Instead of earning a stranger’s trust and documenting a moment in time for their final projects, students photographed loved ones in lockdown.

This fiction guru/publisher has spent decades curating his Mysterious Press and Mysterious Bookshop. Penzler often consults with ‘regulars’ like Stephen King and James Patterson — and he suggests these thrillers to pass the pandemic.

‘New Yorker’ essayist Jia Tolentino, MFA ’14, explores the ‘peculiar effects’ of self-deception, self-destruction, and the performance of identity in ‘Trick Mirror.’

Inside the Bentley archives, ‘Michigan Today’ historian Jim Tobin reads letters, telegrams, and handwritten notes between ‘Esquire’ magazine founder Arnold Gingrich, BA ’25, and two of his quirkiest contributors: Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. If you love language, you must listen. Utterly exquisite.

Artist-turned-author Cathy Guisewite, BA ’72, pivots from comics to prose with a collection of wry and relatable essays about the absurdities of adulthood.

More than 400 U-M alums are teaching ‘more than music’ in elementary, middle, and high school music classrooms throughout Michigan.

‘Miracle on 34th Street’ is a classic 1947 film about a man who believes he’s Santa Claus. The story came from Valentine Davies, BA ’27, who believed he could spread goodwill.

Greg Stern, BA ’00, regrets he never asked his late father about his service in Vietnam. Then the filmmaker found a family treasure that turned into documentary gold.

The world may be rife with chaos, but one thing never changes: When football fans enter the Big House, the Michigan Marching Band will deliver a performance unrivaled by any competition.