Michigan author and American Book Award winner Thomas Lynch will discuss his newly-released book, 'Booking Passage: We Irish and Americans,' in which he reflects on his journeys to Ireland and the binding ties of family, language and home place. It is a mixture of reminiscence, cultural portrait and meditation on what it means to be Irish, American and Irish-American.

Thomas Lynch won the American Book Award for his 1997 book, 'The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade' (the book was also a finalist for the National Book Award) and has published three volumes of critically-acclaimed poetry. He is a funeral director in Milford, Michigan, and has made numerous journeys to his ancestral country, Ireland.