Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor Poetry Reading

The Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor are an active and well-known group located right in our backyard. I had the privilege of meeting food historian and author Jan Longone recently at Zingerman’s Special Algerian Jewish Dinner. She and Laura Gillis kindly invited me to read food-related poetry with poet Marvin A. Brandwin at their spring meeting on Sunday.

I left the reading famished! Marvin, Emeritus Psychology Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Universty of Michigan Health System, started the reading with beautiful, rhyming poetry about food and eating. Oats, Brooklyn ice cream from his childhood, madeleines, and other foods, from the everyday to highbrow, were described in detail. The rapt audience laughed along with his cheerful poems that were read with love. Look for his book A Smorgasbord of Verse: Easy to Digest Food Poems (Ann Arbor, MI: Charing Cross Press, 2009) in local bookstores.

Members of the group followed by reading food-related poems. Jan read a recipe in verse and noted that there are hundreds of recipe books written in verse, which I hadn’t known. Considering how hungry we all were after hearing rich descriptions of prized dishes, it was lucky that the evening ended with a long table of homemade cookies and brownies.

Thank you again to the Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor for such a lovely Sunday afternoon. If you are interested in learning more about Culinary Historians, I recommend the links list on the Culinary Historians of DC website.

If you are interested in reading samples of my poetry, please visit my writing blog. If your organization is interested in hosting a reading or workshop, I’m available to read poetry or lead a creative writing workshop.