THURSDAY 4/20

ELLEN URBANI HILTEBRAND
When I Was Elena is a memoir set in rural Guatemala. Parkplace Books, 348 Parkplace Center, Kirkland, 425-828-6546, 7 pm, free. (Also on 4/22 at Elliott Bay Books, 101 S Main St, 624-6600, 2 pm, free.)

ANNA LAPPÉ
Lappé talks about Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen. Elliott Bay Books, 624-6600, 6 pm, free.

CHRIS McKINNEY
The Queen of Tears is a novel about a Korean-American-Hawaiian family. Elliott Bay Books, 624-6600, 8 pm, free.

FRIDAY 4/21

recommended MICHAEL POLLAN
The Botany of Desire author talks about The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. Elliott Bay Books, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free.

SATURDAY 4/22

JOSIE BROWN
True Hollywood Lies is a satirical novel about Hollywood. Secret Garden Bookshop, 2214 NW Market St, 789-5006, noon, free.

CHARLES POTTS
The Northwest poet reads his collection The Portable Potts, which goes back to the 1960s. Elliott Bay Books, 624-6600, 4 pm, free.

recommended ELIAS KHOURY
The novelist and playwright, who lives in Beirut, is in town to promote an English translation of Gate of the Sun, which is about Palestine in 1948. Elliott Bay Books, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free.

SUNDAY 4/23

ERIC BLEHM
The Last Season retells the disappearance of a ranger in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Elliott Bay Books, 624-6600, 3 pm, free.

SHORT STORIES LIVE
Dramatic readings of Alice Childress's stories "Like One of the Family," "A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich," and "A Short Walk." Town Hall Seattle, 1119 Eighth Ave, 652-4255, 4 pm, $13–$18.

MONDAY 4/24

DAVID JAMES DUNCAN
The novelist (The River Why, The Brothers K) reads from God Laughs & Plays: Churchless Sermons in Response to the Preachments of the Fundamentalist Right. Town Hall Seattle, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free.

DONALD HALL
The poet reads from his White Apples and the Taste of Stone: Selected Poems 1946–2006. Elliott Bay Books, 624-6600, 6 pm, free.

TUESDAY 4/25

recommended PETER MATTHIESSEN
The cofounder of The Paris Review and the author of The Snow Leopard and other books of nonfiction and fiction talks about anything and everything. Benaroya Hall, 200 University St, 621-2230, 7:30 pm, $10–$25.

WEDNESDAY 4/26

SUE MONK KIDD
The Mermaid Chair is a novel. Seattle First Baptist Church, 1111 Harvard Ave, 325-6051, 7 pm, free.

'TALK OF THE TIMES: INTELLIGENT DESIGN VS. EVOLUTION'
See Stranger Suggests, p. 25. Town Hall Seattle, 652-4255, 7:30 pm, $5.

POETRY/OPEN MICS

POETSWEST—Featured readers (on 4/22: J. Glenn Evans, Priscilla Long, Charlie Potts) and an open mic. Saturdays at 6 pm. Epilogue Books, 2005 NW Market St, 682-1268, free.SEATTLE POETRY SLAM—Every Tuesday at 8 pm. Mirabeau Room, 529 Queen Anne Ave N, 650-2869, $4.