Seattle Area Author Readings

Meet the Gluten-free Girl, Shauna James Ahern, at the Queen Anne Books booth at the farmer’s market.

Celebrate the variety of western U.S. poetic voices tonight as over two dozen local and regional poet/contributors to New Poets of the American West (Many Voices Press) take turns reading from their work. The evening’s emcee is anthology editor Lowell Jaegar, visiting from Kalispell, where he teaches creative writing at Flathead Valley Community College.

Matthew Pitt is a graduate of Hampshire College and NYU, where he was a New York Times fellow. His first book of fiction, the short story collection ATTENTION PLEASE NOW, won the Autumn House Press Fiction Prize, and was published this March.

From 1910-1940, Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco served as a processing and detention center for over 1 million people. But unlike Ellis Island, this station was designed to detain, interrogate, and exclude immigrants from Asia. Erika Lee and Judy Yung, authors of Angel Island, say the station’s history reveals how U.S. immigration policies and bias played out in daily practices and decisions, with real consequences on lives and on the country itself. Tickets are $5.

Book Signing Only. In the annals of heavy metal, the story of Dave Mustaine stands as one of the greatest examples of dizzying highs and Mariana Trench-deep lows. And in the end, isn’t that what we read rock memoir for? 86′d from Metallica in its infancy, Mustaine went on to found ground-breaking (and ear-splitting) thrash metal band Megadeth, where he kicked his way into the industry, and took everything it offered. A signing ticket is required to stand in the signing line. Signing tickets are available by purchasing Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir from University Book Store beginning August 3.

Ralph Metzner, veteran (with Ram Dass and Timothy Leary, among others) of the experimentation with mind-altering substances at Harvard, speaks about his experiences in those early days, as chronicled in his new book, Birth of a Psychedelic Culture: Conversations about the Harvard Experiments, Leary, Millbrook and the Sixties (Synergetic Press).

A reading of new zines from Alexis Wolf, Craven Rock, Joshua James.

L.J. Sellers signs Thrilled to Death.

Thomas Patrick Levy will be the writer in residence for September 4th.

Bun Yom presents Tomorrow I’m Dead. A true story about one man overcoming slavery, starvation, grueling labor, loss of family; any one of which could have destroyed him. He not only survived, but overcame them all and becomes a Freedom fighter.

Thomas Patrick Levy will be the writer in residence on September 5th.

Mary Daheim signs Loco Motive.

Seattle real estate developer Mark Schuster founded the Schuster Group at age 22 and now heads one of the most successful private equity investment and development firms in the Northwest. His book, Lofty Pursuits: Repairing the World One Building at a Time (Brown Books), presents both some of his own history, and some ideas about sustainability and community engagement.

LiTFUSE launches with a fundraiser. Words and music featuring Tara Hardy, Susan Rich, Mimi Allin, Elizabeth Austen, Dan Peters and more! $5.

Join the library for a reading and book signing with the Mary Daheim, local author of Loco Motive.

Join cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson for a discussion of his newest novel, Zero History, a timely thriller featuring the return of Hubertus Bigend, set in a future that is all too similar to our present.

David Callahan, co-founder of the think tank Demos, says something big is happening among the wealthiest Americans: They’re turning liberal. Exploring the influence of left-leaning affluence on Wall Street, in Hollywood, and now in Silicon Valley, Callahan, author of Fortunes of Change, explains how our politics and culture are changing—and what the future may hold. Tickets are $5.

Peter Lewis signs Dead in the Dregs.

SM Stirling reads and signs High King of Monitval: A Novel of the Change. In the post-apocalyptic Sunrise Lands–setting for S.M. Stirling’s Emberverse series, now on its fourth novel–Rudi Mackenzie has returned to the Pacific Northwest where he must face the armies of the Prophet. Making a coalition of his enemies, he must defend his homeland and assume his place as its king.

Come meet New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth George! She is the author of the marvelous British mysteries featuring Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Lynley. This Body of Death is the new Lynley novel for 2010. Ms. George will talk about her writing and sign her books.

The authors present their definitive break-up pictorial, Why He’s My Ex, exploring true stories of bad male behavior with hilarious results. It’s the perfect gift for the recently unhitched or the single gal who runs through men like water.

Jack Straw Reading with Brian James Barr, Bill Carty and Roberto Ascalon. Brian, Bill, and Martha are talented locals whose work has appeared in journals and magazines of note like The Believer, Tin House, Diagram, Opium, and The Oxford American.

Carol Cassella follows up on the promise and wonder of her debut, Oxygen, with an ambitious, wide-ranging second novel, Healer (Simon & Schuster). A woman’s ambitions for a medical career get put on hold in order for other life to be lived, only to see her calling realized, after much travail has ensued, in rich and surprising ways.

Join Barnes and Noble for an evening of fun with award-winning local author Jane Porter! Jane will be reading and discussing her latest book, She’s Gone Country.

Local author Peter Lewis presents his debut mystery, Dead in the Dregs: when a grotesque murder shocks Northern California’s wine country, one-time star sommelier Babe Stern must unravel a tangle of interlocking secrets in this thrilling tale of wine and homicide.

Truthdig editor-in-chief Robert Scheer believes our financial meltdown is at its heart an old-fashioned swindle. Scheer, author of The Great American StickUp, exposes the bipartisan group that paved the way for the crash of 2008 (including power-couple Phil and Wendy Gramm, former Goldman Sachs leaders Robert Rubin and Henry Paulson, and former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers)—and says it’s still flying under the media radar. Tickets are $5.

Evelyn Smith promotes Boardinghouse Stew. Through one crisis after another – some more comic than tragic – the people who live in the house manage to pull together and become a kind of family. In the center of it all is Eileen, narrating their stories which she is able to observe from her unique vantage point behind the swinging kitchen door that never quite closes on its rusty hinges.

Ann Littlewood promotes Did Not Survive. When a reliable old elephant mauls his zookeeper it’s up to pregnant Iris Oakley to find out why. Iris uncovers nefarious plots amongst the other zookeepers leading her to believe the elephant attack was anything but a freak accident.

New York Times Magazine contributing writer Melanie Thernstrom, author of The Dead Girl and Halfway Heaven, is up from her Portland-area home with an arresting book on chronic pain, The Pain Chronicles: Cures, Myths, Mysteries, Prayers, Diaries, Brain Scans, Healing and the Science of Suffering (Farrar, Straus & Giroux).

#1 New York Times bestselling author Wm. Paul Young (The Shack) joins local Seattle author James L. Rubart (Rooms) for an engaging discussion of the themes issues raised in each novel and what they mean for humanity today. Signing to follow.

Gail Carriger promotes Blameless. While Lord Maccon elects to get progressively more inebriated and Professor Lyall desperately tries to hold the Woolsey werewolf pack together, Alexia flees England for Italy in search of the mysterious Templars. Only they know enough about the preternatural to explain her increasingly inconvenient condition, but they may be worse than the vampires — and they’re armed with pesto.

Seattle-based parenting expert Jan Faull not only offers parents the essential tools to recognize and encourage their children’s natural development, she makes it fun. Faull, a former columnist for The Seattle Times, distills the latest developmental research into a chronological account of what babies are capable of, then explains practical exercises and fun games to enhance their innate learning process.

Ann Littlewood signs Did Not Survive.

Five days after Labor Day and over from Australia, where she is director of the Sydney Alliance, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Unions NSW, and teaches at the University of Sydney is labor scholar/activist Amanda Tattersall. She is here with the newly published Power in Coalition: Strategies for Strong Unions and Social Change (ILR Press/Cornell University Press).

The booming microstock industry has made it possible for amateur photographers—previously shut out of exclusive stock photography—to show and sell their images. This afternoon microstock guru Ellen Boughn presents information for the serious amateur photographer interested in selling photos on microstock, with examples of travel photos, photos of family and friends, and advice about working with models. Much more of her expert advice appears in her new book, Microstock Money Shots (Crown).

Influential comix artist Carol Tyler will appear to present her two-volume graphic memoir YOU’LL NEVER KNOW with an exhibition of original art and book signing

Kirby Lawson presents The Fences Between Us. After the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, where her brother is stationed, Piper Davis begins chronicling her compelling journey through one of history’s most tragic and unforgettable eras. Kirby will accompany her talk with a Powerpoint presentation.

“Here I was, doing ninety on the Santa Monica Freeway with a quart of whiskey shoved into my crotch and my dead neighbor in the trunk. It had come time to leave Los Angeles …” This begins the pre-apocalyptic, cross-country race with death chronicled in Joseph Mattson’s debut novel, Empty the Sun (Barnacle Books). The book includes a CD soundtrack by Seattle’s Six Organs of Admittance.

Carla Salvo promotes Just Say The Word. Rita Napapolus’ fingerprints were murder weapon, beckoning authorities onto her path and into her past. They immediately hit a wall when they find no record of the petite office manager’s history before she appeared in Seattle with her daughter twenty years ago

The reconciliation of sexuality with religion is always challenging, especially for lesbian, bi, transgendered, or queer women whose roots are in Orthodox Judaism. Editor/contributor Miryam Kabakov is joined by other contributors to the groundbreaking anthology, Keep Your Wives Away from Them: Orthodox Women, Unorthodox Desires (North Atlantic Books), a collection that shares perspectives of LGBT women struggling to build integrated lives.

This special Sunday visit brings back much-missed former Seattle residents Steve Murray and Tiina Nunnally. Individually, and collectively, they represent much of the major translating of fiction (detective and otherwise) to be brought from Scandinavian languages over the past several years. They published some of these (some excellent English-language originals, too) when operating Fjord Press. A special focus of this program no doubt will be Steve Murray’s translations, under a “Reg Keeland” pseudonym, of the hugely popular, hugely-acclaimed three Stieg Larsson novels: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Vintage, Vintage, and Knopf).

Rhys Bowen signs Royal Blood.

Inara Scott promotes Delacroix Academy, Book One: The Candidates.

The short story may not have the word count or the epic storyline of the novel, but it can certainly have the emotional sweep and the literary artistry. And Deborah Willis’s new book of 14 stories (Vanishing and Other Stories) are literary artistry not writ large and not writ small, but instead writ just right.

A timely novel, if that can be said, novelist/playwright Beverly Olevin’s new novel, The Good Side of Bad (White River Press), goes back and forth between Seattle and New York, in the aftermath of 2008′s economic meltdown. Besides trying to hold lives and livelihoods together, this novel also tells the story of adult siblings coming to know themselves as family in surprising ways.

Successful businessman Richard LeMieux lost his business, his family, his home, and found himself eating at “Sally’s” — what the homeless call the Salvation Army’s soup kitchen. LeMieux, who now lives in Bremerton, used a beat-up typewriter to movingly describe his experience of life on the street. Terry Tazioli, host of Author’s Hour on TVW, will interview Richard LeMieux.

Jennifer Arnold, the founder of Canine Assistants, offers shining examples of the heroism of service dogs, from anticipating seizures to resetting a ventilator switch. Through a Dog’s Eyes is the basis for the PBS documentary of the same name!

Norman Fischer is a Zen Buddhist priest as well as a poet, and his poetry reflects the presence, depth, and spark that come with such a vocation. His most recent collection is Questions/Places/Voices/Seasons ($16 Singing Horse Press), a title that prepares the reader for the richly varied sections within. oining Mr. Fischer is poet, essayist, teacher, and editor Emily Warn, whose own work has often explored the confluence of faith, language, and the world from which both arise. The author of five collections, her most recent book is Shadow Architect ($15 Copper Canyon Press), an inventive and compelling consideration of the Hebrew alphabet.

Just 100 years ago, Arabs viewed the United States as a benevolent power that was neither imperialist nor covetous. Award-winning historian Ussama Makdisi says that one single choice changed the American-Arab relationship forever: our decision to support the creation of an Israeli state. Makdisi, author of Faith Misplaced, re-examines the tumultuous history of this relationship at a time when it is more fractured, and more important, than ever. Tickets are $5.

Maria Ross promotes Branding Basics for Small Business. Small businesses, start-ups and even non-profits enviously watch the big guys like Apple, Nike and Harley Davidson create loyal evangelists and attract repeat customers. The secret is starting with a strong brand strategy. Brand is more than just a pretty logo; it is your core promise, personality and reason for being. The book shows how organizations of any size and with any budget can create a winning brand to attract, delight and connect with their audiences for maximum success.

Award-winning author, filmmaker, and screenwriter, most known for her book, Savage Summits, Jennifer Jordan visits this evening with her new tale of Himalayan adventures in days of yore (1939), The Last Man on the Mountain: The Death of an American Adventurer on K2 (W.W. Norton).

Brandon Sanderson promotes The Way of Kings.

Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson have combined their passion for accuracy to form TEAL: the Typo Eradication Advancement League, and together they have journeyed across America, armed with markers to right the glaring wrongs displayed in grocery stores, museums, malls, restaurants, and even a national park. The Great Typo Hunt chronicles their quirky and adventurous exploits and appeals to the English major in all of us.

Lauren Kessler presents My Teenage Werewolf. With the help of a teen expert (her daughter), as well as teachers, doctors, therapists, and other mothers, Lauren Kessler illuminates the age-old mother/daughter struggle from both sides, gracefully interweaving personal experience with journalistic inquiry.

National Book Award-winning author of The Corrections, Franzen’s new novel Freedom will debut just in time to open SAL’s season. Cheapest tickets are $15.

Los Angeles-based fiction writer Eric Puchner won raves for his debut book of stories, Music Through the Floor. He then received more praise and prominence for his first novel, Model Home (Scribner, new in paper).

A raised glass is more than in order this evening as we help celebrate the publication of Seattle writer Peter Lewis’ much-awaited debut novel, Dead in the Dregs (Counterpoint). This excellent, smart, whodunit takes readers from the Napa Valley to Côte d’Or, in search of a killer—with some excellent wine-seeking, and wine country lore along the way. As the longtime (now onetime) guiding hand behind Campagne, he is one who would know that way.

Alaska native Jennifer Aist, author of Babes in the Woods and a parenting and childbirth educator, shares her tried and tested advice for taking babies and toddlers into the woods and out onto boats at very early ages.

Irene Butler presents Trekking the Globe With Mostly Gentle Footsteps. The authors took on the challenge of traveling for the same cost as staying at home while still adhering to the traveller’s motto “we are not here to suffer”. They immersed themselves in other cultures, spent as little as possible, tread gently and managed to come out the other side with a wealth of stories.

David Plouffe not only led the groundbreaking digital-technology-meets-grassroots campaign that put Barack Obama in the White House, but some say he also changed the face of politics forever and re-energized the idea of democracy itself. Plouffe, author of The Audacity to Win, reveals the strategies that delivered Obama to office and how the candidate (and campaign) tackled challenges and opportunities. Tickets are $5.

Seattle-based parenting expert Jan Faull not only offers parents the essential tools to recognize and encourage their children’s natural development, she makes it fun. Faull, a former columnist for The Seattle Times and author of the just-released Amazing Minds, distills the latest developmental research into a chronological account of what babies are capable of, then explains practical exercises and fun games to enhance their innate learning process. Tickets are $5.

Meet gardening guru Bunny Henderson as she signs her book, Digging It, at the Queen Anne Books booth. Live happily, healtfully, and frugally with your own victory garden– dig it?

Beside the prophet Muhammad stood his wives, eleven very different women. Poet and editor Tamam Kahn, author of Untold: A History of the Wives of Prophet Muhammad, spends time introducing readers to each of these women, explaining their place in Muslim history in a way no author has before. Suggested donation $5.

The ruined economy is the backdrop for this smart satire by National Book Award nominee Jess Walter, The Financial Lives of the Poets. Matt Prior, a business journalist, leaves his job to create a money-themed poetry website–which, of course, goes about as well as one could expect. He attempts to return to his job, but finds himself the recipient of a layoff notification, and a tiny severance package. His finances tattered, he fears losing his house to the bank, his wife to an ex on Facebook, and his father to senility.

Marjorie Manwaring, Katherine Grace Bond, and Martha Clarkson read in a Jack Straw Production.

Whether as lead judge on the PBS series, The Winemakers, or as a regular contributor to Martha Stewart’s Living Today, Mark Oldman has been helping wine enthusiasts navigate the world of wine without breaking the bank. His writing and wine picks appear in Food and Wine, and in Everyday with Rachel Ray. Oldman’s Brave New World of Wine: Pleasure, Value and Adventure Beyond Wine’s Usual Suspects (W.W. Norton) contains information about taste, source, price, food pairings and more, all delivered with his signature mix of wit and authority.

Laura Read of Spokane reads from her prize-winning chapbook, “The Chewbacca on Hollywood Boulevard Reminds Me of You.” Finalists Ann Gerike of Coupeville and Kimalisa Kaczinski of Cheney will also present work.

Jean Haner presents The Wisdom of Your Child’s Face. Watch author Jean Haner demonstrate face reading with volunteers from the audience (adults or children)!

Stephen Lawhead signs The Skin Map. Enter the ultimate treasure hunt–with a map made of skin, a playing field of alternate realities, and a prize that is the greatest mystery of all.

Jeff Lindsay signs Dexter is Delicious.

L.A. novelist and screenwriter Mark Haskell Smith visits with his newest novel, Baked (Black Cat/Grove). Published in the season that California’s Proposition 19—which would legalize marijuana use—this entertaining mystery has ganga growing at its core. Protagonist Miro Basinas is a botanist whose skills result in his winning Amsterdam’s Cannabis Cup—which sets in motion a whole array of intrigues and escapades.

I’m with Fatty chronicles Ugel’s attempt to follow his doctor’s orders and lose 50 pounds or risk dropping dead while standing in line at Popeye’s. It details the complex love triangle between himself, his wife, and all things crispy, braised, barbecued, and sautéed.

Paul Park is the author of 10 critically acclaimed novels and a collection of short stories. He is known as one of the finest authors on the “humanist” wing of American literary speculative fiction and his work has been nominated for multiple awards. He teaches creative writing at Williams College in Massachusetts.

The wonderfully prolific Rick Bass, already author or editor of twenty-five books of both fiction and non-fiction, makes this welcome return to Elliott Bay from his home in northwest Montana’s Yaak Valley. The occasion is the delightful new Nashville Chrome (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), a novel one which returns him to his more southern roots.

Neil Low signs Unreasonable Persuasion.

Mercer Island’s own Michael Sherer returns with the latest installment in his acclaimed Emerson Ward mystery series, Death on a Budget.

Victoria Simcox signs The Magic Warble. Dwarfs, gnomes, fairies, talking animals, and an evil queen – all these and more can be found in The Magic Warble, an enchanting tale of adventure and friendship.

In Fallout, the voices of three youths–Hunter, Autumn, and Summer Snow–finish the story Ellen Hopkins began with the book Crank and continued with the book Glass.

Minneapolis poet Seth Berg visits with a debut collection, Muted Lines from Someone Else’s Memory, newly published by Dark Sky Books, itself newly transplanted to the Seattle area from South Carolina.

Jean Haner will share secrets of what your child’s face can tell you about their personality, learning style, and much more. Afterward, Haner will demonstrate face reading with the audience and sign copies of her book The Wisdom of Your Child’s Face.

Bill Chandler promotes The Ultimate Inventor’s Handbook. Before you blow $1,000 on a development company, or waste another year wondering what to do next, read this book.

Julia Glass, National Book Award-winning author of Three Junes, and other reader (book group) favorites I See You Everywhere and The Whole World Over, is back with a nuanced, insightful new novel, The Widower’s Tale (Pantheon).

The author presents The Warriors and Wordsmiths of Freedom. Journey from the days of William “Braveheart” Wallace during the Wars of Independence in Scotland, to the days when Scottish and Irish people immigrated to the American Colonies and helped George Washington and Thomas Jefferson fight for freedom in America during the Revolutionary War.

For seven years, Alison Arngrim played a wretched, scheming, selfish, lying, manipulative brat on one of TV history’s most beloved series. Though millions of Little House on the Prairie viewers hated Nellie Oleson and her evil antics, Arngrim grew to love her character-and the freedom and confidence Nellie inspired in her. In Confessions of a Prairie Bitch, Arngrim describes growing up in Hollywood and recalls her most cherished and often wickedly funny moments behind the scenes of the show. She also bravely recounts her life’s challenges and her second career in social and political activism. Arngrim relays all this and more with biting wit, and describes how Nellie Olson taught her to be bold, daring, and determined.

Few expected that Elizabeth Hughes, diagnosed with juvenile diabetes in 1919, would live to adulthood, much less to welcome children and grandchildren into the world. Her story, and that of the Canadian researchers who first identified and purified the animal insulin that saved not only her life but also the lives of many millions of other diabetics, is told by Seattle writer Thea Cooper in the new book, Breakthrough: Elizabeth Hughes, the Discovery of Insulin, and the Making of a Medical Miracle (St. Martin’s Press, co-authored with Arthur Ainsberg).

It’s a brand new book from internationally acclaimed young adult fantasy author Cornelia Funke. Reckless is the story of young Jacob Reckless, a boy with access to the secrets and treasures of the Mirrorworld. But what happens when Jacob’s younger brother follows Jacob to the Mirrorworld? Dark magic turns the boy to beast, and endangers everything Jacob holds dear. Two tickets are free with the purchase of Reckless from University Book Store beginning September 14.

Now series editor and creator of Things Asian Press guidebooks, Kim Fay is here to share her love of Vietnamese culture, people, and food, all beautifully presented in her new book, Communion: A Culinary Journey Through Vietnam (Things Asian Press).

Ken Armstrong discusses Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime and Complicity. This, warts and all, is the story of the 2000 University of Washington football season–a story of great success (and a Rose Bowl appearance) on the field, and questionable behavior off. The book expands on some eye-opening reporting done by reporters at The Seattle Times.

Esteemed Columbia University historian Mae Ngai, whose first book (on illegal immigration of an earlier time) Impossible Subjects received the AHA Littleton-Griswold Prize and the OAH Frederick Jackson Turner Award for best first book on any topic in American history, focuses more on the Chinese American immigrant experience in her new book, The Lucky Ones: One Family and the Extraordinary Invention of Chinese America (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).

Susan Casey discusses “The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean.”

Justin Somper promotes Vampirates 5: Empire of the Night. There’s a bloody battle brewing in the seas, and each crew will need all hands on deck. This time, Vampirate twins Grace and Connor may find themselves fighting for their lives-or against each other.

Jonathan Safran Foer—the acclaimed author of Everything Is Illuminated; Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close; and a new worker of non-fiction, Eating Animals—spent his youth oscillating between omnivore and vegetarian. But on the brink of fatherhood, and facing the prospect of making dietary choices on a child’s behalf, his casual questioning became more urgent; Foer ended up visiting factory farms in the middle of the night, dissecting the emotional ingredients of meals from his childhood, and probing some of his most primal instincts about right and wrong. Tickets are $5.

When kids fall off a bike or wake from a bad dream, sometimes a make-it-all-better kiss just isn’t enough. But hypnotherapist and homeopath Judith Simon Prager believes what you say to your child in those first moments of pain or fear could make all the difference. Prager, co-author of Verbal First Aid, explains how calming words can promote healing, relieve pain, even save lives. Tickets are $5.

In the fifth addition to the ‘Vampirates’ saga, UK bestselling author Justin Somper continues the adventures of twins Connor and Grace in Empire of Night with a bloody battle on the high seas. All hands on deck for this exciting adventure!

In the world of Inter/Supernatural crime, there’s no villain quite like teenage criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl. Eoin Colfer reads and signs Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex.

One of the finest younger writers to come from England in recent years, Tom McCarthy is here from his London home to read from his new novel, C. (Knopf), which is longlisted for this year’s MAN Booker Prize. Already highly praised for his debut novel, Remainder (“One of the great English novels of the past ten years” – Zadie Smith), and an earlier work, Tintin and the Secret of Literature, Tom McCarthy in C. takes readers back a century to turn-of-the-century England, and then sets off wildly and inventively from there.

Juliet, an ambitious, utterly engaging historical novel on the scale of The Thirteenth Tale and The Birth of Venus, follows a young woman who discovers that her family’s origins reach all the way back to literature’s greatest star-crossed lovers. Join the library for a special evening with author Anne Fortier as she reads from and discusses her celebrated new book

Tamam Kahn promotes Untold: A History of the Wives of Prophet Muhammad. This fascinating subject matter comes alive as Tamam Kahn reveals the stories of these largely unknown – and empowered – historical women. Her talk joins prose, poetry, and spoken word.

As the U.S. debates a new national policy on climate change, our public utilities will be transformed utterly. Peter Fox-Penner, author of Smart Power, explains the coming energy revolution, examining options for low-carbon emissions along with the real-world challenges the industry and its regulators face in retooling and financing new sources and systems. Tickets are $5.

Cited as a “5 Under 35″ Award-winner by the National Book Foundation for his book of stories, Third Class Superhero, Charles Yu hits Seattle with his winning debut novel, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (Pantheon).

In this young adult novel, Frannie Cavanaugh is a good Catholic girl with a bit of a wicked streak. She has spent years keeping everyone at a distance–even her closest friends–and it seems as if her senior year is going to be more of the same . . . until Luc Cain enrolls in her class. No one knows where he came from, but Frannie can’t seem to stay away from him.

The author reads and signs How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. Charles Yu, an author, presents a novel about Charles Yu, a protagonist in a future world. In a wholly original novel, Yu has produced a book that author Nick Harraway calls: “Funny, touching, and weirdly beautiful. This book is awesome.”

British Columbia writer John Vaillant wrote what has been an enduring favorite of Northwest coast nature writing with his earlier book, The Golden Spruce. He works his way all the way around the northern Pacific Rim to Siberia for his absolutely riveting new book, The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival (Knopf).

Koren Zailckas, bestselling author of Smashed, returns with her second memoir, Fury. Combining sophisticated sociological research with a dramatic and deeply personal story, Fury delves into the psychological consequences of repressed anger.

Jan Faull presents Amazing Minds. Drawing on the latest fascinating research in child brain development, noted parenting expert Jan Faull gives parents the essential tools to recognize and encourage their child’s natural development- and have fun with their kids in the process.

It is no accident that “futurists” flop, says Professor John L. Casti: Most social prediction is based on the extrapolation of present trends into the future, and generally fails because trends change. Casti, author of Mood Matters, explains how the collective mood of a population biases the events we can expect, arguing that the presumption that events cause social moods and trends is exactly backward. Tickets are $5.

Meet Jennifer Worick, the author of Simple Gifts: 50 Little Luxuries to Craft, Sew & Knit. Craft with Jennifer and get autographed copies of her book at the Queen Anne Books booth.

Jasmine Alinder will speak about her book, Moving Images: Photography and the Japanese American Incarceration (University of Illinois Press). Published as part of a series edited by esteemed historian and former Seattle resident Roger Daniels, Moving Images examines how photography was used to document and present the World War II impounding of Japanese Americans, and includes analysis of work by Dorothea Lang, Ansel Adams, and Manzanar inmate Toyo Miyatake, who secretly constructed his own camera to document camp life.

Rowan Jacobsen discusses and signs American Terroir. Terroir: a French word that means “foods that are what they are because of where they come from.” Rowan Jacobsen traveled the U.S. to sample the localest of local delicacies, and in a dozen witty essays, he talks about it. And he explains ecologically why it is some foods thrive in some regions–our own Yakima Valley apples, for instance. Expect an apple tasting at this event.

Jason Lester discusses and signs Running on Faith. The loss of use of his right arm seemed like an end to Jason Lester’s desire to be a professional athlete, but it didn’t. In fact, Lester pushed through, and has thrived and become one of the stars of the Ironman and Ultraman competitions where he bikes, swims, and runs more miles than most of us can imagine, all with the use of only three limbs.

In 1987, the newly divorced Rita Golden Gelman set out to live her dream. She sold all her possessions and became a nomad. She wrote a book about her ongoing journey, Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World and, in 2001, insisted on putting her personal e-mail address in the last chapter–against all advice. It turned out to be a fortuitous decision. She has met thousands of readers, stayed in their homes, and sat around kitchen tables sharing stories and food and laughter.

Susan Rich, author of three collections of poetry, The Cartographer’s Tongue / Poems of the World, Cures Include Travel, and The Alchemist’s Kitchen, reads from her work.

John Valliant presents The Tiger. The grisly rampage of a man-eating Siberian tiger and the effort to trap it frame this suspenseful and majestically narrated introduction to a world that few people are familiar with. Vaillant has written a mighty elegy that leads readers into the lair of the tiger and into the heart of the Kremlin to explain how the Siberian tiger went from being worshipped to being poached.

Terry McMillan’s Waiting to Exhale was more than just a best-selling novel—its publication was a watershed moment in literary history. McMillan’s sassy and vibrant story about four African-American women struggling to find love and their place in the world touched a cultural nerve, inspired a blockbuster film, and garnered a devoted audience. Now, in her new work Getting to Happy, McMillan revisits Savannah, Gloria, Bernadine, and Robin 15 years later, when all are at midlife crossroads, learning to heal past hurts and reclaim their joy and dreams. They’ve exhaled; now they are learning to breathe. Tickets are $5.

Larsen presents Liar, Liar. Private Investigator Cat DeLuca and her Pants on Fire Detective Agency have a reputation for catching cheaters.

Alexandra MacKenzie reads and signs Immortal Quest. It’s London, England, and Detective Nick Wilson finds himself confronted by a burglar who insists that Nick is his best friend suffering from amnesia, and that he, the burglar, is a 500-year-old immortal mage. Logic and reason force Nick to believe that this is simply impossible. Complicating matters further is the burglar’s claim than an evil mage named Vere has just been released from limbo, and wants three objects of power that could destroy humankind.

Katherine Grace Bond, Amber Flame and Marjorie Manwaring from the Jack Straw program read.

Over a decade in the research and writing, Isabel Wilkerson’s magisterial work of narrative history, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration (Random House), is one of those rare books which stands out not only in its publication season, but over some serious time. This is one of those books, tracing the lives of three African-Americans, their individual decisions to move from the South to the North or West (Chicago, New York, Los Angeles), and how those decisions played out over their lives and that of their families, in a time ranging from World War I into the 1970s.

Elizabeth Rosner is here for the newly released paperback of her newest novel, Blue Nude (Gallery). Blue Nude was originally inspired by the author’s involvement with a project called Acts of Reconciliation, which brought together second generation Germans and Jews in order to confront their shared legacy from World War II and before.

Charlie Neff’s book, Hard Cache, takes a look at events forcing people to examine their commitments—past, present and future—in the light of day.

Karianne Larsen signs Liar Liar.

Join Island Books for an evening of memories, food, and fun with Andrea Lott. Now, as an international traveler and former management consultant, she is immersed in the Seattle food world from soups to nuts—from the shopping expeditions, to the impressive evening meals she prepares for many friends and family. The Dining In Seattle: Past & Present project allowed her to peek into the kitchens of prominent Seattle chefs of today and the past four decades, scratching her itch for details, details, details.

Local authors Laura Cooper and Kiyo Marsh share stories and seafood tips as they discuss their new book, “The Fishes and Dishes Cookbook: Seafood Recipes and Salty Stories from Alaska’s Commercial Fisherwomen.”

See poetry come to life! My Tooth Fell in My Soup is a charming book written by Erik Korhel. It contains 21 lovely poems about childhood, first love, falling teeth, picking teams, breathing fire and much more!

Rodney Smith promotes Stepping Out of Self Deception. Smith emphasizes the importance of discovery and experimentation, following the Buddha’s dictum of testing principles rather than accepting dogma.

In their new book, Becoming Jimi Hendrix: From Southern Crossroads to Psychedelic London, the Untold Story of a Musical Genius (Da Capo), music journalist/archivists Steven Roby and Brad Schreiber focus on his formative musical experiences between 1962 and 1966, years that saw him out of Seattle, eventually in Europe.

Noted portrait photographer Nancy Medwell presents her new volume of pictures and reflections, Eternal Moments, awakening us to the importance and beauty of sharing our hearts with others, both on a spiritual and artistic level.

Sisters Julianne, Kristen and Kari Larsen craft an intriguing tale with Liar Liar, the first book in the Cat DeLuca Mysteries. Fans of Janet Evanovich, Mary Janice Davidson and Lisa Lutz will love this book.

A.J. Rathbun, editor of “In Their Cups: Poems about Drinking Places, Drinks, and Drinkers,” reads from the new anthology, along with contributors Emily Bedard, Allen Braden, James Gurley, and others.

Tao Lin reads from his newest work, Richard Yates (Melville House). Yes, it’s fiction, and “Richard Yates” is named after the late writer—but isn’t about him.

Debrah Morkun’s first full-length book of poems, Projection Machine, was released by BlazeVox Books in April 2010. Hera Calf Lightning Rod, a small chapbook, was released by Splitleaves Press shortly thereafter.

Sara Gruen will drop by the store to sign copies of her newest book Ape House. Get your copy signed at this special afternoon event. This is not a traditional signing, she is swinging by the store and will sign books for about 30 minutes.

Ken Scholes reads and signs Antiphon. The third book in a five book series, Antiphon continues the story of the Androfrancine Order. Epic fantasy and post-apocalyptic science fiction are fused in this series of books about myth, prophecy, and epic adventure.

Dividing his time between Vienna and Berlin, Daniel Kehlmann is most known for his novel, Measuring the World, which was translated into more than forty languages. Recipient of numerous awards, including the Candide Prize, the Thomas Mann Prize, the Literature Prize of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, and more, he is here with the newly translated Fame: A Novel in Nine Episodes (Pantheon, translated by Carol Janeway).

Sara Gruen, author of the international bestseller “Water for Elephants,” reads from “Ape House.”

Linguist Deborah Fallows has spent much of her life traveling and learning languages, but nothing prepared her for the surprises of learning Mandarin, China’s most common language, or for the intensity of living in Shanghai and Beijing. But Fallows, author of Dreaming in Chinese, realized that as her skill with Mandarin increased, bits of the language became windows into the romance, humor, protocol, relationships, and humanity of modern China. Tickets are $5.

Marla Martenson presents Diary of a Beverly Hills Matchmaker. Marla takes her readers for a hilarious romp through her matchmaking-agency days and the battle to keep her self-esteem from imploding in L.A. where looks are everything and money talks. With juggling the demands of her out- of-touch clients, valiantly trying to meet the capricious demands of an insensitive boss and balancing the tightrope of her own marriage, it is remarkable that Marla found the stamina to pen this story of the universal struggles that single men and women face in their lives.

The Monkey Bible is a scientific and mythological exploration of the need in humans for creation myths and storytelling. It is a study of what it means to be human as well as a timely and necessary plea to alter the stories by which humans define themselves as a way to protect our life and livelihood from extinction.

Have you ever considered working in state, local, or the federal government? Or thought it might be fulfilling to work in a nonprofit or a corporate organization that serves the public good? Heather Krasna’s Jobs That Matter can help you find entry into that world.

Annabel Lyon’s astounding debut novel, The Golden Mean: A Novel of Aristotle and Alexander the Great (Knopf) takes readers viscerally and with verisimilitude back to the day, 2300 years ago.

“Design for Good,” the first program in the six-part “Design in Depth: Solving Problems with Design” series, features industrial designer Yves Béhar.

A Spankstra Press event, featuring: Readers: Eli Richardson, Stacey Levine, David La Terre, Maged Zaher, Ira Parnes, Arne Pihl, Amanda Dellinger, John Persak, Roger Weaver, Brian McGuigan, Loraine Campbell Many will have chapbooks for sale. Also: First Ever and Forever Lasting “SpankstraGeneous Award” will be given out.

Join local Seattle chef Ethan Stowell for the release of his first cookbook, with recipes that honor Italian tradition while celebrating the best ingredients the Pacific Northwest has to offer.

Deborah Fallows presents Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons In Life, Love, And Language. Nothing prepared Deborah Fallows for the surprises of learning Mandarin, China’s most common language, or the intensity of living in Shanghai and Beijing. As her skill with Mandarin increased, bits of the language became windows into understanding the romance, humor, protocol, relationships, and the overflowing humanity of modern China.

Nancy Pearl is a reader and a librarian, not a travel agent—so instead of recommending 120 places to visit before you die, she recommends 120 places to read about before you visit. Known for her librarian action figure and her influential Book Lust, Seattleite Pearl—author of the new Book Lust to Go—summons the perfect book to connect with any interest or adventure, whether it requires a passport or just an armchair: V.S. Naipaul’s Among the Believers before a trip to Indonesia, for example, or Nuala O’Faollin’s Are You Somebody? before heading to Ireland. Tickets are $5.

Gary Friedly promotes Bridge Over The Valley. Trevor Jensen is a smart, free spirited young man who has taken a summer job on a train traveling between Washington State and North Dakota. When he finds himself in the midst of controversy, Trevor must learn who he truly is by accepting change, loss and survival.

In his cycling memoir, Riding with Reindeer, you follow Bob Goldstein through his two-wheeled, pedal-powered tour of Scandinavia. Goldstein, winner of the 2006 Benjamin Franklin Award for travel writing, suffuses this book with humor and a keen sense of adventure. It’s sure to please armchair–or stationary bicycle seat–travelers everywhere.

Irish novelist and scholar Emma Donoghue, now based in Canada, is here for her new novel, Room (Little, Brown). A longlist nominee for this year’s MAN Booker Prize, Room is a story told form the point of view of a five-year-old who has never left the room in which he—and his mother—are imprisoned.

Lee Carroll promotes Black Swan Rising. When New York City jewelry designer Garet James opens a vintage silver box, otherworldly things start happening. When Garet begins to investigate, she is pulled into a prophecy that is hundreds of years old.

With age comes wisdom—and a renewed sense of purpose, says writer and cultural anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson. The author of Composing a Further Life, Bateson sees aging today as an “improvisational art form calling for imagination and willingness to learn,” and calls this new stage of the life cycle “Adulthood II.” Bateson explores how people boosted by unprecedented levels of health, energy, time, and resources are finding new meaning and new ways to contribute, thinking about and approaching later lives with the full force of imagination, curiosity, and enthusiasm. Tickets are $5.

Judith Skillman reads from her new book of poetry about the natural world and endangered and extinct species, “The Never,” a finalist for the FIELD/Oberlin Press Book Award and the Orphic Prize. She’ll be joined by friends from her poetry group, the Mount Baker Poets, Pat Hurshell, Susan Lane & Joannie Kervran Stangeland.

Laura Numeroff reads from Otis & Sydney and the Best Birthday Ever. A sweet and tender tale by the New York Times #1 bestselling author of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and the Jellybeans series, Otis & Sydney and the Best Birthday Ever introduces young readers to two lovable bears who understand that friendship is the only thing needed to make any day special.

John Andrews promotes Rude Buay – Unstoppable. This poignant and hard hitting story intensifies, as Rude Buay – pronounced ‘Rude Boy’ a dedicated and stubborn Drug Enforcement Agent, goes after a powerful drug cartel threatening the government of Jamaica. Rude Buay is a gritty action drama with deviant twists, entangled between the thin line of law and order.

One of the most popular children’s book authors of all, Laura Numeroff makes this special mid-day appearance for her newest book, Otis & Sydney and the Best Birthday Ever (Abrams Books for Young Readers). This enchanting tale of what happens when Otis plans a surprise for his friend Sydney’s birthday should join the list of other enduring favorites Laura Numeroff has created over the years—The Jellybeans and the Big Dance, When Sheep Sleep, If You Give a Moose a Muffin, If You Give a Pig a Pancake, and many, many more. At her publisher’s request, Laura Numeroff will sign her books purchased for this visit, along with one book brought from home.

Award-winning Seattle chef/owner Ethan Stowell’s is here to promote his first book, Ethan Stowell’s New Italian Kitchen (Ten Speed Press, co-authored by Leslie Miller). In this beautifully produced book, the proprietor of Union, Tavolata, How to Cook a Wolf, Olives & Anchovies, and the new Staple & Fancy brings the best of Italian tradition and Pacific Northwest bounty together

Gary Friedly reads and signs Bridge Over the Valley.

Laaren Kate reads and signs Torment. Falling in love is never easy. And falling in love with a fallen angel? Well, that’s even harder to navigate. Luce loves Daniel, but Daniel must hunt down a group of immortals who want to kill Luce. So he hides her at a school for Nephilim, the offspring of angels and humans. There, though, she learns that Daniel hasn’t told her everything about himself and is hiding a dangerous secret.

Dan Wells reads and signs Mr. Monster. John Wayne Cleaver, a young man with an unhealthy obsession for serial killers, used his intimate knowledge of the inner workings of a monster’s mind to save his town in the book I Am Not a Serial Killer. But that monster, it seems, was not an island unto himself. He had friends, and one of them turns up in Clayton County, giving Cleaver another case to solve, another killer to catch or kill. But the monster inside Cleaver seems to be getting stronger, and that gives him two foes to face.

Starting with her breakout debut, the enduringly popular Anywhere But Here in 1986, and with each of her three novels since, Mona Simpson has read at Elliott Bay. My Hollywood (Knopf) tells the story of two seemingly very different families’ lives—lives deeply examined and explored in contrast with superficial concerns suggested in a Hollywood setting.

The spin-off of the popular “Cheap Wine and Poetry” series presents a ladies’ night of prose writers, featuring Karen Finneyfrock, Wilson Diehl, Margot Kahn and Paullette Gaudet. Hosted by Charla Grenz.

Carol Cassella promotes Healer. From national bestselling author Carol Cassella comes the story of one doctor’s struggle to hold her family together through a storm of broken trust and questioned ethics. Healer exposes the vulnerabilities of the American family, provoking questions of choice versus fate, desire versus need, and the duplicitous power of money.

David Young’s contributions to poetry are considerable. A professor at Ohio’s Oberlin College for some years, he has served as an editor of that school’s esteemed literary magazine, FIELD, and of its well respected press, known for its contemporary poetry series and its works in translation. He has long been a translator himself, most recently of the poetry of Du Fu and Paul Celan. But he travels here today to read from his own work, the just published Field of Light and Shadow: Selected and New Poems ($27.95 Knopf), which draws from his decades of thoughtful, often deeply moving poetry.

The modern world may be obsessed with speed and productivity, but National Geographic senior editor Peter Miller says we 21st-century humans could learn a lot from the ancient instincts of ants, bees, and birds—creatures who crowd. Already, says Miller, author of Smart Swarms, their collective intelligence has influenced airline-boarding procedures, spy networks, and robotics, and the wisdom we glean about crowd behavior could even help us solve our own complex problems with business, politics, and technology. Tickets are $5.

Mary Daheim presents Loco Motive.

Tina Schumann’s manuscript “As If” was awarded the Stephen Dunn Poetry Prize for 2010 and will see publication by Parlor City Press this year. Her work received honorable mention in The Atlantic Poetry Writing Contest for 2008 and she is the recipient of the American Poet Prize for 2009 from The American Poetry Journal.

Attention, Ken Follett fans: You might want to clear your calendar for the next four years. One of the world’s most beloved novelists (The Pillars of the Earth), Follett has a new historical epic, and it’s just the first installment in a new series called The Century Trilogy. Volume One, Fall of Giants, follows five interrelated families—American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh—through World War I and the Russian Revolution; the second book, due in 2012, will feature their descendants in the Depression and WWII; and the third (2014) will continue the tale through the Cold War. Tickets are $5.

Dana Haynes signs Crashers.

Islamic radicalism believes in government by theocracy, curtails civil liberties, embraces torture, represses women, wants to eradicate homosexuals from society, and insists on the use of force over diplomacy. Markos Moulitsas, liberal pundit and founder and publisher of Daily Kos, sees a natural (if unlikely) ally in the American political spectrum—the modern conservative movement—and wryly explores their common cause in his latest work, American Taliban. Tickets are $5.

Millions are out of work, but Candice Reed, co-author of the hot, new “anti-career” book, Thank You for Firing Me! How to Catch the Next Wave of Success After You Lose Your Job has all the solutions.

Michele Norris, the host of NPR’s All Things Considered, had set out to report and write a book about “the hidden conversation on race” going on in this country. But along the way, she unearthed some painful family secrets. And so, in contemplating a “post-racial America,” Norris, author of The Grace of Silence, discovered through her story and her family’s how character is forged by both repression and revelation, and how silence can become a form of self-protection and a means of survival. Tickets are $10.

Hershey bars, Tabasco sauce, Spam, even Google—all come from a “company town,” where one business dominates the local economy and culture. Seattle has in the past had the same designation—and though most would say we’ve diversified in the last 25 years, there are still a handful of players that cast undeniably long shadows. These towns are the essence of America, says former BusinessWeek associate editor Hardy Green, who analyzes how the American economy has grown and changed, and how the company town has reflected the best and worst of American capitalism. Tickets are $5.

Millions are out of work, but Candice Reed, co-author of the hot, new “anti-career” book, Thank You for Firing Me! How to Catch the Next Wave of Success After You Lose Your Job has all the solutions.

When the 2008 recession hit, blame was directed toward a bloated financial industry lacking government oversight or accountability. But former Secretary of Labor and economist Robert Reich suggests a different, structural, reason for the meltdown: The distribution of wealth in the United States is wildly off, and the middle class in particular suffers for it. Reich, author of 2007’s Supercapitalism and the new Aftershock, suggests that if we are to lastingly improve our economy, it will take a serious examination of our nation’s principles, and a much broader safety net for the middle class. Tickets are $5.

Foreign correspondent and Washington Post bureau chief, Reid’s books include the bestselling The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper and Fairer Health Care. Cheapest tickets are $15.

The 10th parallel—the line of latitude 700 miles north of the equator—is a geographical and ideological front line where Christianity and Islam collide: More than half the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims live along it, as do 60 percent of the world’s 2 billion Christians. Investigative journalist and poet Eliza Griswold, author of The Tenth Parallel, examines the area’s complex relationships of religion, land, and oil; local conflicts and global ideology; politics and martyrdom; and faith and violence in the contemporary world. Tickets are $5.

Assume the worst, says David Rakoff, and you’ll never be disappointed. By examining his own life alongside the realities of our sunny, everyone-can-be-a-star culture, Rakoff, author of the bestselling Don’t Get Too Comfortable and the new memoir Half Empty, finds that the best is not yet to come, adversity will triumph, justice will not be served, and your dreams won’t come true. Whether he’s lacerating the musical Rent for its cutesy depiction of AIDS or criticizing the sad state of the outdated “House of Tomorrow” at Disneyland, his sharp and witty observations positively revel in the power of negativity. Tickets are free with the purchase of Half Empty from University Book Store; otherwise $5 beginning September 21 and at the door.

The past 20 years have drastically transformed our relationship with nuclear weapons. In The Twilight of the Bombs, the culminating volume in Richard Rhodes’ prizewinning history of nuclear weapons, Rhodes offers a comprehensive narrative of the challenges faced in a post–Cold War age, detailing how the five original nuclear powers—Russia, Great Britain, France, China, and especially the United States—have struggled with new realities. Assessing the hope for our future, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author also gauges the emerging threat of nuclear terrorism. Tickets are $5.

San Francisco poet Matthew Zapruder reads from his third full-length collection, Come on All You Ghosts, from Copper Canyon Press. He is an editor at Seattle’s Wave Books.

Join the library for ¡Biblio Loco! A Celebration of the Washington State Book Awards. This event will feature remarks and readings by award recipients in four adult categories: fiction, poetry, history/biography and general nonfiction. The Scandiuzzi Children’s Book Award will honor one picture book for children, one book for early readers (grades one to three, ages 6 to 9), and one book for middle grades and young adults (10- to 18-year-olds). Winners will be announced in mid-September.

Lauren Conrad promotes Lauren Conrad Style. Lauren Conrad is best known for starring in the MTV hit series The Hills. Her first novel, L.A. Candy, was a #1 New York Times bestseller. She began her career as a fashion designer in spring 2008 with the debut of the Lauren Conrad Collection and expanded in 2009 with a second line, LC Lauren Conrad, exclusively for Kohl’s.

Gail Collins discusses “When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present.”

Ron Chernow discusses his new biography, “Washington: A Life.”

R. A. Salvatore signs Gauntlgrym. Drizzt joins Bruenor on his quest for the fabled dwarven kingdom of Gauntlgrym: ruins said to be rich with ancient treasure.

Ms. Agodon reads from Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room, which received the White Pine Press Poetry Prize. She lives in Kingston, Washington.

Dinaw Mengestu reads from “How to Read the Air.”

Leslie Marmon Silko discusses “The Turquoise Ledge: A Memoir”.

Cartier Diamond Dagger and Gold Dagger Award-winner, Paretsky and her character V.I. Warshawski have revolutionized the mystery genre. Cheapest tickets are $15.

Paul Harding reads from “Tinker,” winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Judy Bentley will read from her new book, “Hiking Washington’s History” published by the University of Washington Press.

Bellingham poet Ms. Colen’s first full-length collection, Money for Sunsets, received the Judge’s Prize from Steel Toe Press. Shane McCrae’s collection Mule is from Cleveland State University Press. A resident of Iowa, he holds degrees both from Harvard Law School and the Iowa Writers Workshop.

Seattle poet Snyder-Camp reads from her book The Forest of Sure Things, published by Tupelo Press and winner of its award for Outstanding First Book.

Ian Frazier discusses “Travels in Siberia,” a historical travelogue.

Dorothea Lasky reads from her second collection, Black Life, published by Wave Books. She teaches at the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Warsh, of New York City, will read from both recent poetry and prose. He is the author of numerous books, including A Place in the Sun, from Spuyten Duyvil, and Inseparable: Poems 1995-2005, from Granary Books.

We begin our Open Elsewhere Series with a reading by the much lauded Tacoma-born poet Gjertrud Schnackenberg at the beautiful Chapel Performance Space in the Good Shepherd Center, just two blocks north of Open Books on Sunnyside. Ms. Schnacken-
berg reads from her just released sixth collection, Heavenly Questions, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Poet and prose writer Kazim Ali, a professor at Oberlin College in Ohio, reads from his latest book, Bright Felon: Autobiography and Cities, a work of creative non-fiction published by Wesleyan. Sarah Vap reads from her third collection, Faulkner’s Rosary, from Saturnalia Books. She lives on the Olympic Peninsula.