IT'S ABOUT TIME READING SERIES
A monthly open discussion on the writer's role in society. This month: Featured speaker Rebecca Loudon discusses "the writer's craft." Third Place Books, 6504 20th Ave NE, 525-2347, 7:30 pm, free.
ANDRO LINKLATER
Some limey fuck is still trying to make Britain look good in this whole American independence debacle, talkin' 'bout how U.S. democracy is a product of land ownership rather than God's blessed plan. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main St, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free.
* PETER NEUFELD
As part of the criminal justice watchdog group the Innocence Project, Neufeld has helped to free 37 wrongly convicted inmates by use of DNA testing. In Actual Innocence, he illuminates some of the criminal justice system's deepest flaws--including the fact that irrefutable evidence is not always enough to free the unjustly imprisoned. University of Washington, Condon Hall, 1100 NE Campus Pkwy, 685-9115, 12:30 pm, free.
RICHARD POWERS
A mixed-race family comes of age during the civil rights era in Powers' (Plowing the Dark, Gain) tumultuous new novel, The Time of Our Singing. University Bookstore, 4326 University Way, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.
JOHN TALIAFERRO
Second only to the Grand Canyon in its recreational inanity, Mount Rushmore falls under the microscope of journalist Taliaferro in the most pregnantly titled book of the week, Great White Fathers. Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3333, 7 pm, free.
MICHAEL WENBERG
Wenberg signs and sings with Elizabeth's Song, a historical-fiction picture book about African American folksinger Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten. Barnes & Noble, 600 Pine St, 264-0156, 12:30 pm, free.
FRIDAY 2/14
SAMRAT UPADHYAY
This job holds countless simple joys if I just allow myself to find them--not the least of which being the authors' photos on the dust jackets of self-help books. And when I read that Upadhyay's latest book was titled The Guru of Love, I nearly peed my pants with anticipation. Imagine my disappointment, then, when I realized that Guru is actually a novel, and offers little to no tantric instruction. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free.
FRANCINE WARD
"A powerhouse motivator shares her strategies for building lifelong self-esteem and tapping the boundless energy and talent within everyone." Third Place Books, 366-3333, 6:30 pm, free.
SATURDAY 2/15
ROBERT SABBAG
With a suspicious predilection for inebriates and the magnetism of their industry, Sabbag (Snowblind, Loaded) charts the latest in his long line of true-crime drug sagas, mapping the life of one of the 1970s' premier Colombian dope smugglers in Smoke Screen. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free.
ETIENNE VAN HEERDEN
An award-winning author and South African, Van Heerden discusses his latest novel (with its English translation by Catherine Knox), The Long Silence of Mario Salviati. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 4 pm, free.
SUNDAY 2/16
ROSE MARIE CURTEMAN
Curteman, visiting from her home in yonder Bellevue, signs My Renaissance, documenting her rebirth after the tragic loss of her husband to Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 4 pm, free.
MONDAY 2/17
ERIC ALTERMAN
As an informed and principal voice for the national news media, I have a confession to make: The liberal conspiracy is alive and well. I may be a mere foot soldier in the war against the conservative ogre, but I can say with some authority that the party line is the only line. Alterman clouds the truth with a diversionary tactic titled What Liberal Media?, a mess of convincing double talk that serves us "journalists" nicely. University of Washington, Kane Hall, room 120, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.
LIBBY FISCHER HELLMAN
Dead men, stock options, and the Holocaust: Hellman's mystery debut, An Eye for Murder. Seattle Mystery Bookshop, 117 Cherry St, noon, free. Also, Third Place Books, 366-3333, 7:30 pm, free.
PAULA HUNTLEY
As if the constant peril of war, persecution, and ethnic cleansing just wasn't enough adversity for the Albanians of Kosovo, Huntley adds insult to injury by demanding they stomach a heaping helping of The Old Man and the Sea in The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free.
TUESDAY 2/18
PHILIP BOBBITT
Bobbitt is the guest who successfully alienates every member of the dinner party with the sheer scope of his knowledge. You know--your intellectual better. Bobbitt signs The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course of History, his tangle of six centuries of warfare--but do you really need another night of inferiority? University of Washington, Kane Hall, room 120, 441-5910, 7 pm, free.
ANDREA diSESSA
"Is he speaking in tongues?" the audience thought to themselves. "Oh, wait, no... I heard the word 'computers'--I know that word. What's this lecture called again? Ah, that explains it: Computational Media and New Literacies." University of Washington, Kane Hall, room 110, 616-1825, 7 pm, free.
DAVID MAS MASUMOTO
Is it just me, or do Asian American authors milk that "patient sensuality" stereotype too often for it to ever be laid to rest? It's all billowing silk, plant cultivation, and mothers' kitchens--one giant nerve ending. Peach farmer and poet Mas Masumoto waxes horticultural as he figuratively fucks--er..., makes patient love to his fruit in Four Seasons in Five Senses: Things Worth Savoring. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free.
* FRANCINE PROSE
Seattle Arts & Lectures continues this season's stronghold, this time with prominent novelist and social critic Prose (Household Saints, Blue Angel), on the heels of her latest, The Lives of the Muses. Benaroya Hall, 200 University St, 215-4800, 7:30 pm, free.
LEWIS ROBINSON
The sinister coastal town of Point Allison, Maine anchors Robinson's ominous debut, a collection of 11 brief narratives bound together as Officer Friendly and Other Stories. Zeitgeist, 171 S Jackson, 583-0497, 7 pm, free.
WEDNESDAY 2/19
WALTER R. BORNEMAN
It's unfortunate for the forgotten people of Alaska that their remote, rugged paradise has to be lumped in with the rest of us slouching Americans; all of those foreign nations that take aim at the so-called "United States" probably see poor Alaska as just another part of the problem. Borneman takes a historical shot at clarification with his tribute to "the Texas of the North" in Alaska: Saga of a Bold Land. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free.
MICHAEL BRAME, GALINA POPOVA
With all of the cultural relevance of a moldy sandwich, Brame and Popova exhume the Shakespeare controversy from its grave of indifference for another bout with masturbatory literary conjecture. University Bookstore, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.
AIMEE LIU
A motley crew of unlikely companions--including a young girl rescued from a brothel, the wife of a missing journalist, blah, blah, and blah--traverse the Himalayas in an "engrossing tale of romance and intrigue" that's sure to blahdy-blah blah you to tears. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 5:30 pm, free.
POETRY/OPEN MICS
HOMELAND--Words. So many words. Tuesdays at 7 pm. Caffe Vita, 1005 E Pike St, 709-4440, free.
LITTLE METAL MEN--Hosted by Vanessa Sooy. Tuesdays at 7 pm. Coffee Messiah, 1554 E Olive Way, 861-8233, free.
OUT OF TUNE--Poetry and music free-for-all hosted by Jon Hogan. Thursdays at 8:30 pm, signup at 8 pm. The 15th, 7515 15th Ave NW, 706-4973, free.
POETSWEST--Featuring David Hanna, Carrington MacDuffie, and Jill McGrath. Thurs Feb 13 at 7 pm. Lux, 2226 First Ave, free. Also, Sun Feb 16 at 7 pm, Penny Cafe, 1707 NW Market St, free. Featuring Dennis Caswell.
ReBIRTH--All-ages open-mic brouhaha. Sundays at 7 pm. French and European Artistic and Cultural Center, 623 Broadway E, 726-4843, free.
SCRATCHING POST--Poetry open mic, all ages. Thursdays at 8 pm, signup at 7:30 pm. Mr. Spot's Chai House, 5463 Leary Ave NW, 297-2424, free.
SEATTLE POETRY SLAM--Open mic and slam with Karen Finneyfrock. Wednesdays at 8 pm. Sit & Spin, 2219 Fourth Ave, 441-9484, $4.
WORDS AND ART FROM THE HEART--Featuring Michael Magee, Jean Musser, and Bruce Taylor. Tues at 7 pm. Otis Cafe, 1005 Boren Ave, 342-9866.
