READINGS
THURSDAY 8/17
JUDITH SMITH-LEVIN
Smith-Levin will be signing Green Money, her third book featuring Detective Starletta Duvall, who has a big cat head. Seattle Mystery Bookshop, 117 Cherry St, 587-5737, noon, free.
*MICHAEL DIDBIN
This guy writes crime fiction about the Mafia, but it seems like he’s really smart. See Bio Box. Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3300, 7 pm, free.
E. LYNN HARRIS
Bailey/Coy and Gay City present the author of Not a Day Goes By, for a reading and book signing. This event is also sponsored by the Gay Men Read Books program. Bailey/Coy Books, 414 Broadway E, 323-8842, 7 pm, free.
*LUCIA PERILLO, TIMOTHY KELLY
Perillo is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship for her poetry and is the author of The Oldest Map with the Name of America (Random House), which has drawn praise from such reliable sources as Lorrie Moore and Billy Collins. Kelly’s Stronger (new from Oberlin) and Articulation have won notice from the venerable Naomi Shihab Nye. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free tickets available at the store.
JUNE COTNER
The author will read from and discuss her book Get Well Wishes: Prayers, Poems and Blessings, a book to “uplift the spirit during times when we experience fear and uncertainty related to our own illness or that of a loved one.” Barnes and Noble, 2700 NE University Village, 517-4107, 7 pm, free.
FRIDAY 8/18
HEATHER DROHAN
Drohan comes with a new novel, False Alarm, about a CPA who works for a company that handles the financial affairs of pro athletes. Drohan, who is a CPA as it happens, works for just such a company. I stared into my navel till I thought I was the world. Barnes and Noble, 2700 NE University Village, 517-4107, 7 pm, free.
*SOUTHWEST YOUNG WRITERS WORKSHOP
The authors of the forthcoming installment of the refreshing annual anthology The Boot, from the Southwest Youth and Family Services Young Writers Workshop: Aaron Counts emcees poets Tulaga Ativala, Tyrone Bellinger, Crystal Corley, Cari Fox, Gabrielle Hodges, Saige Hogan, Desirae Leonard, Artist Marshall, Rathana Rim, Amy Scott, Isaiah Smith, Daizema Suarez, Lena Tho, and Sineth Vong. Probably no poems about writing poems, looking out the window of the poet’s New England farm, or “genderfuck.” Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free, no tickets necessary. For information on SWYFS, call 937-7860.
PONTOON 3
Floating Bridge Press celebrates the publication of Pontoon‘s third issue with a reading by poets Donna Lathrop, Muriel Nelson, and M. Anne Sweet. An open mic will follow the main reading. Barnes and Noble, 31325 Pacific Highway S, Federal Way, 253-839-7541, 7:30 pm, free.
*CARLOS REYES
Poet Carlos Reyes is here to read from the first English translations of the work of Josefina de la Torre, one of Spain’s mystic Generation of ’27, who survives to this day and included Garcia Lorca among her contemporaries. University Bookstore, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.
TERRA LEA ALLEN
A “professional storyteller,” Allen will read from Wise Heart: A Telling of Tales. East West Bookshop, 6500 Roosevelt Way NE, 523-3726, 7:30 pm, free.
SATURDAY 8/19
BURL BARER
Signing Murder in the Family, an Alaskan true crime novel, and Headlock, a new mystery, the “cute, handsome and charming” Barer will appear in his briefs. Seattle Mystery Bookshop, 117 Cherry St, 587-5737, noon, free.
*METAPHYSICAL COUNSELORS
“Meet East West Bookshop’s counselors and hear how they use their specific divination tools when they read for you.” I’m afraid to make fun of this. East West Bookshop, 6500 Roosevelt Way NE, 523-3726, 3 pm, free.
*ROBIN SEYFRIED, DAVID WAGONER
Seyfried comes with a debut collection of poems, Balancing Acts, which W. S. Merwin calls a “daring, generous first book… [by a] new, authentic talent.” Merwin is no pushover, recently refusing to give out the Yale Younger Poets prize because none of the 800 entries were good enough. David Wagoner has been teaching at the UW since God was a kid. One of America’s most stylistically versatile poets, he won all the big prizes before you or I were even born. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free tickets available at store.
THERESA SCOTT
Scott’s Northern Nights displays on its cover a very buff and smooth-chested Native American guy about to roughly kiss an equally hot and sweaty-looking Anglo woman, both standing hip-deep in one of the raging, salmon-spurting rivers that pushed through the Northwest’s dark, wet, virgin forests before railroads, dams, highways, and clothes. Scott is the author of Captive Legacy, Bride of Desire, Forbidden Passion and, I shit you not, Savage Revenge–fine historical novels all. Borders, 1501 Fourth Ave, 622-4599, 2 pm, free.
SUNDAY 8/20
Ain’t dick happenin’ today, just as the Lord commanded.
MONDAY 8/21
JEANNE LOHMANN
The Seattle Love of Life Poets’ Series presents the author of Granite under Water and Gathering a Life: A Journal of Recovery. Barnes and Noble, 2700 NE University Village, 517-4107, 7 pm, free.
RENDEZVOUS READING SERIES
Published authors and street kids reading from J. T. Leroy’s Sarah, in a benefit for the U-District Youth Center. See Stranger Suggests. Little Theatre, 608 19th Ave E, 329-2629, 7:30 pm, $5.
PRISCILLA COGAN, DUNCAN SINGS-ALONE
This evening’s program is titled, “Straddling Two Canoes,” and presents storytelling “on the bicultural life” from the authors of Winona’s Web, Compass of the Heart, Crack At Dusk; Crook of Dawn (Cogan) and Sprinting Backwards to God (Sings-Alone). East West Bookshop, 6500 Roosevelt Way NE, 523-3726, 7 pm, free.
*GEORGIE BRIGHT KUNKEL
Kunkel, one of the original ’70s organizers of the Seattle chapter of NOW comes with an account of those times, Color Me Feminist: You’re Damn Right I Wear Purple (Prometheus Press). Deep context from back in the day. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, advance free tickets available at the store.
TUESDAY 8/22
ERIC OBERG
The author of Moving Toward Harmony demonstrates Aikido, “the art of self-defense through non-violent confrontation.” Oberg will demonstrate some of this ancient art, discuss his book, and take questions. As this goes to press, I am probably nonviolently confronting an officer of the LAPD, who is beating me with a truncheon. Barnes and Noble, 2700 NE University Village, 517-4107, 7 pm, free.
*SHIRLEY KAUFMAN
Poet Shirley Kaufman reads from a new anthology of her work, Roots in the Air (Copper Canyon), which draws on her own six volumes and several books of translations, most recently The Defiant Muse: Hebrew Feminist Poems from Antiquity to the Present (Feminist Press). Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, advance free tickets available at the store.
WEDNESDAY 8/23
KAYLIE JONES
The author of A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries has a new novel-of-recovery, Celeste Ascending (Harper Collins). Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, advance free tickets available at the store.
MICHAEL MCGARRITY
The haughty auteur who has just published The Judas Judge, the fifth in the series featuring cat-headed ex-Santa Fe detective and incense-burning, hot-tub building, alien-expecting, silver-and-turquoise-belt-buckle-wearing, clay pot-making yoga teacher Kevin Kerney, will sign but not read from, Hermit’s Peak, his newest mystery. Seattle Mystery Bookshop, 117 Cherry St, 587-5737, noon, free.
*JOHN MCDOUGALL, M.D.
University Bookstore and Earthsave Seattle present Dr. John McDougall and his “medically safe,” low-fat, starch-based diet. McDougall is an advisor to the USDA on fat and disease and has written several books. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave, 443-1615, 6:30 pm, $8 in advance, $10 at the door.