Rooted: A Reading by Zinta Aistars

And you are invited! If you are in Southwest Michigan, please consider attending. I'd love to see you there. Visit the Facebook event page to sign up and learn more.

“Let the dam open. Let it flow. In this place of healing, where all rooted things offer blessing: the stalwart trees, the exuberant flowers, the field of grasses and alfalfa, yes, but also the birds, rooted in sky, and the furred creatures burrowing beneath the earth, the insects buzzing and winging through the air, all rooted in their own way. As am I. It took but once, stepping on this hallowed ground, and I felt the roots spring from my feet, from my hands, and instantly tangle with the roots already here to become one. At long last, I have come to know what it means to be Home.” ~ Zila

Zinta at Z Acres ... or is it Zila?

Zinta Aistars, creative director, writer and editor at Z Word, LLC, is known in the literary community for showcasing writers and artists in the online literary magazine, The Smoking Poet, for many years. Then, in January 2015, Zinta began hosting a weekly radio show called "Between the Lines" at WMUK 102.1 FM, the NPR affiliate station in Southwest Michigan, showcasing books and writers with a Michigan connection. 

When is it Zinta's turn to showcase her own work? 

By golly, it's now. Zinta will read from her work-in-progress, "Zila." In her novel, Zinta builds a story of finding Home after a lifetime of wanderlust. It is a story that grew out of the author’s own move to a ten-acre plot of land in Southwest Michigan in March 2012. She calls her home Z Acres, a place that offers a little of everything: woods, water, open fields. Through her main character, Zila, Zinta explores what it means to grow up bicultural, straddling two countries, never quite belonging in either. Without a place to call Home, a place where one can be rooted, Zila has spent her life wandering in place, in career choices, but perhaps most of all in relationships. The wandering is over, but being rooted comes with its own strange challenges.

Alongside the reading, an exhibit of Zinta's photography of Z Acres will be on view in the Portage District Library, 300 Library Lane, Portage, Michigan, from Sept. 4 to Oct. 31. All photos are for sale, all priced at $30. Own a little piece of Z Acres for yourself and support a starving (well, not quite starving, but always hungry for a salty chip) artist.

The reading is open to all at no cost. Rumor has it there may even be refreshments, straight from the farm.

UPDATE: 

What fun! Lori Moore has invited me to appear on The Lori Moore Show on Tuesday, September 22. I'll have an opportunity to talk a bit more about what you'll be hearing at "ROOTED: A Reading by Zinta Aistars "... as well as some behind-the-scenes teasers about my weekly radio show, Between the Lines, on WMUK 102.1 FM. Maybe I can pick up some radio hints from Lori, one of the area's radio greats prior to her television show.