The Motor Signal Reading Series jolts the poetry reading out of its conventional form. Motor Signal invites local poets to read their work, but it goes beyond a typical poetry reading by involving the audience in an activity of literary co-creation. Now in it’s seventh season, join us for our 2020 kickoff event featuring readers Tommye Blount & Nandi Comer!

A Cave Canem alumnus, Tommye Blount is the author of Fantasia for the Man in Blue(Four Way Books, 2020) and What Are We Not For (Bull City Press, 2016). A graduatefrom Warren Wilson College’s MFA Program for Writers, he has been the recipient of scholarships and fellowships from Kresge Arts in Detroit and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. His work has been featured in Poetry, Magma, New England Review, Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, Ecotone, Ninth Letter and elsewhere. Born and raised in Detroit, Tommye now lives in Novi.

Nandi Comer a proud Detroiter and is the author of the American Family: A Syndrome (Finishing Line Press). She is a Cave Canem fellow as well as a Callaloo fellow. She is a 2019 Kresge Artist Fellow. Her first full-length collection, Tapping Out will be out on Northwestern University Press, May 15.