Urban Renewal Bike Magic: Book Launch and Chat with Michael J. DeLuca

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Michael J. DeLuca’s cli-fi fantasy novella, NIGHT ROLL, will be released on October 15th and we’re celebrating the novella’s beautifully dream-like ride through near-future Detroit — a ride through the challenges of motherhood in the time of climate change displacements and the gifts of building new communities.

This online event has free, ebook, and paperback ticket tiers because we want EVERYONE to come and engage in this important conversation. We also have fabulous door-prizes to give away. More information about the event is on the launch Eventbrite page.

Night Roll Launch Prizes

We have three prizes to give away at the end of the event: two fiction and non-fiction book packs, and a poster pack. Below, Michael J. DeLuca describes the books and posters included in the launch prizes and why he chose them.

Prize Pack 1: The Brothers Jetstream by ZZ Claybourne & Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown

The Brothers Jetstream

THE BROTHERS JETSTREAM: LEVIATHAN is an effervescent, mind-bending fireball of a book by a guy who is a force, (possibly The Force?), for Black speculative fiction in Detroit. Zig Claybourne is an inspiration and an example to me for what literary community-building looks like. I dare you to walk away from a conversation with him and not feel energized to write. His new book, AFRO PUFFS ARE THE ANTENNAE OF THE UNIVERSE, isn’t out til December or I’d be giving that away instead.

Emergent Strategy

EMERGENT STRATEGY by adrienne maree brown is a spiritual, philosophical, practical, personal instruction manual for surviving and resisting climate catastrophe and entrenched hate. I can think of no better book to be reading at this moment, including mine. 

Prize Pack 2: Velocities by Kathe Koja & The Next American Revolution by Grace Lee Boggs

Velocities

VELOCITIES is Kathe Koja’s second short fiction collection; the title story has a ghost and many wrecked bicycles! Her work is darkly fantastic and often surreal, defies traditional categorization and has a dedicated cult following. Lots to aspire to there. And her punk ethic and persistent sense of humor in the face of all the deeply troubling environmental injustice that has made Detroit what it is definitely influenced the vision of the city I’m trying to evoke with NIGHT ROLL.

The Next American Revolution

THE NEXT AMERICAN REVOLUTION is the book that inspired NIGHT ROLL. It’s got urban community gardening, it’s got activist organizing, it’s got utopian vision. The audacity of hope, the persistence, the patience and resilience in this book are astonishing. Grace Lee Boggs was an activist, intellectual, philosopher, educator and fifty year veteran of the civil rights movement; adrienne maree brown was a protégé of hers. She died in 2015, but I was lucky enough to attend a screening of the documentary based on this book with the filmmakers and another of her protégés, Sharon K. Howell. The documentary is also great; it has beautiful images of Detroit and you should seek that out too.

Prize Pack 3: Detroit City Cycling Map Poster and Print by Jeff Powers

We’re also giving away a poster print of the original Detroit city cycling map from 1896 and a limited-run broadside (pictured here), “A Tree with Strong Roots Weathers the Storm”, by my neighbor and local artist Jeff Powers.

Sign up for the launch at Eventbrite. We hope to see you there!