The Elliott Bay Book Company

KURT TIMMERMEISTER
Wednesday, February 1 at 7 p.m.
      FOOD/DRINK

In writing his superb book, Growing a Farmer: How I Learned to Live Off the Land (new in paper, W.W. Norton), Vashon Island farmer/cheesemaker/dinner host Kurt Timmermeister has shown that he has grown himself into quite a writer. This often-humorous account of how he transformed himself from a Seattle restauranteur to the nuts and bolts of going about making a farm has been a reader favorite since it first landed on Elliott Bay shelves. "Anyone interested in where real food comes from will love this book. I was charmed by Kurt Timmermeister's story of becoming a farmer and found myself fascinated as he describes how he learned to install bees in a hive, establish an orchard, milk cows, and make cheese, and that slaughtering chickens is no party." – Jerry Traunfeld. "It is wonderful to have a farmer tells his story with such honesty and eloquence." - Alice Waters.

JONATHAN EVISON
Thursday, February 2 at 7 p.m.

As with Kurt Timmermeister, we're delighted to also host this return visit by novelist and generous spirit Jonathan Evison. Over from his Bainbridge Island home, he is here with the new paperback of last year's hit novel, West of Here (Algonquin). A recipient of numerous honors—a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award-winner, among them—this novel is one that captures aspects of the Pacific Northwest's past—and its bearing on the present—as few others. "A big novel about the discovery and rediscovery of nature, starting over, and the sometimes piercing reverberations of history. This is a damn fine book."- Publishers Weekly. "Evison deserves national acclaim for his latest novel, which is set in the fictional town of Port Bonita on Washington's Olympic Peninsula ... [His] love for the Pacific Northwest and its people shines through with humor and clarity." – Library Journal.

DEREK LUNDY
Friday, February 3 at 7 p.m.

Derek Lundy, who hails from Saltspring Island, British Columbia, set out by motorcycle on an unusual journey—to ride along the U.S's two long-running borders—those with Canada and then with Mexico. Borderlands: Riding the Edge of America (Vintage Canada), shortlisted for Canada's prestigious Hubert Evans Non-fiction Prize, is his surprising account of these two long rides—one border largely undefended, the other more heavily so. "A great ride and a great read ... A profound exploration of the rough ground where rival histories, ethnicities, and mythologies jostle for their place in the sun." – Ronald Wright.

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Saturday, February 4 at 11:30 a.m.
      KID'S EVENT

Our twice-a-week Children's Storytimes, set for Tuesday and Saturday mornings each month, commence for February with this morning's reading from picture- and storybook favorites out of our children's section. One of our Elliott Bay bookfolk will do the reading and telling honors. Go to the castle in the children's section ... and the stories begin! Please join us.

ELLEN SWEETS
Sunday, February 5 at 2 p.m.

Anyone who ever met or read the incomparable Texas political journalist/author Molly Ivins misses her—even now, going on five years after her untimely passing. Among those paying loving, and delightful tribute is Ellen Sweets, herself a distinguished, award-winning journalist of heart and good spirit. She has written a particularly loving biographical tribute, Stirring It Up with Molly Ivins: A Memoir with Recipes (University of Texas Press). Ellen Sweets and Molly Ivins spent much time together with food—in kitchens, at tables—this book recounts such stories, and includes recipes of Molly Ivins' doing—a reminder of how food and good stories sustain us.

GARY GEDDES
Monday, February 6 at 7 p.m.

Poet, scholar, and humanitarian Gary Geddes has traveled and written about conflict and reconciliation in Chile, Nicaragua, Israel, and Palestine, Kabul, and elsewhere. More recently he has traveled through Somalia, Ethiopia, the Congo, and other African nations, re-examining concepts of justice and reconciliation. He is here again tonight to speak about all of this, the subject of his book, Drink the Bitter Root: A Search for Justice and Healing in Africa (Counterpoint). "[Geddes chronicles] incredible stories of survival of genocide. But he also turns a critical eye toward the lingering shadow of colonialism and the Cold War, as well as the Western government and commercial interests that continue to motivate the kind of unrest that has led to ethnic violence ... Geddes is unsparing in his look at human weakness, including his own, in a search for redemption in the face of violence." - Booklist.

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Tuesday, February 7 at 11:30 a.m.
      KID'S EVENT

Join us for this fun round of readings from picture and storybooks ... Go to the castle in the children's section ... and the stories begin!

ELLIOTT BAY BOOK GROUP
Tuesday, February 7 at 6:30 p.m.

Each month, the Elliott Bay Book Club reads and discusses the best in contemporary fiction with the occasional classic thrown in for good measure. Our February book selection is The New Life by Orhan Pamuk. Through the simple act of reading a book, a young student is uprooted from his old life and identity. Within days he has fallen in love with the luminous and elusive Janan; witnessed the attempted assassination of a rival suitor; and forsaken his family to travel aimlessly through a nocturnal landscape of travelers' cafes and apocalyptic bus wrecks. As imagined by Pamuk, the result is a wondrous marriage of the intellectual thriller and high romance. The Nation said, "We are fortunate that Pamuk is alive, and that his The New Life is out there."

DAVID LONG & THOM JONES in conversation with BRANGIEN DAVIS
Tuesday, February 7 at 7 p.m.

Co-presented with GRANTA. We continue what has been nice run of evenings themed around issues of Granta, the redoubtable literary journal. Evenings with Spanish writers, and with David Guterson and Rikki Ducornet discussing 9/11 and the decade since. Tonight Seattle novelist David Long who has a story, "Bonfire," in the newest issue of Granta 118: Exit Strategies, is joined by writer Thom Jones, who penned "Easter Island Noodles Almondine" in Granta 108: Chicago. They will be hosted in conversation with Seattle Magazine's Arts and Culture Editor Brangien Davis. Exit Strategies is the latest issue of Granta, the magazine of the best new writing from around the world, explores personal and political exit stragegies with new work from Aleksander Hemon, Claire Messud, John Barth, Sophie Cabot Black, Chinelo Okparanta, Susan Minot and others. Chicago also features the work of Don Delillo, Wole Soyinka, Dinaw Mengestu, Sandra Cisneros, Bei Dao and Peter Carey to name a few. This should be, as the other nights have been, a evening of good reading and conversation. Please visit www.granta.com.

PAM HOUSTON
Wednesday, February 8 at 7 p.m.

A favorite writer of many since her singular debut, Cowboys Are My Weakness, nearly twenty years ago, Pam Houston has visited and given Elliott Bay audiences memorable evenings for each of her subsequent books—Waltzing the Cat, A Little More About Me, and Sight Hound. She makes this welcome return for her new novel, Contents May Have Shifted (W.W. Norton). "Houston's latest novel finds Pam, the intrepid narrator, shuttling the world over, from Alaska to Tunisia, from Bhutan to Newfoundland, searching for authenticity, drinking up life, and maybe, just maybe, fleeing from a little conflict ... Houston imbues each pithy chapter with unifying lyricism ... Unapologetic and empowering, Houston's book hammers home the idea that if you don't have problems, you probably aren't living. Or, to use her metaphor, we all have baggage, so we might as well get used to traveling with it." – Katharine Fronk, Booklist.

MATT RUFF with PAUL CONSTANT
Thursday, February 9 at 7 p.m.

Highly regarded Seattle novelist Matt Ruff is joined in conversation this evening by Paul Constant, book editor at The Stranger, occasioned by publication of Matt Ruff's arresting new novel, The Mirage (HarperCollins). "Genre buster Ruff takes the reader through the looking glass into a world where a union of benevolent Muslim state (the U.A.S.) guards against Christian fundamentalist terrorists trying to spread fear and unrest ... Beneath this dubious verisimilitude lies a truth that gives Ruff's work a sharp satiric bite ... As the plot thickens, the ideas keep coming, with Ruff revising, among other things, the gay rights movement, David Koresh, and Timothy McVeigh. This is both entertaining and provocative, exactly what the best popular fiction should be." – Publishers Weekly. Matt Ruff's other books include Fool on the Hill, Sewer, Gas & Electric, Set This House in Order, and Bad Monkeys. This should be a lively one.

DIANE C. FUJINO
Friday, February 10 at 7 p.m.

Although historian Diane Fujino's new book on Afro-Asian coalition builder Richard Aoki, A Samurai Among Panthers: Richard Aoki on Race, Resistance and a Paradoxical Life (University of Minnesota Press) won't be released until April, we couldn't pass up the chance to give people a preview during Dr. Fujino's Seattle visit. Richard Aoki, the only Asian American to serve in a leadership role in the Black Panther Party, was a key figure in Bay Area Afro-Asian unity beginning in the 1960s, as a co-founder of the Asian American Political Alliance, and active in Asian American studies. Diane Fujino, associate professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is also the author of another book on an iconic Asian American activist, Heartbeat of Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Yuri Kochiyama.

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Saturday, February 11 at 11:30 a.m.
      KID'S EVENT

Join us for this fun round of readings from picture and storybooks ... Go to the castle in the children's section ... and the stories begin!

SHIRIN SHERKAT, Psy.D.
Saturday, February 11 at 2 p.m.

Psychologist and "parent strategist" Shirin Sherkat's presentation today is based on her many years working with families, on her popular parenting workshops, and on her book, Create Happy Kids: Practical Parenting Solutions to Create Motivated, Respectful, and Compliant Kids (Aviva Publishing). Team-parenting, step-parenting, negotiation, clear communication, and helping children feel empowered to make better choices are just some of the topics she discusses in her book. "Dr. Shirin Sherkat has 'created' a valuable and easy to understand resource for parents who want to raise healthy and happy children. I wholeheartedly recommend Create Happy Kids to both parents and professionals who work with families." – Sarah Levoy, Psy.D.

BENJAMIN CAWTHRA
Saturday, February 11 at 7 p.m.

Benjamin Cawthra, associate director of the Center for Oral and Public History at California State University, Fullerton, discusses Blue Notes in Black and White: Photography and Jazz (University of Chicago Press), his striking new book on the partnership between jazz and photography, and the role both played in the Civil Rights Movement. "Benjamin Cawthra, writing with grace and a formidable command of jazz history and American culture, makes us see the sounds, the social relations, and the myths of jazz as he ably uncovers the personal and institutional networks of musicians, writers, magazines, and record companies in which jazz photography developed. Even as Blue Notes in Black and White casts a sharp eye on photographic aesthetics ... it also works as a groundbreaking history of jazz criticism ... while reading it, I often felt I was hearing the music more deeply." – John Gennari.

MARTHA BAYNE
Sunday, February 12 at 2 p.m.
      FOOD/DRINK

Seattle native Martha Bayne's Soup & Bread Cookbook (Agate Press) has its beginnings in an ongoing free weekly meal and gathering of writers, artists, home cooks, and soup fans at Chicago's Hideout Bar. Part social gathering, part fundraiser (as donations are taken for local food pantries), Soup and Bread has now inspired this book, which includes recipes, essays on culinary history, the social role of soup, and similar programs in other cities. "Beautifully written, generous and honest, the book looks at community building through lenses as various and diverse as the country has to offer. Bayne finds people of many kinds—immigrants, nuns, urban farmers, artists and activists—each using soup to bring people together and knit up what has become unraveled." – Tikkun Daily. Included in today's program is a soup and bread tasting, with recipes made from Soup & Bread Cookbook. In keeping with the spirit of its programs, we'll be accepting donations (cash/check) here today for the food bank at Capitol Hill's Jewish Family Service (www.jfsseattle.org).

ANN SPIERS & RICHARD WIDERKEHR
Monday, February 13 at 7 p.m.
      POETRY

Two fine Pacific Northwest poets—Ann Spiers of Vashon Island and Richard Widerkehr of Bellingham—'converge' at Elliott Bay for this reading from new books, both beautifully published and produced by Egress Studio Press. Ann Spiers is here with her sixth collection, What Rain Does. "Ann Spiers' poems takes us on a roadtrip from motel to mountain, from 'abed without a lover' to asking for 'a second kiss.' We travel with the poet into new landscapes where poems celebrate nature, place, and relationships. Spiers' poetry creates the perfect postcards to read again and again." – Kelli Russell Agodon. Richard Widerkehr is here with Her Story of Fire, his fifth collection. "In Richard Widerkehr's collection of elegies, Her Story of Fire, the poems are carved, concise, incantatory and contemporary. They remind us that all loss is ancient no matter how immediate, that every love and burden is shared. I was very moved by this book as I believe all readers of it must be." – Erin Belieu.

VALENTINE'S DAY
Tuesday, February 14

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Tuesday, February 14 at 11:30 a.m.
      KID'S EVENT

Join us for this fun round of readings from picture and storybooks ... Go to the castle in the children's section ... and the stories begin!

ELLIOTT BAY GLOBAL ISSUES & ETHICS BOOK GROUP
Tuesday, February 14 at 6:30 p.m.

Our Global Issues & Ethics Book Group is devoted to discussing books that cover the most relevant topics of our everyday lives. Our February selection is The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World by Wade Davis. Every Culture is a unique answer to a fundamental question: What does it mean to be human and alive? Anthropologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis leads us on a thrilling journey to celebrate the wisdom of the world's indigenous cultures.
In Polynesia we set sail with navigators whose ancestors settled the Pacific ten centuries before Christ. In the Amazon we meet the descendants of a true lost civilization, the peoples of the Anaconda. In the Andes we discover that the earth really is alive, while in Australia we experience Dreamtime, the all-embracing philosophy of the first humans to walk out of Africa. We then travel to Nepal, where we encounter a wisdom hero, a Bodhisattva, who emerges from forty-five years of Buddhist retreat and solitude. And finally we settle in Borneo, where the last rainforest nomads struggle to survive.
Understanding the lessons of this journey will be our mission for the next century. For at risk is the human legacy—a vast archive of knowledge and expertise, a catalogue of the imagination. Re-discovering a new appreciation for the diversity of the human spirit, as expressed by culture, is among the central challenges of our times. This book comprises the 2009 Massey Lectures, "The Wayfinders," broadcast in November 2009 as part of CBC Radio's Ideas series.

JAMES D. SCURLOCK
Wenesday, February 15 at 7 p.m.

Seattle native James Scurlock, most known to now for his filmmaking (Parents of the Year, Maxed Out), is here from his Los Angeles home to talk about his fascinating (and film-able) new book, King Larry: The Life and Ruins of a Billionaire Genius (Scribner). This is the story of Larry Lee Hillblom, who would co-found what became the huge international shipping company DHL—years before FedEx—and a catalyst to the globalization of banks, airlines, and communications—and whose own life took strange turns and twists before its end. "Larry Lee Hillblom does not have the immediate name recognition of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, or Howard Hughes, but the enigmatic founder of DHL has a story that is just as fascinating—and more mysterious—than any of these genius entrepreneurs ... a gripping account of the mercurial, visionary, complicated billionaire's life." – Publishers Weekly.

NATHAN ENGLANDER
Thursday, February 16 at 7 p.m.

Many of us remember the readerly thrill, back in 1999, when his debut book of stories, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, appeared—a book which has been going into readers' hands ever since. That was followed by his haunting, powerful novel, The Ministry of Special Cases in 2007, and with other serious undertakings. He has a play, The Twenty-seventh Man, set to be presented soon. And he has co-translations coming of Etgar Keret's forthcoming Suddenly A Knock at the Door and A New American Haggadah. What he is here for this evening, though, is an astounding new book of stories, What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank (Knopf). A remarkable chorus of early praise—from Jonathan Franzen, Jonathan Safran Foer, Gary Shytengart, Jonathan Lethem, Dave Eggers, Richard Russo—heralds this singular book. "Englander's stories tell the tangled truth of life, in prose that surprises the reader with its gnarled beauty ... Certifiable masterpieces of contemporary short-story art." – Michael Chabon. "Courageous and provocative. Edgy and timeless. In Englander's hands, storytelling is a transformative act. Put him alongside Singer, Carver, and Munro. Englander is, quite simply, one of the very best we have." – Colum McCann. In a beautiful story, "The Reader," it's posited that an author, after successes in earlier years with earlier books, goes on a book tour in which he's greeted with mostly-empty rooms. This bookstore is part of that story. We don't think it will be an empty room here this evening. This is one not to miss.

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Saturday, February 18 at 11:30 a.m.
      KID'S EVENT

Join us for this fun round of readings from picture and storybooks ... Go to the castle in the children's section ... and the stories begin!

DANA STABENOW
Saturday, February 18 at 2 p.m.

Popular Alaska mystery and science fiction novelist Dana Stabenow visits with the newest escapade featuring Aleut private investigator Kate Shugak—twenty years after her first Kate Shugak novel, A Cold Day for Murder. If we're counting correctly, Restless in the Grave (Minotaur), is her nineteenth. Here Kate is joined for the first time by Alaska State Trooper Liam Campbell, hero of another series of novels, in a novel of intrigue and suspense.

RICHARD MASON
Monday, February 20 at 7 p.m.

Originally from South Africa, now based in Glasgow, Richard Mason has become one of the finest novelists of his generation, the award-winning author of The Drowning People, Us and Natural Elements. His newest, History of a Pleasure Seeker (Knopf), has been receiving high praise on both sides of the Atlantic. A novel set in Amsterdam, and then moving around much of the world early in the 20th century, "Sex is everywhere in History of a Pleasure Seeker, and it is both well described and very funny ... An enthralling, perfectly placed romp that breathes new life into the picaresque genre." – The Observer (UK). "This bildrungsroman is as smart as it is seductive ... Readers will savor final scenes aboard the gilded ocean-liner Eugenie and welcome the undercurrent that [protagonist] Piet's good fortune isn't luck at all but a lesson that pleasure exists for those who seek it." – Booklist.

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Tuesday, February 21 at 11:30 a.m.
      KID'S EVENT

Join us for this fun round of readings from picture and storybooks ... Go to the castle in the children's section ... and the stories begin!

SPECULATIONS - ELLIOTT BAY SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY BOOK GROUP
Tuesday, February 21 at 6:30 p.m.

As the literature of ideas and imagination, Science Fiction and Fantasy simply demands discussion. Our selection for February is He, She and It by Marge Piercy. In the middle of the twenty-first century, life as we know it has changed for all time. Shira Shipman's marriage has broken up, and her young son has been taken from her by the corporation that runs her zone, so she has returned to Tikva, the Jewish free town where she grew up. There, she is welcomed by Malkah, the brilliant grandmother who raised her, and meets an extraordinary man who is not a man at all, but a unique cyborg implanted with intelligence, emotions—and the ability to kill.... From the imagination of Marge Piercy comes yet another stunning novel of morality and courage, a bold adventure of women, men, and the world of tomorrow.

KRIS SAKNUSSEMM
Tuesday, February 21 at 7 p.m.

A new book from writer/provocateur Kris Saknussemm is always a strange and wonderful event, as you'll find at tonight's reading from his newest novel, Reverend America. Published by Seattle's Dark Coast Press, Reverend America is on the surface a story of an albino preacher and (former) healer who takes to the road with a pregnant, teenaged prostitute. As always, there's another story in the shadows. "Saknussemm is a rare visionary of American culture, a fearless artist with his very own skew on the western world. Reverend America is brilliant!" – Jonathan Evison. Most recently here as part of a West of 98 anthology reading, Kris Saknussemm is also the author of Zanesville and Private Midnight, among other books.

AMY FRANKLIN-WILLIS
Wednesday, February 22 at 7 p.m.

An eighth-generation Southerner who seems to have found herself in California (which is south of here), Amy Franklin-Willis visits with a debut novel, The Lost Saints of Tennessee (Grove/Atlantic) that carries hard-earned grace in its pages. "In her splendid debut novel, Amy Franklin-Willis delivers a tender, lyrical tale about one broken man's search for forgiveness, healing, and the real meaning of family. Her words ring true on every page and compel us to follow in step as Ezekiel Cooper journeys from the life he has known to the one he so desperately craves." – Susan Gregg Gilmore. "The Lost Saints of Tennessee is a joy—a wonderful, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting story about the unbreakable bonds of brotherhood and the human will to survive." – Elizabeth George.

DAVID WOLMAN
Thursday, February 23 at 7 p.m.

Wired contributing editor David Wolman is here from his Portland home to talk about money—and its changing place—in and out of peoples' hands. In The End of Money: Counterfeiters, Preachers, Techies, Dreamers—and the Coming Cashless Society (Da Capo Books), he looks at the place of physical money, how perceptions of what it is are changing, and where those changes may lead us. "Gather up your 25 rectangles of colored cotton fiber and assorted scrap metal plugs and put them down on the bookstore counter, my friends. This is the sharpest, most amazingly well-researched and fascinating book to come along in a very long while. Especially stunning chapter on counterfeiting, past (fake wampum!) and present (North Korean supernotes!). Read this book and you will understand how the world works and where it is headed, and why a culture perched on the brink of cashlessness is still minting pennies." – Mary Roach.

RACHEL LLOYD
Friday, February 24 at 7 p.m.
--POSTPONED TO A T.B.A. DATE!--

Rachel Lloyd, a survivor of commercial sexual exploitation during her teen years in the United Kingdom, eventually broke free, and after working with adult women leaving the sex industry, returned to school and founded the New York based nonprofit, Girls Education and Mentoring Services (GEMS), an organization that helps girls and women (aged 12-24) leave the commercial sex industry and develop to their full potential. Named one of "50 Women Who Change the World" by Ms. Magazine and Ashoka Fellow, Rachel Lloyd visits us tonight to talk about her life and her work, a story she tells in her book, Girls Like Us: Fighting for a World Where Girls Are Not for Sale, an Activist Finds Her Calling and Heals Herself (now in paperback from HarperCollins). "With empathy and intellect, Rachel Lloyd brings to light the heart-breaking stories of these lost, forgotten, and abused girls. Her own life story is a source of inspiration and hope. She is an important new voice of conscience to which America needs to pay attention." - Geoffrey Canada, president and CEO, Harlem Children's Zone.

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Saturday, February 25 at 11:30 a.m.
      KID'S EVENT

Join us for this fun round of readings from picture and storybooks ... Go to the castle in the children's section ... and the stories begin!

BRAYDEN HIRSCH
Saturday, February 25 at 5 p.m.

Vancouver native Brayden Hirsch may be on of the youngest published author we've had at Elliott Bay; still in high school, he's already written and published a chilling collection of stories, Shadow Catalyst (Steward House Publishers). This combination of mystery, suspense, and the paranormal paint the West Coast with a darker reality where things are always as bad as they seem. This afternoon, Brayden will be reading from his collection and talking about the craft of writing. Join us in the children's section to meet this talented young writer!

AFRICAN AMERICAN WRITERS ALLIANCE Group Reading
Saturday, February 25 at 7 p.m.

One of the longest-standing annual programs to take place—wherever Elliott Bay has been—is the Seattle-based African American Writers Alliance. African American History Month has been highlighted on the last weekend here for upwards of twenty years now. These group readings feature a wide variety of dynamic voices, experiences, and approaches, and much enthusiasm. For more information on the African American Writers Alliance, today's reading, and other AAWA activities over the year, please call Georgia McDade at (206) 722-0964.

STEVE ERICKSON
Monday, February 27 at 7 p.m.

After an interlude of way too many years, one of this country's most remarkable novelists makes this welcome Elliott Bay return. Steve Erickson is the author of Rubicon Beach, Arc d'X, Tours of the Black Clock, Our Ecstatic Days—compelling, searing works of voice and vision. His 2007 novel, Zeroville, struck many as an apt novel for trying to reckon a country that had had seven years of the Bush presidency. He is here this evening with his newest, These Dreams of You (Europa Editions). Starting with Election Night 2008 in southern California—and then ranging from 1960s London and 1970s to Berlin, to California—and Ethiopia—this book looks at family, belonging, fate, and destiny marvelously and imaginatively. "Beautiful, elegiac ... threads and characters serendipitously stumble through a missing-link chain of coincidences, with mazes and labyrinths both real and imagined ..." – Kirkus Reviews. "A striking piece of work, fast-moving and far-reaching." – Don DeLillo.

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Tuesday, February 28 at 11:30 a.m.
      KID'S EVENT

Join us for this fun round of readings from picture and storybooks ... Go to the castle in the children's section ... and the stories begin!

STAGES - ELLIOTT BAY DRAMA BOOK GROUP
Tuesday, February 28 at 6:30 p.m.

Elliott Bay's Drama Book Group, Stages, meets once a month to read, enjoy and discuss great plays and dramatic works, contemporary and classic, from the U.S. and around the world. Our selection for February is the 2011 Pulitzer Finalist A Free Man of Color by John Guare. This panoramic, raucous, and astonishing play is set in boisterous New Orleans prior to the historic Lousiana Purchase. Before law and order took hold and class, political, and racial lines were drawn, New Orleans was a carnival of beautiful women, flowing wine, and pleasure for the taking. At the center of this Dionysian world is the mulatto Jacques Cornet, who commands men, seduces women, and preens like a peacock. But the map of the city is about to be redrawn as American rule brings racial segregation to Cornet's colorful and chaotic world and all he represents ... turning the tables on freedom and liberty. Please join us for a rousing discussion of this new dramatic masterpiece.

TUPELO HASSMAN
Tuesday, February 28 at 7 p.m.

One of the most keenly anticipated fiction debuts of the year is noted this evening with Tupelo Hassman here for her raucous novel, Girlchild (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). "This first novel is not like anything you or I have ever read. Something between a shocking exposé, a defiant treatise, a prose poem, and an exuberant Girl Scout manual, always formally inventive and bursting with energy, Girlchild will do nothing to disabuse you of the notion that lowdown trailer parks like this one outside Reno jack up the birthrate and invite the sexual abuse of young girls if the innocents are left alone for even twenty minutes while an otherwise endearing grandma goes to play the slots. Yes, this is an insider's report, confirming the worst you ever allowed yourself to think. And yet somehow Tupelo Hassman's book is also a testament to joy and beauty, and to the saving power of language wherever it gets a foothold." – Jaimy Gordon.

MARCH IN STEP

March in step. Among those due in March—when we're back to the more usual 30 or 31 days: LILIANA URSU & TESS GALLAGHER, March 1; FRANK RIJSBERMAN for Saturday University, March 3 at the Seattle Asian Art Museum; ALEXANDRA DAY, March 3 at 11:30 a.m.; MARTIN CHALMERS translator of the work of ULRICH PELTZER, March 3; PAMELA DRUCKERMAN, March 5; MELANIE WALKER & CELINE D'CRUZ for Saturday University, March 10 at SAAM; DAVID ROTHKOPF, March 12 at Town Hall Seattle; BEN RYDER HOWE, March 13; JEANETTE WINTERSON, March 14 at Seattle Public Central Library; WILLIAM HJORTSBERG, March 14; HARI KUNZRU, March 15; GEOFF DYER, March 16 at Seattle Public Central Library; HOWARD FRUMKIN & WILLIAM DANIELL for Saturday University, March 17 at SAAM; ESI EDUGYAN, March 19 at the Northwest African American Museum; MATTILDA BERNSTEIN SYCAMORE, March 20; CARA BLACK, March 20 at Alliance Française; CHERYL STRAYED, March 22; STEPHEN DAU, March 23; DANIEL ABRAMSON & JEFFREY HOU for Saturday University, March 24 at SAAM; HOWARD RHEINGOLD, March 26; ANNE LAMOTT, March 29 at Seattle First Baptist Church; JON GERTNER, March 29 at Town Hall Seattle; ALEXANDRA TEAGUE & LOUISE NAYER, March 30; KONGJIAN YU for Saturday University, March 31 at SAAM. All of the above are subject to change, and others will be added, as well. Please check back on our website at the end of February and/or see our February newsletter for more current and detailed information forthcoming. Thanks.

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT is somewhat drawn from the title of NATHAN ENGLANDER's What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank (see February 17), which itself might be drawn from some other books "we" have talked about...