When robotier, in-school resident, workshop leader, and ONWARD ROBOTS kickball team member Amy Wilson told us a few months ago that she was going to be on Jeopardy!, we were THRILLED. When she came back from the taping and implied that the experience, while incredibly positive, wasn't exactly lucrative, we were STILL THRILLED.

Last night, after MONTHS of waiting, the episode finally aired. We, of course, tuned it. We, of course, found it delightful. For the first round, Amy didn't score well, but it seemed to be because the returning champ was quicker on the buzzer than she was. She answered everything she got through on correctly. In the second round, she OWNED the Shakespeare category (that's our girl!), bringing her total to $10,000. The returning champ had almost $20,000. Final Jeopardy: A Seinfeld question that Amy got right and the returning champ didn't, thereby making AMY WILSON THE NEW JEOPARDY CHAMPION.

This was, in a word, T H R I L L I N G. Watch Amy Wilson as the returning champion tonight at 7:30! (You can't imagine how proud/happy/excited it makes us to know that one of our sweetest, funniest, and cleverest volunteers has done something so cool. YOU, however, can sign up to take the spring workshop she's teaching, Famous Lady Writers and You: Electric Boogaloo, here.)

 
Friday, April 16, 2010 – Good Stuff, Etcs.

Hello! Happy Friday. I hope this blog finds you well. We wanted to share something with you today, but we didn't know what it was, initially. A quick five-minute brainstorm elicited enough good things to share that I've made an executive decision. That's right: Bullet-pointed list.

• Tutoring! Do we still have it? YES! Is it still FREE? YES! We are quite pleased to tell you that we have a TON of tutors right now: Eager, creative, intelligent, caring tutors, just waiting to work with your kids! Tutoring happens, as ever, Monday through Thursday from 3:30 to 5:30pm. It's a drop-in program, so come whenever there's work that needs to be done! Call us if you have questions!
• Don't Stay Up So Late: A Treasury of Bedtime Stories, our new in-school publication, was delivered to the printer yesterday! That means that in just six short weeks, we'll hold a gorgeous, hardcover, fully illustrated collection of fables, make believes, mysteries, and tall tales in our mitts. All written by about a hundred and fifty students participating in our In-school Residency at Erickson Elementary in Ypsilanti! We'll have more details on the release party soon.
• Mustache-a-Thon IV wrap-up! We concluded our fourth hair-(and fund-)raising event on Monday night. Melanie Maxwell at Annarbor.com has put together a beautiful slide show of all our growers. Check it out here! Thanks, Melanie! And thanks also to our growers, who managed to raise over nine thousand dollars for our free student programs!
• Spring Workshop Schedule. It's *almost* full. Click here to sign up for workshops, before it's too late!
• Great Lakes, Great Times Reading Series. It happens next Saturday, April 24, at 7pm here at 826. This free reading series features the incomparable Deb Olin Unferth, the talented Jeff Parker, and the amazing Kendra Grant Malone. Our advice? Get here early. This event will be packed! And THEN:
• Join us the next day, April 25, for an Adult Writing Seminar! That's right, we've added another workshop to our How to Write Like I Do series for adults. We are thrilled to present: Deb Olin Unferth/A Lot Less: Writing a Very, Very Short Story. Click here for more details and to register.
• National Poetry Month is still going strong on our website. Check out our daily poems here. Aaaaand don't forget to follow our twitter feed. In addition to news, events, anecdotes, and more, we publish one 826oneforty submission every day!

Okay, I think we'll let you digest that for a while. There's information on the Seven AM Challenge, which Eric, our tutoring intern, and I completed this week, here, in a quite lengthy Annarbor.com blog. Have a great weekend!

 
Wednesday, April 7, 2010 – Stuff that is Neat, Stuff We Enjoy

Hello! Greetings from just inside the Liberty Street Robot Supply & Repair. We have a sunny bit of news to share with you all on this rainy spring day. (By the way, did any locals hear that astounding stomp of thunder at a little after 9am this morning? Spectacular! I'm pretty sure my cat will not come out from under my bed until next week.)

Are you guys familiar with Lara Zielin? She's the writer of delightful young adult books like Donut Days and Make Things Happen, the teacher of the popular publishing workshop called Teen Ink, which we offered as part of our Winter Workshop Schedule, one of the judges in the library's Peeps contest, and a wonderful person to sit next to at a dinner party.

Furthermore, she has a lovely blog called Lara Writes. And very recently, she offered her readers a challenge, wherein $1 was donated to 826michigan for every comment readers left on her blog. Long story short (for once): She raised $400 for 826michigan! Check out the results on her blog, and THANK YOU LARA!

 
Thursday, April 1, 2010 – National Poetry Month!

As you may know, April is National Poetry Month. As part of NPM, poets are challenged to write thirty poems in thirty days, one for each day of the month. To that end, we've decided to devote our Feature of the Month to just that. Check back here every day to see a new poem written by 826michigan students, volunteers, and supporters.

(If you are interested in submitting a poem, please email me at Amy[at]826michigan[dot]org.)

 
Monday, March 29, 2010 – This is Too Exciting to Adequately Title. Bear with Us.

Perhaps you've heard about the event we're planning for May. It's called the Storymaker's Dinner, and if that's not enough for you:

• It takes place at Zingerman's Roadhouse, and if that's not enough for you,
• Dave Eggers will be on hand to talk about his new book, Zeitoun, and if that's not enough for you, It features a New Orleans inspired menu, and if that's not enough for you,
• One of our very favorite teachers, Quinn Strassel from Huron High, will be on hand to discuss our work in his classroom this year, and if that's not enough for you,
• Some of Quinn's students* will be on hand to share stories from our latest chapbook, Talking Back, Giving Thanks, and Why It Never Pays to Drink the Haterade, and if that's not enough for you,
• The money raised will go toward our next in-school publication, and if that's not enough for you,
• If you'll pardon my saying, what's the MATTER with you? Because we're *pretty sure* this event has it, well, ALL.

The Storymaker's Dinner takes place on Thursday, May 6 at 6:30pm at Zingerman's Roadhouse, 2501 Jackson Ave in Ann Arbor. Space is limited, so do not tarry! You can click here to order your tickets right now!

* Last Friday night, we teamed up with our friends in the Michigan Education Reform Club for a tribute to education, where MERC members, substitute teachers, teachers, and our very own Huron High students read their work. Check out this picture of Justin, also known as Fuzz, who wrote one of our very favorite pieces in the chapbook about being evicted from his home and the affect it had on his schooling:

 
Monday, March 15, 2010 – We're Planning a BIG Saturday.

Do you have plans this Saturday? If you do, you'll want to break them. If you don't, we've taken care of everything for you. Join us this Saturday morning and night for two uniquely fun and fabulous events!

Saturday morning, we're planning a little get-together to celebrate our mascot's anniversary. Colby the service dog has been helping out people in our community for five years! Join us for snacks and activities (aimed at five to ten year olds). You'll want to stop by if for no other reason than to pet Colby, who is, hands down, the sweetest dog in the world. I'm pretty sure she'll be fresh from the dog-o-mat and ready to snuggle! For more information, click here. This event is free and open to the public! It happens here at 826michigan from 10 to 11:30am on Saturday.

THEN you have the afternoon to yourself. The weather's supposed to be lovely, so may I suggest walking around downtown and eating outdoors. At about 6:45, though, you should hustle back to 826michigan for this month's installment of the Great Lakes, Great Times Reading Series. This month is, well, Really Big. Dan Chaon (!!!! -- I sort of can't type his name without parenthetically putting in a bunch of exclamation points, as it turns out), Laura van den Berg, and Christian TeBordo will read from their illustrious bodies of work. Click here for more information on each writer. The reading starts around 7pm, is free to the public (although it should be noted, this is not a family friendly event), AND is a great way to start your Saturday night, promise.

Have a great week, and I hope to see you at one (or both) of these things this weekend!

 
Monday, March 1, 2010 – Feature of the Month: 826oneforty!

March’s Feature of the Month is: 826oneforty, or, as I like to write it, 826.140.

Are you guys familiar with twitter? We realize there are mixed thoughts on twitter and what it “means about young people,” HOWEVER, we are, with this project, hoping to make twitter a way to get people writing again. Writing what, you ask? Very Short Stories. In fact, stories that are under one hundred and forty characters.

And thus we present: 826oneforty, the brainchild of February Volunteer of the Month Sarah Dawn Johnson.

How does it work? Well, simply go here. Fill out the fields, and your submission to 826oneforty will be spirited away to our submission panel. Be sure to check our twitter feed! Every day, at noon exactly, we will post the very best submissions.

Handy links! 826oneforty. Our twitter feed. Check it out right now, we just posted our first winner!

 
Monday, March 1, 2010 – Volunteers of the Month for March 2010

Our ELL Team!

 
Monday, February 22, 2010 – Dates to Know and Love.

Hi! As many of you know, we run on the Ann Arbor Public School calendar. Which means that if there is no school, there's no tutoring, and likely no workshops. This goes for vacations and snow days. AAPS is closed this week for mid-winter break (hilariously, it would have surely been a snow day today, but hooray for Ypsi: another snow day!).

Here's a handy list of dates we will not be running programs (the office and store will still be open, so fear not; if you run out of Robot Tears or need a new Positronic Brain, you're in luck!):

- No tutoring at 826michigan the week of Monday, February 22
- No tutoring at West Middle School on Thursday, February 25
- No Drop-in Writing tonight, February 22, or next Monday, March 1
- No Drop-in ELL this Saturday, February 27

That's it for now. Get out in that snow and we hope to see you soon!

 
Friday, February 12, 2010 – "The Love Hangover" and "Mock Rock" Have a Nice Ring to Them, N'est Pas?

Guess what? We have ANOTHER big week coming up next week. For starters, we're hosting the second-annual Love Hangover at the Elbow Room in Ypsilanti on Monday night. Doors are at 7pm, show starts at 7:30; your $8 cover (and 25 percent of the bar, thanks Andy Garris!) goes to 826michigan and HuRAI (the Huron River Arts Initiative).

This year's Love Hangover -- a celebration for the heart-warmed and heart-broken alike -- features originals and covers, all love-themed, by some of our area's most talented musicians. In addition to a Fleetwood Mac cover band, we've got covers slated for everyone from Neil Diamond to the Magnetic Fields, as well as The Heart Stompers, a troupe of tap dancers. Furthermore, as of about fifteen hours ago, we've got quite the closing performance: Cuomo's for Closers, a band that, apparently, can play Weezer's Pinkerton album in twenty minutes.

What we're saying is: Is the Love Hangover worth attending? BOY HOWDY, YES!

After the Love Hangover, come hang out with us again Tuesday night as we recover at Mock Rock. Just what is Mock Rock, you ask?

Well, it's the University of Michigan Student-Athlete Advisory Council's eleventh annual fundraiser, set to hit the stage at Hill Auditorium Tuesday night at 7:30pm. Mock Rock, sponsored by adidas, is a high-energy variety show featuring skits from Michigan's varsity student-athletes.

It features comedian Michael Kosta, formerly a U-M assistant men's tennis coach, as the emcee, and Green Bay Packers cornerback and former Wolverine football standout Charles Woodson as a celebrity judge.

Tickets for Mock Rock are $15 for premier seating and $10 for general admission and can be purchased online or at the Michigan Athletic Ticket Office, 1000 S. State St. Tickets also will be available the night of the event at Hill Auditorium. Doors will open at 7pm. Part of the proceeds of the event go to 826michigan!

Hope to see you all at one or both of these events!

 
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 – Cancel Today, Too.

I think the title just about says it all. Tutoring will be canceled today, and the workshop tonight will be rescheduled. What are you doing here? Get outside and build a snowman!

 
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 – TODAY IS CANCELED.

Hello. Perhaps you've heard, it's snowing outside, like, a lot? In light of this, we at 826michigan have decided: TODAY IS CANCELED. There will be no tutoring. There will be no robot shop. There will be no workshop this evening.

The workshop will be rescheduled, but tutoring and the robot shop will not. Please check back tomorrow. We, at present, have no plans of canceling tomorrow, although we have heard that we are going to get roughly ten hundred feet of snow tonight. Let's just say tomorrow is pending.

If you are somewhere that you drove to: Get home, asap. Stay there. Cuddle up in your blankets. Read a book. There's probably something good on TCM. May we recommend cocoa?

 
Wednesday, February 3, 2010 – OMNIBUS 2, the Return of Awesome

Hello! I am here to tell you about the great success of last night’s release party for the 826michigan OMNIBUS. It was a great success! We had a packed house, gobs of excitement, bubbling enthusiasm, growing confidence, and cookies. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be worth a million, and Melanie from Annarbor.com did such a beautiful job with this video, that we’ll just let it sum up the night:

Many thanks to Jared Hawkley, my favorite publishing intern; Jason DePasquale, drawer of amazing robot illustrations; Jim Ottaviani, writer of a very clever introduction; and, of course, our students, who are funny, smart, and really just nice to be around. You are all the biggest inspiration of my life, no question.

 
Monday, February 1, 2010 – Feature of the Month: More of the Subtle Art of the Infomercial!

Here it is, the product of our last Subtle Art of the Infomercial workshop! Many thanks to Todd R. Pebbles for lending his expertise, to Blake Swihart for helping out, and to Catherine Calabro for being awesome.

 
Monday, February 1, 2010 – Volunteer of the Month for February 2010

Sarah Dawn Johnson!

 
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 – Significant Objects

Have you guys heard of Significant Objects? According to their website, the idea was: “A talented, creative writer invents a story about an object. Invested with new significance by this fiction, the object should — according to our hypothesis — acquire not merely subjective but objective value. How to test our theory? Via eBay!” Which means, they have some sweet writer create a story around an object, and then they auction off said object.

Pretty cool, right? Making it EXTRA cool, at least in my book, is that for Significant Objects, v2, all proceeds go to 826 National! (Oh how we love that!)

Including this, the music box chosen by Michigander and talented, creative writer Nicholas Rombes. Read the story, and if you like it, bid on it! The proceeds go to a good cause (we sure think so, although we are biased).

 
Friday, January 22, 2010 – Brian Evenson Helps Us Kick off the Great Lakes, Great Times Reading Series Tomorrow Night!

Isn’t it about time 826michigan had a reading series? Join us, won’t you? (Have I drawn you in with so many questions? Frances, our On-site In-school Coordinator, and I were recently talking about how so often students start something with a question as a way of drawing the reader in. Sometimes it works, and, well, sometimes it doesn’t. How am I doing?)

ANYWAY. We are proud to bring you, in conjunction with writer Elizabeth Ellen, The Great Lakes, Great Times Reading Series, a monthly series designed specifically to give you access to the best emerging and establishing writing around. (Sounds fun, right?)

Tomorrow night, we kick things off here in the lab at 826michigan at 7pm when host Matt Bell introduces us to the amazing Brian Evenson, Joanna Howard, and Blake Butler. Join us for this free event! Trust me when I tell you that it will be a marvelous way to kick off your Saturday night!

Upcoming guests include Deb Olin Unferth, Dan Chaon, and Jeff Parker, among others. (Please click here for the full line-up.)

We hope to see you tomorrow night! Everyone is welcome, although it should be mentioned that, unless otherwise noted, these are not family friendly events.

 
Monday, January 4, 2010 – Mittenfest IV Wrap-Up: I Have No Idea Where to Begin.

Hi friends. I’m here to fill you in on Mittenfest IV, also known as four-of-the-best-days-of-my-life, also known as holy-cow-am-I-ever-tired, also known as Lovefest 2009-10. I quite literally do not know where to begin. Four days, forty bands, a million kind words said about 826, and no fewer than eight hundred hugs.

I have loved Mittenfest since it began, but this year was really something else. There was an OUTPOURING of love and support for what we are doing. It was amazing. It was overwhelming. It was really, really special. Thank you to all the bands who donated their time and expertise. Thank you to the hundreds of people who packed the Elbow Room to capacity every night.

Maybe I should have started here, but check this out:

That’s right. Mittenfest IV made $12,000. Last year, we made $4,500, and that’s right about where we budgeted it for this year. My friends, I don’t need to tell you, but I will: That is AMAZING. That is Andy Garris presenting me with the best-looking check I’ve ever seen.

In the coming week, we’ll have tons of pictures, a video that’s eight minutes and twenty-six seconds of Mittenfest, featuring every band that played, and more goodies.

Of course, I cannot end this without thanking some VERY key people. Brandon “BZ” Zwagerman, Mittenfest founder, did a tremendous amount of work booking bands and marketing the event. Andy Garris, Elbow Room owner and all-around-great-guy, gave us the full door proceeds, and has been so relentlessly supportive of us over the years I’m getting a lump in my throat just thinking about it. Chris Bathgate was responsible for the coolest decorations and best sound I’ve ever seen and heard at the Elbow. Angela Duncan donated her talents as a designer. Beezy hosted a special brunch for us (please eat at Beezy’s, 20 N. Washington in Ypsi, it is deliiiiiiiiicious!) and caused a thousand more people to fall in love with her. VG Kids donated amazing t-shirts, so amazing, in fact, that we sold out of them. Quite Scientific Records bookended the event with champagne toasts.

And, of course, HUGE THANKS to our sponsor, the Detroit Red Wings. They auctioned off super-cool merch and donated the proceeds to us.

And I’d like to give shout-outs to the people who spent about forty hours at the Elbow Room this weekend right alongside me: Jason DePasquale, Andy Garris, Linda Jordan, Jeremy Peters, and Brandon Zwagerman. Ohhhh Mittenfest V, I cannot wait to meet you!

 
Friday, January 1, 2010 – Feature of the Month: Our very own music video!

In November, 826michigan volunteer and robotier extraordinaire Tyler Brubaker created a music video for us, utilizing some of our favorite 826ers. Enjoy!

 
Friday, January 1, 2010 – Volunteers for the Month for January 2010

The Mittenfest IV Crew!