ALICE WALKER

Walker will be the keynote speaker at the "2000 Alliance for Education A+ Awards," a celebration for Seattle Public Schools. Rah! Also appearing will be our tone-deaf, clipped-winged Governor Gary Locke, jazz legend Ernestine Anderson, and the Garfield High School Jazz Band. The event is sponsored by the University Book Store, Alliance for Education, and (what the hell!) AT&T, and a percentage of the proceeds from sales of Walker's books will go to benefit the Alliance for Education. Benaroya Hall, Third & Seneca, 205-0327, 5:30 pm, $10-$100, tickets required.

*ISHMAEL REED

See Stranger Suggests. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main St, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free (tickets available at store).

*J. D. McCLATCHY

See Stranger Suggests. Kane Hall, Roethke Auditorium, UW Campus, 543-2634, 8 pm, free and open to the public.

KEN WALDMAN

"Alaska's Fiddlin' Poet" (here in town of-fucking-course for the NW Folklife Festival) will read from his new book, Nome Poems. Hey-diddle-diddle, or whatever. See Bio Box. University Book Store, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.

BRENDA PETERSON

"For two decades now I have cleaved to the misting, mysterious shores of Washington's Puget Sound...." Peterson's latest book of personal essays, Singing to the Sound, explores the region's natural habitat and our intimate relationship with it. Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3300, 7 pm, free.

STEVE FIFFER

The twisted, tangled conspiracy surrounding the discovery, governmental seizure, and eventual release and exhibition of Sue, "the world's largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex," is a tale worthy of an X-Files episode. First discovered in South Dakota circa 1990 by former Seattle resident and Black Hills Institute of Geological Research volunteer Sue Hendrickson, the bones were confiscated two years later by FBI and National Guard troops (call Scully and Mulder!). Legal battles, international controversy, and jealous academic wrangling ensued, after which the fossils were released to the original landowner, and then--with funding from McDonald's and the Disney Corporation--Tyrannosaurus Sue was finally bought at a Sotheby's auction for $8.36 million for the Chicago Field Museum. Fiffer, joined by two scientists and a six-and-a-half-foot T-Rex skull, will be reading from and signing his book detailing these very weird events, Tyrannosaurus Sue: The Extraordinary Saga of the Largest, Most Fought Over T-Rex Ever Found. University Book Store, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.

RAJ KAMAL JHA

The debut novel by this Indian journalist, The Blue Bedspread, was described by Richard Bernstein of The New York Times as "a spare, mysterious and somber tale of erotic violence and illicit love that stays in the mind long after the last page has been turned... told with a kind of Shubertian loveliness that transforms it into an elegant, melancholy meditation on love and courage." Jha reads from and signs his book in two different locations today. University Book Store, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 3:30 pm, free; and Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main St, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free (tickets available at store).

MADELINE

No kidding! This amazing, splendiferous, and entirely beloved character of children's world literature will be supernaturally appearing to share with the chilluns her story about a brave trip to the hospital, as well as reading from her very special classic adventures in Paris and London. And there'll be snacks! Barnes & Noble, Pacific Place, 600 Pine, 264-0156, 2 pm, free.

NEIL DOUGLAS-KLOTZ

According to Matthew Fox, this Scottish religious scholar and psychologist's newest book, The Hidden Gospel: Decoding the Spiritual Message of the Aramaic Jesus, works to undo "the rigid and dualistic translations of the Christian Scriptures and thereby awakens, challenges, and makes fresh the Good News that, after all these centuries, is still news." Hallelujah! Douglas-Klotz's previous book was called The Prayers of the Cosmos, so obviously the guy's got nothing less than the Grand Scheme in mind. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main St, 624-6600, 4 pm, free (tickets available at store).

DERRICK JENSEN

Jensen, author of the environmental anthology Listening to the Land, returns with A Language Older Than Words, a work that Daniel Quinn hailed as "what Kafka said a book should be, 'an ax for the frozen sea within us.' The reader should be advised that this is both high praise and a sincere warning: dangerous reading here: proceed at your own risk." Okay, you've been warned. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main St, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free (tickets available at store).

STACEY LEVINE, JOANNIE KERVRAN STANGELAND, STOKELEY TOWLES

Titlewave Reading Series, now in its sixth year, "showcases the city's finest writers of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry" on the last Sunday of every month. Towles, an installation and performance artist, spent two years impersonating a professor at the UW, giving lectures to dumb college students. It should be interesting. Titlewave Fine Used Books, 7 Mercer St, 324-6379, 7:30 pm, free.

SKYE MOODY

Students of Moody's UW extension class in mystery writing will be giving readings from works-in-progress. Keep your ears open for gaping plot holes, unfeasible characters, and improbable dialogue. (Sorry, just kidding.) University Book Store, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 2 pm, free.

MARTIN MARRIOT

Red Sky Poetry Theatre's featured reading by Marriot, plus open mic (sign up at 7 pm). Globe Cafe, 1531 14th, 633-5647, 7:30 pm, free.

KEN WALDMAN

See Thursday listing. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main St, 624-6600, 3 pm, free (tickets available at store).

LAWRENCE YTZHAK BRAITHWAITE

Bad-boy Dennis Cooper called the writing of this author of Ratz Are Nice "so gorgeous, propulsive, and alive that it almost seems to reinvent fiction before your eyes." (What would Dennis Cooper know about reinventing fiction?) But if you like reading about "the no-holds-barred worlds of rudeboys and skinheads," then this stuff is probably right up your grungy-gritty William S. Burroughs alley. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main St, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free (tickets available at store).

RANDALL E. STROSS

To my ears, there are no other pairs of words that better encapsulate the very rapid, very frightening, and very confusing arrival of the Free-Floating Digitalized New World Capitalist Order than the following: "dot-com" and "venture capital." (Duh? Does anyone remember the Great Depression? Rampant speculation and the speed-of-light acquisition and ephemeral wealth of the nouveau riche led to....) Stross, author of The Microsoft Way, now gives us an "intimate, first-hand look" at the deep pockets providing the loot for all these mushrooming start-ups, titled eBoys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work. Read it and weep. University Book Store, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.

SHANNON OLSON

Olson's debut novel, Welcome to My Planet Where English Is Sometimes Spoken, was lauded by Patricia Hampl as "a captivating coming-of-age story for the eternal ingenue in us all." (And, despite lavish press-packet praise, who really cares what Garrison Keillor said about it?) Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main St, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free (tickets available at store).

DR. JOHN VETHEIM

Can you believe this out-on-a-limb holistic bullshit is actually trademarked? Vetheim's book The Bodytalk System details "a combination of advanced yoga, advaitic philosophy, modern physics, mathematics, the energy dynamics of acupuncture, the clinical findings of applied kinesiology, and Western medical expertise." (I'm looking forward to death.) Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3300, 7 pm, free.

PRAMILA JAYAPAL

Educated in the West, Jayapal eventually returned to her homeland, and in the process learned "a lot about herself, her heritage and about modern India." She will be reading from and signing her memoir documenting this personal voyage of discovery, Pilgrimage: One Woman's Return to a Changing India. University Book Store, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.

RACHEL BLAU DUPLESSIS, ROBERTA OLSON

Subtext Poetry Reading, featuring poet and feminist essayist DuPlessis (Drafts and Writing Beyond the Ending) and poet Olsen, an editor at Art Access. Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave, 322-7030, 7:30 pm, $5 donation suggested at door.

RANDALL E. STROSS

See Tuesday Listing. Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3300, 7 pm, free.