THURSDAY 10/30

WENDY NORTHCUTT

Northcutt talks about and signs the morbid Darwin Awards III: Survival of the Fittest, the latest in a series of books about people who die in stupid, hilarious ways. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main St, 624-6600, 5:30 pm, free.

JOHN RINGO

There Will Be No Dragons is a fantasy novel. University Bookstore, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.

MEREDITH MARAN

James Frey, drug-taker extraordinaire, describes Maran's Dirty: Inside America's Teenage Drug Epidemic as "accurate and realistic." Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free.

FRIDAY 10/31

LOS NORTENOS

Latino writers Kathleen Alcalá, Jose Carillo, Patty-Lynn Herlevi, and others read in celebration of the Dias de los Muertos, or the Days of the Dead. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free.

LESTER THUROW

Thurow discusses Fortune Favors the Bold: What We Must Do to Build a New and Lasting Global Prosperity. University Bookstore, 634-3400, 7:00 pm, free.

SATURDAY 11/1

PETER ELBLING

The Food Taster is Elbling's first novel. Booklist calls it a "Renaissance romp." Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 2 pm, free.

h DBC PIERRE

See Stranger Suggests.

AHARON SHABTAI, SAM HAMILL

Israeli poet Shabtai is "an erudite classicist who writes poems of voltaic frankness and political rage," says Eliot Weinberger. Hamill, himself a poet (and a translator), will introduce Shabtai and read his work in English. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free.

SUNDAY 11/2

MARI SKELLY

Skelly talks about Women Living with Fibromyalgia. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 1:30 pm, free.

LAURA KALPAKIAN

Educating Waverly is a novel about immortality. Ravenna Third Place Books, 6504 20th Ave NE, 525-2347, 2 pm, free.

WILLIAM SCHULZ

Schulz is the executive director of Amnesty International USA, and the author of Tainted Legacy: 9/11 and the Ruin of Human Rights. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 3 pm, free.

MONDAY 11/3

VICTOR GROSSMAN

Grossman signs Crossing the River: A Memoir of the American Left, the Cold War, and Life in East Germany. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free.

TUESDAY 11/4

LAURIEANN ALADIN

Live from Palestine is a collection of essays (by Said, Chomsky, and others). Aladin, who edited and contributed to the book, discusses its contents and takes your loaded questions. University Bookstore, 634-3400, 7:00 pm, free.

KATHERINE BECK

Opal: A Life of Enchantment, Mystery and Madness is a biography of Opal Whiteley, the naturalist, prodigy, and childhood diarist. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free.

WEDNESDAY 11/5

ROSE BERANBAUM

Ah, bread. Steamy, chewy loaves. The stuff of life. The stuff of which dreams, and sandwiches, are made. Beranbaum is the author of The Bread Bible, which is a book of recipes and miscellany and giant, impossibly colorful photographs of flaky, buttery, fig-filled breads. There will, in fact, be some bread (or at least pastries) at this reading, courtesy of Macrina, the fine breadmaker. Bread! What a thing it is! University Bookstore, 634-3400, 12:30 pm, free.

DAVID LIPSKY

The journalist discusses his book Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point. University Bookstore, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.

JACK NISBET

Nisbet reads from Visible Bones: Journeys Across Time in the Columbia River Country. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free.

* PHILIP JENKS, DOUG NUFER

Jenks' collections of poetry include On the Cave You Live In (2002) and Hydra (forthcoming). He is prodigiously educated (for his doctorate in political science he wrote a dissertation called "Foucault, Arendt, and the Norplant Condition in Liberal America: New Reproductive Technologies, Public Bodies, and Disciplinary Liberalism") and prodigiously tattooed (on his back, we are told, is a large depiction of Emily Dickinson). Nufer is the author of the constraint- driven novels Never Again and Negativeland (forthcoming). Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave, 322-7030, 7:30 pm, free.

POETRY/OPEN MICS
POETSWEST--Featuring Sarah Love, Thom Stuart, and Laurie Christenson. Sun Nov 2 at 7 pm. Penny Cafe, 1707 NW Market St, 682-1268, free.

RED SKY POETRY THEATER--Sun Nov 2: Maged Zaher. Sundays at 7 pm. Globe Cafe, 1531 14th Ave, 547-4585, free.

SEATTLE SPIT--Queer spoken word. Thurs Nov 6: Rebecca Brown, Anne Tweedy, and Becky Guerra. First Thursday of every month at 8:30 pm. Wildrose, 1021 E Pike St, 369-2471, free.