Timothy Egan is one of those big-name authors who many Seattleites don’t even realize is from Seattle. His meticulous, gorgeously written historical accounts win awards and typically wind up on everybody’s year-end best-of lists. His columns for the New York Times are passionate, intelligent arguments for the advancement of liberal thought. Plainly, he’s one of our best, and Seattle had better turn out to recognize Egan for the debut of Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher, a biography of a Seattle photographer who documented Native American life at the end of the 19th century. (Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave, www.townhallseattle.org, 7:30 pm, $5)