READINGSby Zac Penningtonzac@thestranger.com

THURSDAY 10/24



ROGER HOUSDEN

Pilgrimage, peril, and poetry populate Housden's Chasing Rumi. East West Bookstore, 1032 NE 65th St, 523-3726, 7 pm, free. Also Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main St, 624-6600, Fri at 5 pm, free, and Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3333, Sun at 5:30 pm, free.

MIHA MAZZINI

Best-selling Slovenian author Mazzini makes his stateside debut with Guarding Hanna, his 11th work of fiction. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free.

KEVIN MITNICK

The subject of three books (and the inspiration for 1983's stellar Matthew Broderick vehicle WarGames), Mitnick discusses his life as a high-tech fugitive in Art of Deception. Third Place Books, 366-3333, 7 pm, free.

URSULA K. LeGUIN, OCTAVIA E. BUTLER, VONDA McINTYRE

The Star Commanders at Clarion West, the group that sponsors a number of Seattle's science-fiction/fantasy readings, celebrate nearly two decades of dork support with three of the genre's popular participants. University of Washington, Kane Hall, room 220, 7 pm, $3-$4.

FRIDAY 10/25



STANLEY KUNITZ

Does the Pulitzer committee have some kind of quota to fill these days, or what? Not to discount Mr. Kunitz's no doubt stellar poetic discourse, but I swear at least 75 percent of the literary press releases that find their way to this office scream "Pulitzer Prize-winning author" in big, bold letters. I'm starting to feel like the Pulitzer people are in cahoots with the Universal Life Church or something. University of Washington, Kane Hall, room 130, 7:30 pm, $10.

* MICHAEL ONDAATJE

Famed Canadian author Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient) discusses his latest, a Q&A with Walter Murch, the three-time Academy Award-winning film editor behind such works as The Godfather and American Graffiti. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, $5.

MICHAEL TOMS

Toms, host of New Dimensions Radio (heard locally on KUOW), discusses A Time for Choices, the latest volume to be thrown atop the "call to renew American values in this time of crisis" funeral pyre. Third Place Books, 366-3333, 6 pm, free. Also Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, Sat at 2 pm, free.

SATURDAY 10/26



JEFFREY EUGENIDES

After some time in the shadow of his debut, Virgin Suicides author Eugenides returns with the long-awaited Middlesex, a (what else?) coming-of-age novel about (what else?) a hermaphrodite; the book somehow spans the time period and distance from 1920s Asia Minor to modern-day Berlin. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free.

LETTY COTTIN POGREBIN

Ms. magazine co-founder and card-carrying member of the feminist army Pogrebin rolls into Pioneer Square with Three Daughters, her debut novel. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 4:30 pm, free.

* TYPING EXPLOSION

As part of their latest tour among the stacks of local libraries, Typing Explosion rattles and clicks and rings and honks their way through a mountain of mechanical poems, one dollar at a time. Seattle Public Library, Wallingford Branch, 1501 N 45th St, 684-4088, 7 pm, free. Also Montlake Community Center, 1618 E Colhoun St, 684-4736, Mon at 4:30 pm, free.

SUNDAY 10/27



* DANIEL COMISKEY, SIERRA NELSON, NICO VASSILAKIS

The ever-popular Titlewave Reading Series welcomes a series of readings by three very industrious wordsmiths: the Typing Explosion's Sierra Nelson, Monkey Puzzle publisher Daniel Comiskey, and concrete poet Nico Vassilakis (who earns the greatest description ever featured in a press release: "an interior dancer in both concrete and long-winded, self-absorbed, 'oddly' self-referential text poetry"). Titlewave Books, 7 Mercer St, 324-6379, 7:30 pm, free.

SOYON IM

The color of third-wave feminism is painted in a more radical manner by the women featured in Colonize This!, a recent anthology in which young women of color discuss their relationships with feminism. Tonight's reading features the ever-baffling Miss Im (remember Cherry Pop?). University Bookstore, 634-3400, 2 pm, free.

ZINE SHOWCASE

Punk fucking rock. Featuring readings by Rebecca Kirk, David Lasky, Jessixa Grilihas, Brett Hamil, and Davey Oil. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 4 pm, free.

MONDAY 10/28

Everyone whom you have ever met will be dead soon. Remember that the next time you honk your horn at pedestrians.

TUESDAY 10/29



* MATT BRIGGS, LISA PURDY, ANNE BRADFIELD

Who likes short shorts? An evening in brevity, specifically concerning stories of 1,000 words or less. Little Theatre, 610 19th Ave E, 322-8481, 7:30 pm, $3.

CORAL BRACHO, TEDI LOPEZ MILLS, PEDRO SERRANO

Raise the flag of mutiny! Mexico's coup d'état at the Seattle Art Museum is complete! Their demands? 1. An exhibit focusing exclusively on Mexican Modernism; 2. A subsequent exhibit focusing on the insular Mexican community of Oaxaca; 3. An evening's reading featuring three contributors to the recent Mexican poetry tome Reversible Monuments. Viva la revolución! Seattle Art Museum, 654-3100, 7:30 pm, $10.

BRIAN FROUD

That crushed-velvet corset just not offering the support you require anymore? Knee-high leather boots worn beyond comprehension? Chances are you've aged better than the 25th-anniversary-edition of Froud's girls-with-cutting-issues bible Faeries, and the accompanying volume of smashed critters in Lady Cottington's Fairy Album. And chances are you'll be the first in line. Third Place Books, 366-3333, 7 pm, free.

RYAN MATTHEWS

Self-proclaimed "Futurist" Ryan Matthews knows what's cool. He uses terms like "the Edge," "Realm of the Cool," and "the Next Big Thing"--plus he writes books like The Deviant's Advantage, following the birth and death of trends. I'd say that's in the "Realm of the Cool," right? University Bookstore, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.

IRA SPRING

Hypothermia? Don't mind if I do! Spring signs Winter Walks and Hikes: Puget Sound. University of Washington, Kane Hall, room 110, 7pm, free.

WEDNESDAY 10/30



CAROL BECKWITH, ANGELA FISHER

The updated version of last year's bestselling African Ceremonies, a photo documentary of the roughly 1,300 individual cultures of the continent--a perfect coffee-table complement for "ethnically sensitive" white folks. University Bookstore, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.

* AMY BLOOM

See Stranger Suggests. Bailey/Coy, 414 Broadway E, 323-8842, 7 pm, free.

ANDREW VACHSS

Nauseating humanitarian Vachss (a practicing lawyer who represents only children, always pro bono) explores his shadowy alter ego in street-criminal Burke, a career killer of child murderers and molesters, in Only Child. Third Place Books, 366-3333, 7 pm, free.