If the Rust Belt had a capital city, it would be Detroit, where people have been making cars for more than 100 years. That may sound like a Clint Eastwood Super Bowl half-time ad, but Lolita Hernandez, author of “Autopsy of an Engine and Other Stories from the Cadillac Plant,” insists, “The factory is the city.”

Capital Area Transportation Authority buses traversing mostly along campus routes and down Michigan Avenue will host a moveable feast of poetry, with each bus showcasing interior placards with lines of poetry from 13 poets, including Michigan State University Professors Anita Skeen and Diane Wakoski.

Wednesday, Jan. 25 — Michigan State University associate dean and writing professor Edward Watts wants to make the Midwest less of a flyover zone when it comes to literature. Watts, who has long been teaching the works of Midwest writers, is the driving force behind a series of three events featuring Michigan writers who delve into political socio-economic issues.

It’s tough being Jim Daniels. He’s often confused with another Daniels: Jeff, the actor and filmmaker who writes scatological comedies involving flatulence. Jim Daniels’ writing can be dark, but it’s never stinky especially when he weaves his favorite theme — working in the Motor City — into his short stories and poems.

All those dresses can be a bit unsettling — "a white blindness nightmare" is what Alyssa Becker, the daughter's owner, sometimes calls it — but "dream" is an apt description, since the dreams of tens of thousands of brides have started right here in this unimposing store in downtown Fowler.

When Lansing resident Doug Warren was making the case in front of Lansing City Council last year for renaming Main Street in honor of Malcolm X, he said that if there was a Mount Rushmore for African-Americans, Malcolm X would be on it, along with Martin Luther King.

Make room on your bookshelf or e-reader: The Library of Michigan has named the top 20 Michigan Notable Books of the year, and the list represents established and debut authors, books covering topics and people that may have been lost to time and books that will take you places you’ve never been.

When it comes to books, 2011 was the YOH — Year of Hemingway — complete with a masterful collection of letters, a new coffee table book, a book on his first wife and a book on his boat, the Pilar, joining a Woody Allen movie that pays tribute to the Lost Generation of the “Moveable Feast.” This seems fitting since 2011 was the 50th anniversary of Papa’s death.

In 2007, Zaslow learned that Carnegie Mellon University professor Randy Pausch was about to give his final lecture. An $800 airline ticket to Pittsburgh was a little steep, so Zaslow decided to drive from his suburban Detroit home to Pittsburgh: That'euro;'s approximately 600 miles round trip.

There’s an old saying that when you stop believing in Santa Claus you get books. Why didn’t someone tell me sooner? The good news: The Lansing area never had a Borders, so we don’t have to drive across the state to find a bookstore. Two Schuler Books and Music locat...