DAVID GATES

In Gates' first two novels, Jernigan and Preston Falls, he created edgy, darkly humorous portraits of intelligent men adrift in an ocean of emotional indecision and chemical excess; in The Wonders of the Invisible World, his first short-story collection (a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist), Gates has both broadened his range of subject matter and tightened his grip on the squirmy mechanics of disillusion and regret. The result is one of the finest batches of short fiction of the last 10 years. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, advance free tickets available at store.

LINN GOLDBERG, M.D. & DIANE ELLIOT, M.D.

The authors of The Healing Power of Exercise explain the manifold benefits of routine physical exertion. Now drop and give me 20, lardass! Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 633-3300, 7 pm, free.

SCOTT DRISCOLL

Driscoll (a Seattle writer) contributed to The Ex-Files: New Stories About Old Flames, an anthology of anti-Valentines that also contains bittersweet ditties by Dorothy Allison, Junot Diaz, and David Foster Wallace. Virginia Heffernan of Salon had this to say about the book: "Turning a book of stories about ex-lovers, you might ask yourself what you want from stories about ex-lovers. A wailing country song or a Latin revenge scenario are good places to start, but it's also understandable if you want an exorcism.... In The Ex-Files, editor Blake Ferris has assembled what may be history's first anthology of screeds and homilies to former boy and girlfriends. This love 'em and leave 'em jungle spares no one." Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, advance free tickets available at store.

ERIK LARSON

See Bio Box. Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 633-3300, 6:30 pm, free.

KELLY RIGGLE HOWER & REBECCA LOUDEN

Featured writers recite nimble verse as part of the "Passion for Poetry" readings series, followed by an all-inclusive open mic. Barnes & Noble, 31325 Pacific Hwy S, 253-839-7541, 7:30 pm, free.

OCTAVIA BUTLER, STEVEN BARNES, TANARIVE DUE, & NISI SHAWL

This event gathers together a number of key contributors to the new, groundbreaking collection of fiction, Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora. Butler, a Seattle resident and recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant," is best known for her Nebula Award-winning novel, Kindred; Barnes' latest title is the best-selling Iron Shadows; Due, author of the horror novels The Between and My Soul To Keep, has recently completed a biography of the first black woman millionaire, entitled The Black Rose; and Shawl (a Stranger contributor) has had short fiction published in both Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine and Semiotext(e). All will be reading from, discussing, and signing the anthology. Borders Books & Music, 1501 Fourth Ave, 720-1008, 1 pm, free.

DR. ARNOLD LEHMAN

Lehman, Director of the Brooklyn Art Museum, discusses the challenges facing art museums in the new millennium, with an emphasis on the difficulties and rewards of "serving new audiences in a changing world." Frye Art Museum, 704 Terry Ave, 622-9250, 2 pm, free passes available one hour prior to lecture.

*SISTER SPIT SPOKEN WORD TROUPE

San Francisco writers Michelle Tea and Clint Catalyst both read from new works and are joined by poetry-on-demand subversives the Typing Explosion. Speakeasy, 2304 Second Ave, 728-9770, 7 pm, $5.

ERIC OBERG

Oberg is the Seattle-born author of Moving Toward Harmony, a study of the underlying principles of Aikido that John Peng says "is for all thoughtful people, and especially those who seek a blending of the mental, spiritual, and physical." Borders, 1501 Fourth Ave, 720-1008, 1 pm, free.

SYLVIA BROWNE

Browne is a best-selling psychic/friend/networker whom Montel Williams claims to have "personally" witnessed "bring closure to distraught families, help police close cases, and open people's hearts to see the good within themselves." Despite Browne's gift of extrasensory perception, she must still do the dirty work of book touring, and she returns to Seattle this year to telepathically pimp her latest effort, Life on the Other Side: A Psychic's Tour of the Afterlife. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 5 pm, advance free tickets available at store.

WILLIAM O'DALY

Presentation by the English translator of Pablo Neruda's The Book of Questions. Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 633-3300, 7 pm, free.

ERIK LARSON

See Bio Box. University Book Store, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.

ROBIN HENIG

Henig's new book, the wonderfully titled The Monk in the Garden: The Lost and Found Genius of Gregor Mendel, the Father of Genetics, takes a look at Mendel's important work in the light of modern genetic research. This event is listed as a reading, book-signing, and... SLIDE SHOW! University Book Store, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.

CAROL EMSHWILLER

Clarion West concludes its summer reading series with an appearance by Emshwiller, an author whose novels and short stories run the gamut from science fiction to Westerns. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, $4, $3 students/seniors.

ROBERT WINTNER

The author of Snorkel Bob's Reality Guide to Hawaii reads from and signs his latest novel, Homunculus, a "tale of expatriation and community set in Mexico." Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 633-3300, 7 pm, free.

O. CASEY CORR

This Seattle Times reporter's new book, Money from Thin Air: The Story of Craig McCaw, the Visionary Who Invented the Cell Phone Industry, and His Next Billion-Dollar Idea, is an obviously lionizing biography about the man single-handedly responsible for driving the final nail into the coffin of civic responsibility and cultural good taste. (I, for one, hope Mr. McCaw takes his next big idea and shoves it right up his ass.) Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, advance free tickets available at store.

PERRY LORENZO

Lorenzo introduces next year's Seattle Opera schedule, including Die Walkure. ("Light" refreshments will be served.) Kane Hall, UW Campus, 634-3400, 7 pm, advance tickets required, available at store.