Join local nonprofit 826michigan for wine, a custom Chinese-inspired Zingerman’s Roadhouse menu, and a celebration of 826michigan’s students and their stories at the Storymakers Dinner on Thursday, June 21.

The evening’s guests of honor are playwright Zayd Dohrn (“Sick”, “Outside People”) and writer and actor Rachel DeWoskin ("Big Girl Small," "Foreign Babes in Beijing"), an Ann Arbor native and Community High School alum. The event is a fundraiser for 826michigan, a nonprofit organization providing free creative writing instruction and tutoring services to students aged 6-18 in Washtenaw County.

DeWoskin’s most recent novel, "Big Girl Small," is the recipient of the 2012 American Library Associations’s Alex Award. DeWoskin’s memoir about the years she spent in China as the unlikely star of a Chinese soap opera, "Foreign Babes in Beijing," has been published in six countries and is being developed as a television series by HBO.

Dohrn’s work has been produced and developed at New York Theatre Workshop and the Royal Court Theatre of London, among others. He is currently writing screenplays for The American Film Company, Voltage Pictures, and Vox3 Films. Dohrn teaches playwriting and screenwriting at Northwestern University.

826michigan’s Storymakers Dinner will feature a custom menu by James Beard Award winner Chef Alex Young (inspired by DeWoskin’s time in China), readings by DeWoskin and Dohrn, and the chance to meet several 826michigan students published in the organization’s recent collection of student writing, "What to Call the Place I Call Home."

“The Storymakers Dinner is our annual opportunity to pause and recognize the nearly 2,500 young people who tell and write their stories with us annually, as well as the volunteers and donors who make it all possible,” said 826michigan executive director Amanda Uhle in a press release. “The theme of our publication this year is What to Call the Place I Call Home, which reflects this benefit dinner’s local focus and the commitment of 826michigan and our many partners to our community. We are so pleased to be joined by Rachel DeWoskin and Zayd Dohrn, a pair of writers with an international scope and a local perspective, to celebrate our work among good friends.”

Tickets to the event cost $100 and are limited in availability. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit www.826michigan.org or call 734-761-3463.