AN UNCENSORED CELEBRATION

The ACLU and Book-It Theater are sponsoring this event, featuring members of the popular acting troupe reading from works of literature under threat of censorship. Broadway Performance Hall, 1625 Broadway, 624-2184 7 pm, free (donations accepted).

*CARLOS REYES

The translator of the Spanish poet Josefina de la Torre reads from her Poemas de la Isla at Wallingford's under-exposed all-poetry bookstore. See Bio Box. Open Books, 2414 N 45th St, 633-0811, 7:30 pm, free.

MARY FREEMAN

Damned Oregonian signs (but will not read from, oh, no!) Bleeding Heart, her third mystery featuring the sleuthing, drunken Irish gardener Rachel O'Connor. Seattle Mystery Bookshop, 117 Cherry St, 587-5737, noon, free.

JEFFREY O. BENNETT

Former NASA physicist addresses the 10 mysteries motivating our search for knowledge among the stars in On the Cosmic Horizon. Build the Mars colony! University Bookstore, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.

SANDY BOUCHER

The renowned feminist writer, teacher of Buddhism, and author of Opening the Lotus: A Woman's Guide to Buddhism comes with a memoir of her spiritual practice in the context of her diagnosis with colon cancer, Hidden Spring: A Buddhist Woman Confronts Cancer. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free tickets available at store.

*ART WOLFE

The acclaimed painter and photographer--winner of the Rachel Carson Award from the National Audobon Society in recognition of his work to preserve wildlife refuges--will hold a slide show and talk, with pictures from his new book, The Living Wild (Wildlands Press). Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3320, 7:30 pm, free.

ELAINE SCIOLINO

The New York Times senior writer and foreign correspondent discusses her new book, Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 5 pm; $10 tickets are available from the Seattle World Affairs Council, 441-5910.

*ROBERT ELLIS GORDON

After eight years teaching writing to inmates of this state's prison system, Gordon wrote The Funhouse Mirror: Reflections on Prison, an account of his reflections on prison life and subcultures, and including writing from his students themselves. See page 35. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free tickets available at store.

DAVID LEAVITT

The preeminent young author of "gay fiction" to come out of the 1980s reads from Martin Bauman: Or, a Sure Thing. See Stranger Suggests. University Bookstore, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.

LIZ SMITH

Gossip columnist Smith is the highest-paid female print journalist in the world. Bummer. She wrote a book. Big deal. Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3320, 6:30 pm, free.

ANNE NEWTON WALTHER

"A historical romance of the first order" Booklist calls the 1770s colonial drama A Time for Treason, the new bodice-ripper by the Bay Area lecturer and counselor of Revolutionary War veterans. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 5 pm, free tickets available at store.

JAMES BERTOLINO

The poet and creative-writing teacher at Western Washington University brings two new books of poems, 26 Poems from Snail River (Egress Studio) and Greatest Hits, 1965-2000 (Pudding House). Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free tickets available in store.

KEITH ARAKE, TIM HULLEY, KARA L. C. JONES, ERYNN ROWAN LURIE

An event called "Three Poets and Open Mike." Wit's End, 770 N 34th St, 682-1286, 7 pm, free.

REYNOLDS PRICE

The author of the acclaimed novels A Long and Happy Life and Kate Vaiden, this Duke University lecturer is a skilled craftsman of well-behaved Southern-family dramas that are all rather unfortunately kind of the same. This event is the first of the annual Seattle Arts & Lectures Series; later installments make this the best lineup in years. Benaroya Hall, Third and University, 7:30 pm, 621-2230 for series tickets; single-ticket availability and price varies.

*CINTRA WILSON

The Salon columnist and cultural critic takes on fathead celebrities and the machine that produces them in her new book, A Massive Swelling: Celebrity Re-Examined as a Grotesque Crippling Disease. University Bookstore, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.

MELANGE ON MONDAY

Hugo House's weekly writing group reads and produces new work, right there, in front of everybody. Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave, 322-7030, 7 pm, free.

*MARY KARR

A great/awful poetry critic who manages to be enormously entertaining while wrong (but sharp and convincing) about almost everything, she single-handedly touched off the current memoir glut with her phenomenally successful The Liars' Club. Karr brings that book's new sequel, Cherry, to a lunchtime discussion (if you bring lunch, the bookstore promises coffee and dessert). University Bookstore, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 12:30 pm, free; Nippon Kan Theatre, 628 S Washington, 467-6807, 7:30 pm, $5 tickets available from Elliott Bay Books.

RUTHANN MCCUNN

"An expert on the Chinese-American experience," the author of Wooden Fish Songs and Thousand Pieces of Gold reads from her new book, Moon Pearl. University Bookstore, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.

*ALAN MCHUGHEN

If you feel like an early Halloween, come hear the author of Pandora's Picnic Basket: The Potential and Hazards of Genetically Modified Foods talk about what corporate farming will be feeding us soon. Co-sponsored by EarthSave Seattle. Kane Hall, UW campus, Room 120, 634-3400, free tickets available at University Bookstore.

KATHLEEN ALCALA

The writer whose main subject is that frontier of this continent's future, the border between the U.S. and Mexico, brings her ficciones to the honkeys of Shoreline. Shoreline Library, 345 NE 175th, 7:30 pm, free.

MARION WOODMAN

Woodman reads from and signs Bone: Dying into Life in a reading co-sponsored by the Seattle First Baptist Church. University Bookstore, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.

MILES HARVEY

The author of The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime talks about the world of obsessive map-stealers. Kane Hall, UW campus, Walker Ames Room, 634-3400, 7 pm, free tickets available at University Bookstore.

SUSAN HOWE, LAYNIE BROWNE

The monthly Subtext reading series of experimental writers hosts poet and critic Howe, most recently the author of Pierce-Arrow (New Directions) and The Birth-Mark: Unsettling the Wilderness in American Literary History. Browne is the author of many books of poems, most recently Gravity's Mirror (Primitive Editions), and has taught at UW Bothell. There will also be a "silent open mic" before the reading, with a slide projector and sounds by DJ Chris Putnam. Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave, 322-7030, 7:30 pm, $5.