\/strong>: Hailed by Book Riot in 2021 as one of the \u201c6 Black indie SFF writers you should Be reading,\u201d Zig Zag Claybourne is the author of the newly released fantasy Breath, Warmth, and Dream<\/i> (2024). Other works include The Brothers Jetstream: Leviathan<\/i> (2016) and its sequel Afro Pu?s Are the Antennae of the Universe<\/i> (2020); By All Our Violent Guides<\/i> (2013); Neon Lights<\/i> (2011); and Conversations with Idras<\/i> (2021). His stories and essays have appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction<\/i>, Apex<\/i>, Realm<\/i> (formerly Serial Box), Galaxy\u2019s Edge<\/i>, GigaNotosaurus<\/i>, Strange Horizons<\/i>, The Year\u2019s Best African Speculative Fiction <\/i>(2021), and numerous anthologies. A 2021 Kresge Literary arts Fellow, Claybourne is a frequent speaker at libraries, conventions, and learning institutions.<\/p>\n

Keith A. Owens <\/strong>is a veteran journalist who has won a number of awards and worked at a variety of newspapers across the country, including the Detroit Free Press<\/i>, the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel<\/i>, and The Denver Post<\/i>. A nationally syndicated columnist in the early \u201990s, he also authored the biweekly column \u201cFree your mind\u201d for five years in the Detroit Metro Times<\/i>, ending in 2006. Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, Owens moved to Detroit in 1993, and is the author of the three- book The Mayonnaise Murders <\/i>series (2013\u2013 23), Fire and Wanda <\/i>(2014), and the children\u2019s book Who Stole the Zmulobeast<\/i>? (2014). a professional musician for more than the Windsor Blues Festival, and the international Blues Competition in Memphis, Tennessee. In 2019, Owens cofounded the literary journal Detroit Stories Quarterly<\/i>, featuring science fiction, fantasy, horror, nonfiction, and experimental narratives based in (and around) the Motor City. In 2025, he was inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Thursday July 9, from 6-8 PM join us at the Southfield Public Library for a discussion on editor Desiree Cooper’s new anthology: BLACK SUMMERS.Authors Zig Zag Claybourne and Keith A. Owens will be joining Desiree Cooper for this event. Cooper’s appearance will be live via Zoom. Book Beat will have books already presigned    […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75001\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}