BOOK SPARKY: 826michigan Fundraiser Reading

826michigan has been providing free creative writing programs to K-12 students in Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Ypsilanti for 20 years! Eli Sparkman (Book Suey Member-Owner) has been teaching there for 3. Most recently, his team partnered 80 second graders to write GIVE THEM THEIR FLOWERS, 20 pollinator stories based on plants in the Belle Isle Conservatory. These stories will be published in a book and on special exhibit in the Belle Isle Conservatoy thoughout June 2025.

This reading/fundraiser will feature a visiting writer, Lindsey Drager (one of Eli's favorite novelists!) and 3 more of his favorite local writers: Aiko Fukuchi, Robert Laidler, and Denise R. Ervin (his colleague at 826michigan). Eli will read as well.

These authors have gathered around Eli's birthday to gain support for youth authors in the southeastern Michigan! All proceeds from the event go to 826michigan.

Per the tiered tickets below: If you commission a piece of writing from Eli, please email your topic directly to him at elijahsparkman22@gmail.com. Donators will recieve their commissioned writing by August 26th (8/26), 2025.

TIERED TICKETS

$8.26: General Admission:

$18.26: General Admission + one student publication

$28.26: General Admission + one student publication + an 826 word story written by Eli about a topic of your choice

$82.60: General Admission + one student publication + an 8,260 word story written by Eli about a topic of your choice

$826: General Admission + one student publication + an 820 paragraph story written by Eli about a topic of your choice NOTE: Do not purchase this ticket on Eventbrite, instead make a direct donation to 826michigan, so the fee can be avoided.

If you cannot attend, or the event has sold out, and you would still like to make a donation, you can do so at: https://giving.classy.org/campaign/676063/donate

Author BIOS

Lindsey Drager is the author of four books of fiction, all published by Dzanc: The Sorrow Proper, 2015; The Lost Daughter Collective, 2017; The Archive of Alternate Endings, 2019; and The Avian Hourglass, 2024. These books have won a Shirley Jackson Award, been finalists for two Lambda Literary Awards, and have variously been translated into Spanish and Italian. Recent fiction can be found (or is forthcoming) in Conjunctions, The Iowa Review, The Southern Review, Kenyon Review, Colorado Review, and elsewhere. A 2020 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship recipient in Prose, winner of the 2022 Bard Fiction Prize, and recipient of a 2025 O. Henry Prize and 2025 Pushcart Prize, she is currently a faculty member in the creative writing program at the University of Utah and the fiction editor of West Branch literary journal. She is a collector of vintage cameras, a person who collages, someone who runs, and a (very) amateur gardener.

Robert Laidler is an assistant professor at Wayne State and the author of a poetic libretto, The Fallen Petals of Nameless Flowers, which premiered at Chamber Music Detroit in 2022. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan's Helen Zell Writing Program.

Aiko Fukuchi is a writer and community builder living in Detroit, Michigan. Their writing explores connections between personal and collective memory, and how this impacts the body. Most recently, they were selected for the 2021 BULK SPACE Residency and co-founded Relentless Bodies, a creative disability justice collective. Aiko is currently completing their chapbook, "The First Mirror is a Night Sky."

Denise R. Ervin is a creative writer hewn from the streets, classrooms, and boardrooms of Detroit. She has spent two decades as a teaching artist, performing poetry around the country, and leading workshops for the likes of Midnight & Indigo and University of Michigan. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Vagabond City Lit, Harbinger Asylum, Third Wednesday Magazine, and others. She is a Graduate Fellow at The Watering Hole and a semifinalist for America’s Next Great Author. When she's not serving as a Program Manager for a local youth writing organization, Denise is working on several novel projects and her first full-length poetry manuscript, tentatively titled Palimpsest.

Elijah Sparkman is a writer based in Detroit. His writing has appeared in ANMLY, Sleepingfish, 3:AM Magazine, and X-R-A-Y. He is the Program and Volunteer Coordinator for 826michigan, a youth creative writing organization. He is a member-owner of the co-op bookstore Book Suey in Hamtramck, MI. Website: https://elijahsparkman.com Instagram: @elijahsparkman20