Detroit Authors Make Metro Times Books Issue, Top-Selling Contemporary Poetry Books List

It's that time of year we've all been waiting for -- no, not spring (though that's going pretty great), or the debut of a new soccer team (or should we say football?), or even a little thing called Opening Day (hold your horses, Tigers fans). It's the Metro Times Books Issue.

While Detroiters might still be too skeptical of the 80 degree weather to ditch work and descend on Belle Isle with blankets and books, this week's Metro Times features offer the perfect place to start making a summer reading list.

For starters, try "The Light Between," a book of poems by InsideOut Literary Arts Project Director and HuffPost blogger Terry Blackhawk. With poems set in Detroit and in a mythical kingdom, it's a perfect summer escape. The book, released by Wayne State University Press, also hit No. 8 on list of top-selling contemporary poetry books for the week of March 4.

It's a victorious week for Michigan poets. Native Detroiter and U.S. poet laureate Philip Levine's "News of the World" made the list for its 25th-straight week, and francine j. harris's first full-length collection, "allegiance," also released by WSU Press, is No. 1.

Blackhawk and harris will be hosting local readings and events throughout April.

On the nonfiction side, there's a trip down memory lane with Detroit rocker Mitch Rider's autobiography "Devils and Blue Dresses," as well as a biography of lawyer and civil rights activist Ernie Goodman, "The Color of Law."

For the low-down on local comics, street sci-fi and Ferndale pulp fiction, see the Metro Times.

Flickr photo by Anne Adrian.