James McBride

McBride, who is best known for his excellent memoir The Color of Water, will read from his new novel, Good Lord Bird. It's about an orphaned male slave child in pre–Civil War America who is mistaken for a girl and named Onion by John Brown.

Northwest African American Museum, 7 pm, free

Cheap Beer & Prose

At this popular reading series, beers are just one dollar a can. The readers this time out are Eli Hastings (author of newish memoir Clearly Now, the Rain), short story author Alma Garcia, Sean Beaudoin (whose young adult novel Wise Young Fool was published in August), and Tara Atkinson (a cofounder of Genius Award finalists APRIL Festival). This is an interesting lineup, for sure.

Hugo House, 7 pm, free

Langdon Cook

The mushroom-expert author of Mushroom Hunters: On the Trail of an Underground America is probably sick of being referred to as a "fun guy." This reading will feature samples of mushrooms for you to eat.

Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free

David Montgomery

Just about everybody knows that most religions have some variation of a giant flood in their creation myths. UW geologist Montgomery investigates the truth behind the story in his new book, The Rocks Don't Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah's Flood.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

Bushwick Book Club

The Seattle chapter of the Bushwick Book Club has for years now forced musicians to read. If that wasn't miraculous enough, they also convinced the musicians to write new songs in response to the book they read. This is a kid-friendly performance of songs inspired by The Wizard of Oz.

Central Library, 7 pm, free

A Night at the Bronze

This is a fan event for people who love the television show and comic book series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There will be puppets and something called "Squee-tastic Photo Ops," along with copies of Jennifer K. Stuller's book Fan Phenomena: Buffy the Vampire Slayer available for sale. Costumes are encouraged.

LUCID, 6 pm, free

Breadline

Capitol Hill's zestiest reading series features two Stranger Genius Award–nominated poets: Ed Skoog and Kary Wayson. They are both lovely readers of their own work. Two other very good poets, Oliver de la Paz and Rick Barot, will be reading, too.

Vermillion, 7 pm, free

Jorie Graham

Seattle Arts & Lectures program director Rebecca Hoogs is "absolutely terrified" to interview Jorie Graham, the Pulitzer Prize–winning poet, in this first event of SAL's annual Poetry Series. "She's one of the great poets of our time," Hoogs explains. "Her work is dense and wonderfully initimidating. I'm wonderfully intimidated by her."

Benaroya Hall, Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall, 7:30 pm, $5–$50

Salon of Shame

The Salon of Shame has been going on for a long time in Seattle—in January, they'll be celebrating their 50th show—but it's still very much worth your time. Readers will share real, wince-inducing pieces of writing from their teen years. It's a very funny night of awkward comedy, and it never fails to make this calendar editor happy that he threw out all of his teenage writing as soon as he was old enough to know better.

Theater Off Jackson, 7 pm, $12

Thomas Keneally

You know Keneally best for his book Schindler's Ark, which became the movie Schindler's List. His new book, The Daughters of Mars, is about a pair of sisters who sign up as nurses during World War II, only to survive the sinking of a ship during the Battle of Gallipoli.

Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free

Timothy Egan

Who better to deliver the 2013 A. Scott Bullitt Lecture in American History than the local author of very good books The Worst Hard Time and Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis? Well, probably Gore Vidal would be better, but Gore Vidal is dead, so stop complaining and enjoy what you've got.

Central Library, 7 pm, free

A. Scott Berg

Berg's Wilson is a thick biography of our 28th president. Hopefully, this book will provide some insight on the strokes that weakened and perhaps incapacitated Wilson at the end of his life, which is one of the more fascinating moments in presidential history.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

Scott Berkun

It's easy to dismiss business books as pabulum, but local author Berkun has written at least one interesting book that resisted that stereotyping. His The Myths of Innovation disproved the classic American idea that innovators step in and change a field all on their own; every innovation is the result of a community. Berkun's new book, The Year Without Pants, is about his time working at Wordpress.org. Expect to learn something new about business, about tech, and about how we work.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

Jonathan Lethem

Lethem will be reading from his new novel, Dissident Gardens, later tonight at the Central Library, but this is something special in addition to that reading. For $35, you get to join Lethem for an intimate lunchtime reading in the pub below Third Place Books Ravenna. That price gets you a copy of the book and lunch from Vios Cafe. You don't get many chances to take part in an event this casual with an author of this stature; I'd call that ticket price a bargain.

Third Place Ravenna, 1 pm, $35

Sudhir Venkatesh

The author of Floating City: A Rogue Sociologist Lost and Found in New York's Underground Economy will discuss all the different economies that make a city work, from criminal activity to undocumented immigrants to the secret economies of the very wealthy.

Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free

Charles Johnson

Sri Chinmoy helped introduce meditation to the western world. Charles Johnson, who is a local novelist and beloved former UW professor, will be reading selections from Chinmoy's book The Jewels of Happiness. Johnson contributed to the audio book version of Happiness and will talk about why the book is important to him.

University Book Store, 7 pm, free

The Inhabitant Sessions

This is part one of a three-part series fashioned after human anatomy—specifically heads, stomachs, and asses—sponsored in part by Berlin's Souciant magazine. Standing in for the head is The Stranger's own Charles Mudede, who will give a new talk about zombie neoliberalism and how in the future, everyone is going to be a hustler.

Vermillion, 5 pm, free

Kathleen Flenniken, Lucia Perillo, and Friends

Press materials list this event, unfortunately, as an "Eco-Poetry group reading." But Flenniken, our state's poet laureate, is actually a good poet, which is rare for poet laureates. In addition, Perillo is a gifted writer who has won a MacArthur Fellowship. The authors are reading in support of a new poetry collection called The Ecopoetry Anthology.

Elliott Bay Book Company, 3 pm, free

Terry McMillan

Love her or hate her, you know the names of McMillan's books: Waiting to Exhale, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and so on. This event, in support of her new book, Who Asked You?, is going to be a capital-e Event, and sometimes literary Events are a lot of fun.

Central Library, 7 pm, free

Patricia Churchland

Touching a Nerve is a book by Churchland, who is a neurophilosopher. It's about the connection between what we perceive as our selves and the physicality of our brains, which is the kind of thing that can cause a headache in people who are not accustomed to thinking about it. Ow.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, free

Christopher Parker

Parker's Change They Can't Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America draws a straight line from historical right-wing groups like "the Know Nothing Party, the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s, and the John Birch Society" to today's modern Tea Party movement. This is the sort of book that makes you proud to be an American.

University Book Store, 7 pm, free

Made at Hugo Showcase

Novelists Irene Keliher and Eric McMillan will present new work with short story author Anca Szilagyi. All three authors took part in Hugo House's very worthwhile Made at Hugo program, which is like a grant that provides the authors with support and community. This is where they show off what they've learned.

Hugo House, 7 pm, free

Peter Bagge

Local cartoonist Bagge's latest book is a departure from his usual work: Woman Rebel is a comic book biography of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger. To celebrate the book launch, he's going to appear in conversation with The Stranger's Cienna Madrid.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

Stranger Genius Awards

Tonight's the night. Who will join authors like Sherman Alexie, Jim Woodring, Ellen Forney, and Rebecca Brown as a Stranger-certified Genius of literature? Neal Stephenson, Maged Zaher, or the APRIL Festival will walk away from this party $5,000 richer, and everybody will wear a fancy outfit, get super-drunk, dance their asses off, and be treated to a set by Seattle Rock Orchestra.

Moore Theater, 7:30 pm, $10

Shiro Kashiba

The beloved local genius sushi chef will be reading from his new memoir, Shiro: Wit, Wisdom and Recipes from a Sushi Pioneer, on the Bainbridge ferry departing from Seattle at 3 p.m. Then there will be a sushi tasting at a Bainbridge restaurant called The Intentional Table.

Bainbridge Ferry, 3 pm, free

Brendan Jay Sullivan

Rivington Was Ours is a memoir by Lady Gaga friend and accomplice DJ Brendan Jay Sullivan. It's about New York City and the music scene from which Lady Gaga erupted.

Third Place Ravenna, 7 pm, free

Linda Ronstadt

Yes, that Linda Ronstadt. She's reading from Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir.

Town Hall, 7 pm, $30 (includes book)

Nicholson Baker

Baker undertakes his first true sequel—Room Temperature doesn't quite count as a sequel to The Mezzanine, even though it's basically the same conceit—with his new novel, Traveling Sprinkler, which stars the narrator of Baker's The Anthologist. This time, our hero wants to write a perfect pop song, despite the fact that he's not really good at that kind of thing.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

Nicholas Sparks

AAAAAAAHHHH! AAAAAHHHHH! It's the guy who wrote The Notebook! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! Maybe his new book, The Longest Ride, features a scene in which Ryan Gosling will take his shirt off in the rain! AAAAAAHHHHH! [Faints, dies.]

Town Hall, 7 pm, $35 (admission for two)

Eric Schlosser

The Fast Food Nation author reads from his newest nonfiction piece of reportage, Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety. On the plus side, it probably won't be as stomach-churning as Nation. On the minus side, you'll probably feel more powerless when you finish reading this one.

Central Library, 7 pm, free

Jen Marlowe

I Am Troy Davis is about the death row inmate who convinced America to take a second look at capital punishment.

Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free

Matt Taibbi

Given his role as chief bullshit-caller at Rolling Stone, everyone expected Taibbi to be the next Hunter S. Thompson. But what Taibbi does is arguably more valuable: He provides well-reported stories of greed and excess in a time and a nation that's choking on greed and excess. Taibbi didn't fall for the glitz and glamour of celebrity reportage—instead, he ventured out into heavily researched attacks on Goldman Sachs, the Obama administration, and everyone else who's trying to screw over the 99 percent these days. Tonight, Taibbi will give a talk as part of the Sightline Institute's 20th anniversary reading series.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

Paul Harding

Harding's novel Tinkers came out of nowhere to win the Pulitzer Prize a few years back. His new novel, Enon, doesn't have the element of surprise that his previous book did, but those who enjoyed what press materials refer to as the "turbulent emotional odyssey" of his last book will probably find a lot here to enjoy. You have to use amorphous words like that to describe Harding's books, because they're really well-written books about men in New England with rich internal lives, which means nothing much happens.

Central Library, 7 pm, free

Margaret Atwood

MaddAddam is the third and final book in the dystopian trilogy Atwood started with her novel Oryx and Crake.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

Kathryn Davis

Duplex is a novel in which a pair of young lovers find themselves stuck in time, unable to enter an adulthood of "robots and sorcerers, slaves and masters, bodies without souls." This looks like a really delightfully bizarre little mashup of a book.

Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free

Salman Rushdie

Rushdie's memoir Joseph Anton is not the compelling book you'd think it should be. Even though it's about his time hiding underground during the fatwa that threatened his life, Rushdie manages to make the book feel arrogant and awkward. But still: Rushdie is Rushdie, and you shouldn't miss a chance to see the man live.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

Tom Barbash and Jess Walter

Barbash's collection of stories, Stay Up with Me, features stories that have appeared in Tin House, McSweeney's, and Virginia Quarterly Review. Because short stories are often a hard sell, Barbash is smartly appearing with popular Washington State novelist Jess Walter, who will interview Barbash about being an awesome author.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

Allan Gurganus

Gurganus is probably the most successful American author to have the word "anus" in his name. His Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All was one of the best Southern books to land on the best-seller list in recent memory. His new novel, Local Souls, according to press materials, intends to bring "Flannery O'Connor kicking into our new century." That's a tall order, right there.

Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free

Alice McDermott

McDermott's funereal novel Charming Billy was a breakout sensation of a book more than a decade ago. Someone is supposed to detail a woman's life in full, which sounds happily Woolfian. We should all try for a little Woolf every once in a while.

Central Library, 7 pm, free

Catherine R. Smyka

The Furnace reading series at Hollow Earth Radio, which bills itself as "One Writer. One Story. Read to completion (with vigor)," brings author Catherine R. Smyka to share a story with musical accompaniment. Smyka is an award-winning storyteller, the cofounder of T/OUR Magazine, and the social media coordinator here at The Stranger, which means she's a coworker of mine. Which makes it a little awkward, but I've seen Smyka read, and I assure you that this will be a good time and you'll enjoy the story a whole lot.

Hollow Earth Radio, 7 pm, free

Jhumpa Lahiri

As far as I'm concerned, this is the fall event to beat. Lahiri is an exceptional American novelist, and her book The Namesake was one of the best debut novels of the last 10 years. Now that I've set expectations so high they'll never be met, you should still come to this reading for Lahiri's sophomore novel, The Lowland. You'll enjoy yourself. I promise.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

Malcolm Gladwell

The author, who has made a fortune for himself by writing about tiny little sociological ideas, returns after grinding out another book using his tried-and-true formula. This one is titled David and Goliath, and it's about exactly what you think it'll be about.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5–$50

Andrew Dubus III, Nicole Hardy

Dubus is a popular novelist and memoirist. He'll be in conversation with Hardy, whose new memoir, Confessions of a Latter-day Virgin, was released at the end of the summer. Presumably, they will focus on memoir, since local yoga memoirist Claire Dederer will be directing the conversation.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

Robert K. Elder

The popular film critic reads from his book The Best Film You've Never Seen, in which 35 directors talk up their favorite obscure films, along with a screening of one of those films.

Grand Illusion Cinema, 6 pm, free

Jesse Bering

Can something really be considered "deviant" if everyone has at least one deviant interest? In Bering's new book, Perv, the limits of sexual deviance are explored, and we learn how freaky everyday people can get.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

Spartan Lit Party

The magazine Spartan, which you can find online at spartanlit.com, bills itself with the tagline "Minimalist Prose. No Strays." It's about as straightforward a literary magazine as you'll find: a few good pieces of writing, carefully chosen. This is a party to celebrate the online magazine in meatspace. Togas are reportedly encouraged.

Hugo House, 7 pm, free

Wenonah Hauter

Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America is a well-timed book, since by the time this reading happens, all of Seattle will be in the middle of a serious conversation about genetically modified foods.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

Breadline

This is a special edition of the Capitol Hill reading series, in which money will be raised for the charity of the audience's choice. Readers include poet (and Stranger writer) Sarah Galvin and something called 3 Ninjas that I assume is not the kids' movie.

Vermillion, 7 pm, free

Stephen Dunn

The Pulitzer Prize–winning poet comes to town for Seattle Arts and Lectures' very good poetry series. One of Dunn's poems encourages people to not ask each other "What are you thinking?" after making love, unless they really want to hear the answer.

ACT/Falls Theater, 7:30 pm, $5–$50

Kate Lebo

For years, Lebo has been selling a chapbook of her own creation called A Commonplace Book of Pie, which features poems about pie. Now the book has been picked up by local publisher Chin Music Press. This event features a "pie social," featuring a pie potluck (bring your own pie, eat other peoples' pies) and then a reading featuring Lebo, Sam Ligon, and poet Elissa Ball.

Hugo House, 6 pm, free

Edwidge Danticat

The Haitian American writer, who has written some truly goddamn beautiful novels, returns with a new book about a young girl who goes missing from a Haitian fishing town.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

T/OUR Magazine

T/OUR magazine is a newish publication featuring fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art from queer and queer-allied artists. This is a launch party for the new, all-digital issue of the magazine, featuring a reading from local authors and a "band or two."

Vermillion, 7 pm, free

People Will Talk

Hugo House's literary series teams three writers and a musician together to produce new work on a theme. The headliner here is novelist and short story author Richard Bausch, who has quietly built a huge and impressive body of work over the last three decades. He's joined by young fiction author Roxane Gay and local poet Kary Wayson, who was a finalist for a Genius Award last year. Music will be provided by Stranger Genius John Osebold. There's a lot of genius in this lineup, Stranger-approved and otherwise.

Hugo House, 7 pm, $15–$25

GeekGirlCon

Seemingly out of nowhere, a team of Seattle women put together a female-centric nerd convention a few years back. It sold out. Clearly, there was demand. Now in its third year, you can expect more of the same concept from GGC: panels discussing sci-fi and fantasy, nerd culture, and everything else you'd expect to find at a con. This event isn't just for women, but if you're the kind of mouth-breathing dick who leers at women in tight costumes at conventions and whines online about why there isn't a White Man History Month, you should do us all a favor and stay home.

Washington State Convention Center, 9 am–10 pm, $20 day pass/$35 both days

Sara Farizan

Two young Iranian girls fall in love in Farizan's novel If You Could Be Mine. Since the story takes place in Iran, complications happen.

University Book Store, 7 pm, free

Alan Weisman

Weisman's The World Without Us imagined what the world would be like if humanity just disappeared. Now in his new book, Countdown, he imagines what we can do as a species to save the future from the various disasters that are staring us down.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, free

Brad Stone

Stone's The Everything Store looks behind the scenes at Amazon.com. He was reportedly given "unprecedented access" to the company's secrets, and the book also features a look at Jeff Bezos, who is the nation's newest newspaperman. After Stone reads, Stranger books editor Paul Constant—who is writing this very sentence—will lead a Q&A session about the book and about Amazon.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

Stephen Jimenez

Jimenez, who is an award-winning journalist, reads from his new book, The Book of Matt: The Truth About the Murder of Matthew Shepard.

University Book Store, 7 pm, free

Movable Type

I've raved at length about Movable Type, so I'll just let the premise sell itself this time: Bring the book you're reading to the bar. Buy a drink. Talk to a stranger about the book they brought. Be ready to talk about the book you brought. Buy more drinks. Have fun.

Vermillion, 7 pm, free

Kim Ghattas

Ghattas, who is the BBC's State Department Radio and TV correspondent, reads from The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power.

Central Library, 7 pm, free

Mark Helprin

The beloved Winter's Tale author returns with In Sunlight and in Shadow, which is a book haunted by a glimpse of a beautiful young woman in 1946.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

Jack Straw Presents

This is one of a number of events this fall featuring the 2013 class of Jack Straw Writers. (Jack Straw Productions is an organization devoted to helping talented writers learn how to better express their work out loud and in recorded mediums.) To read more about other events, which feature local writers like Daemond Arrindell, Larry Crist, Josephine Ensign, Jeannine Hall Gailey, Jay McAleer, Peter Munro, and Judith Skillman, visit jackstraw.org.

University Book Store, 7 pm, free

Will Self

Self is not everyone's idea of a great read. His books are sarcastic, dark, and, if you're into sarcastic and dark things, extra-hilarious. This reading is in support of the paperback release of his newest novel, Umbrella, and it might get a little, well, sarcastic and also dark.

Central Library, 7 pm, free

Karl Ove Knausgaard

Norwegian author Knausgaard's memoir, My Struggle, received adoring reviews and plenty of attention from small press fanatics. Now he's bringing the newly translated sequel, A Man in Love: My Struggle 2, to Seattle for a very special debut reading. It's not every day you get a chance to meet an author who people are eagerly comparing to Proust.

Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free

Donna Tartt

Tartt's debut novel, The Secret History, is a great, twisted literary thriller about students who attend an exclusive school that was reportedly based on Vermont's Bennington College. Her long-awaited follow-up, The Little Friend, was not so well-received. Tartt's rabid fans—seriously, The Secret History is incredible—are hoping that her third book, The Goldfinch, will rock Tartt out of that sophomore slump.

Central Library, 7 pm, free

Alex Prud'homme

Prud'homme is the coauthor of Julia Child's memoir My Life in France. How does one get from there to a new book titled Hydrofracking: What Everyone Needs to Know? That seems like an interesting question for the Q&A part of the night. In any case, fracking is an important issue, and the public needs to know more about it. Come get some.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

William Todd Schultz

The author of Torment Saint: The Life of Elliott Smith talks with Mark Baumgarten, the new editor in chief of the Seattle Weekly.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

Bill Ayers

The man who famously inspired Sarah Palin's comment that President Obama was "pallin' around with terrorists" will read from his new biography, Public Enemy: Confessions of an American Dissident. I wonder if those idiots at Fox News will have anything to say about this book?

Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free

Tom Nissley

Nissley is a Stranger contributor who also had a successful run on Jeopardy! His new book is titled A Reader's Book of Days, and it reportedly "features bite-size accounts of events in the lives of great authors for every day of the year."

Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free

Billy Collins

Billy Collins is a popular poet. That is all I have to say about Billy Collins.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

Garrison Keillor

The NPR celebrity will read from his new book, O What a Luxury: Verses Lyrical, Vulgar, Pathetic & Proud. He'll be reading in the middle of the store and not the downstairs reading room, so expect a super-packed house.

Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free

Lindy West and Anna Holmes

Lindy West is the former Stranger writer who has gone on to take over the internet. She'll be presenting The Book of Jezebel, an encyclopedia-themed collection of pieces from the popular Gawker Media feminism site, with the book's editor, Anna Holmes.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

Elizabeth Gilbert

The Eat Pray Love author, who has inspired lots of women to toss their lives up into the air and see what happens, will read from her new novel, The Signature of All Things. It's historical fiction about the daughter of a famous botanist.

Town Hall, 7 pm, $5

Tavi Gevinson and The Rookie Yearbook Two Release Party

This event, which is part of the run-up to this month's Short Run festival, will feature Rookie editor Tavi Gevinson celebrating the second collection of her magazine with readings and a teen-centric zine-making workshop.

Vera Project, 1 pm, free

John Nichols and Robert McChesney

Dollarocracy is subtitled How the Money and Media Election Complex Is Destroying America. This sounds like a book that everyone should be talking about in November, just as the terrible machine is lurching back to life for the 2016 presidential elections.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

David Sedaris

Of all the readings I've attended in my life, two or three of the five most entertaining were David Sedaris readings. The other two or three were Sherman Alexie readings.

Benaroya Hall, 8 pm, $43–$52

Mark Halperin, John Heilemann

It's time for a second helping of Halperin and Heilemann's gossipy, insidery account of the 2012 presidential campaign. Get ready to learn more about Mitt Romney than is humanly healthy.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

David Folkenflik

Murdoch's World is a biography of News Corp and of Rupert Murdoch, both of which are living demonstrations of the old saw about how there's a sucker born every minute.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

Joe Sacco

Sacco is the world's preeminent comic book journalist, but now he's making a case that he's the world's preeminent comic book historian, too. His new book, The Great War, is a wordless, 24-foot-long panorama illustrating the events that occurred on July 1, 1916. You've never seen anything quite like this. It's impressive.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

The Paper Chase

This entry in the Hugo Literary Series features two big names on the national literary scene (Dorothy Allison and Stephen Elliott), one up-and-coming local author (Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum), and a fancy musician (Mary Lambert, who you probably know best for her singing in Macklemore's "Same Love") on the theme of paper chases.

Hugo House, 7:30 pm, $25

Madhur Jaffrey

The popular cookbook author, who has inspired tens of thousands of Americans to try cooking Indian food, discusses topics covered in her books, including her most recent, Madhur Jaffrey's Curry Nation. This is part of Seattle Arts and Lectures' 2013–2014 lecture series.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $15

Breadline

At press time, we're a long way out from the November Breadline, so they haven't gotten their whole lineup set. But we do know that a presenter will be someone representing Great Weather for Media, an independent press from New York that describes themselves by saying, "Our focus is on innovative, quality poetry and prose from fearless writers everywhere in the world."

Vermillion, 7:30 pm, free

Rebecca Sive

Here's a fact: We need more women in public office all around the country. Full stop. It will make the United States a better place. Sive, the author of A Woman's Guide to Winning Any Office, wants to help make that dream a reality.

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

Elissa Washuta

Washuta is a local author who has read all around town. Her memoir, My Body Is a Book of Rules, will be published next year. This reading is practice for the year to come, as well as a demonstration of everything Washuta learned at the Hugo House's Made at Hugo program for young local writers.

Hugo House, 7 pm, free

Ann Patchett

The author of fun novels like Bel Canto and The Magician's Assistant reads from her new memoir, This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage. She will appear in conversation with local library hero Nancy Pearl. Expect some conversation about Patchett's recent life as a bookstore owner (she opened a new bookstore called Parnassus Books in Nashville a couple years back).

Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

Dorothea Lasky

The prolific poet will do double duty as the latest Seattle Arts and Lectures poet and as a lecturer in the brand-new Bagley Wright Lecture Series on Poetry.

ACT/Falls Theater, 7:30 pm, $15

Read/Write

The evening before Short Run kicks off, the organization is presenting a day of performances, collaboration, and panels to discuss topics as varied as "the value of comics and zines, the role craft plays in the digital age, a history of queer comics and zines, and the gender gap in comics." This sounds like five hours of heaven for aspiring cartoonists and zine-makers.

Vera Project, noon, free

Short Run 2013 Small Press Fest

This is the event of autumn 2013: More than 100 local and national writers and artists, along with traveling presses from all over the place, will gather for an exposition and a show featuring the very best of small presses. Plus: Screening of animated shorts, puppets, an "epic mural" collaboration, food trucks, and more zines and mini-comics than you could carry away in the back of a pickup truck. In addition, Washington Hall will also house the after-party, which will come in the form of a "'Comics Prom,' a 21+ dance party with comic book corsages and spiked punch, featuring music by local favorite La Luz and K Records band the Shivas."

Washington Hall, 11 am, free