The Elliott Bay Book Company

KURT B. REIGHLEY
Friday, October 1 at 7 p.m.

A very active October is set into motion with Seattle writer and DJ Kurt B. Reigley holding forth here for his look-at-what-we-have-here rumination on the new place of the old, United States of Americana: Backyard Chickens, Burlesque Beauties, & Handmade Bitters: A Field Guide to the New American Roots Movement (Harper). "Encompassing, engaging, and definitive, United States of America finds the through-line that connects such seemingly disparate fashions ... to reveal the yearning for simpler times at their heart. Reighley shows us the Americana movement from the inside, not just as a conservative reaction to modern times, but as a progressive response to a popular culture that's increasingly unsustainable." - John Roderick, from the Long Winters. "Reighley's book is your magical wardrobe into the Narnia of Americana ... Always fun, fully informed, astutely researched and extremely generous in scope, United States of Americana is the lexicon of a laudable way of life." - Wesley Stace (aka John Wesley Harding).

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Saturday, October 2 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 October 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. Also, please note the new starting time of 11:30 a.m.

BEVERLY BATTAGLIA, PhD
Saturday, October 2 at 2 p.m.

Vashon Island author and (retired) social psychologist Dr. Beverly Battaglia's book, Changing Lanes: Couples Redefining Retirement (BookSurge), is one of the very few books written for couples retiring together. Based on over one hundred interviews, Changing Lanes offers advice about planning for financial, health, and relationship issues that develop as couples plan for retirement. This guidebook addresses issues faced by seniors of all ages, and helps retirees weigh options and plan for the future. Questions, concerns, and experiences are welcome.

COLIN CHENEY
Saturday, October 2 at 4 p.m.
      POETRY

Next this afternoon is Colin Cheney reading from his much-admired debut poetry collection, Here Be Monsters (University of Georgia Press), a 2009 National Poetry Series selection. "Nature is a serious character in Here Be Monsters, and these highly textured poems show us that disparate elements live side by side. Colin Cheney's surprising, graceful leaps are never misleading or arbitrary. From poem to poem, line by line, classical and modern conceits converge throughout Here Be Monsters; extraordinary touches the ordinary, and something changes in us." - Yusef Komunyakaa. Colin Cheney was a Ruth Lily Poetry Foundation Fellow and his poems have appeared in Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, and Gulf Coast.

DARIN STRAUSS
Saturday, October 2 at 7 p.m.

"Half my life ago, I killed a girl," writes noted novelist Darin Strauss in his new memoir, Half a Life (McSweeney's). First told on NPR's This American Life, Half a Life is the story of the author's having accidentally hit, and killed, his high school classmate in a car/bicycle collision, and his slow coming to terms with what followed. "At the center of this elegant, painful, stunningly honest memoir thrums a question fundamental to what it means to be human: What do we do with what we've been given? What is truly exceptional here is watching a writer of fine fiction probe, directly, carefully and with great humility, the source from which his fiction springs." - Dani Shapiro, The New York Times Book Review. Darin Strauss' books include the novels Chang and Eng and More Than It Hurts You.

SCOTT SIMON
Sunday, October 3 at 2 p.m.

National Public Radio's Weekend Edition with Scott Simon is a morning mainstay in many homes around the U.S., including Seattle. Today, program host Scott Simon returns, sharing a bit of his own life with readers, as he tells the story of him and his wife adopting two girls from China. Baby We Were Meant for Each Other: In Praise of Adoption (Random House) is a joyful, exuberant account, both of his family's experiences and those of authors. The author doesn't shy away from some of the challenges, terrible circumstances, and sadness that are also sometimes part of adoption. "Simon's unvarnished portrait is an ode to adoption and the joy it can bring to both parent and child. It's clear that each family Simon highlights, including his own, is bound by a strong sense of generosity, empathy, and love." - The Washington Post.

SCOTT PETERSON
Sunday, October 3 at 5 p.m.

Scott Peterson, an award-winning journalist with The Christian Science Monitor and the author of an acclaimed book on turmoil in parts of Africa, Me Against My Brother, makes this Seattle stop to discuss his timely new book, Let the Swords Encircle Me: Iran—A Journey Behind the Headlines (Simon & Schuster). This is drawn from over thirty trips to Iran made over the past fifteen years—no quick glance, this. "This insightful and thoughtful exploration of Iran's revolution comes at a critical juncture ... Peterson provides an insider's tour of the people and issues that have made Iran one of the most fascinating and frustrating countries in the world for three decades." - Robin Wright. "Incisive, humane, and full of vivid reportage ... Perhaps the best account we have of Iran's complex, embattled reality." - Publishers Weekly.

LAN SAMANTHA CHANG
Monday, October 4 at 7 p.m.

A welcome Elliott Bay return is made this evening by fiction writer Lan Samantha Chang, who now serves as director of the renowned Iowa Writers' Workshop, in addition to writing superb books. She follows Hunger and Inheritance with her new novel, All is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost (W.W. Norton). "Among the many threads Chang elegantly pursues—the fraught relationships between mentors and students, the value of poetry, the price of ambition—it is her indelible portrait of the loneliness of artistic endeavor that will haunt readers the most in this exquisitely written novel about the poet's lot." - Booklist. "All is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost offers a starkly honest portrait of people caught up in the drive to write and of the personal bargains and self-deceptions that such an ambition can entail. Lan Samantha Chang was brave to write this book, to turn her novelist's eye onto a world she knows intimately, and her bravery pays off." - Adam Haslett.

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Tuesday, October 5 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, October 5 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 selection for October is Caucasia by Danzy Senna. Newsweek said of Caucasia, "...Danzy Senna's remarkable first novel will cling to your memory. There's Birdie, who takes after her mother's white, New England side of the family—light skin, straight hair. There 's her big sister, Cole, who takes after her father, a radical black intellectual. It's the early seventies, and black-power politics divide their parents, who divide the sisters: Cole disappears with their father, and Birdie goes underground with their mother...Senna tells this coming-of-age tale with impressive beauty and power." Senna's debut novel (1998) was the Winner of the Stephen Crane Award for Best New Fiction of the Year, Winner of the American Library Association's Alex Award, and finalist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

JAMES HOWARD KUNSTLER
Tuesday, October 5 at 7 p.m.

A writer adept at both major nonfiction writing and fiction, James Howard Kunstler visits with The Witch of Hebron (Atlantic Monthly Press), a sequel to his critically acclaimed 2008 novel, A World Made By Hand. This is fiction of timeliness and urgency, this a novel set in a not-too-distant future, the citizens of Union Grove, New York living in a world without oil—and with little knowledge of the larger world itself. "Kunstler decries our refusal to face the facts about our oil habit, dramatizes how quickly 'the great thrumming engine of modernity' can be halted, and celebrates the benefits of living intimately with nature." - Booklist. James Howard Kunstler's other writing includes the bestselling environmental crie de coeur, The Long Emergency, The Geography of Nowhere, nine other novels, and the popular blog column, Clusterfuck Nation.

KRISTIN HERSH
Wednesday, October 6 at 6 p.m.

Musician Kristin Hersh began her musical career at fourteen, formed the band Throwing Muses with her stepsister Tanya Donelly while in college, founded the nonprofit Coalition of Artists and Stakeholders in 2007, and now performs as part of 50FOOTWAVE and also as an acoustic solo act. Her powerful autobiography, Rat Girl: A Memoir (Penguin), tells the story of a pivotal year (1985) during which her band was signed to a major label, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and found that she was pregnant. "Hersh's memoir is the book a fan didn't dare hope for: a beacon in a dark field, illuminating the mysterious and the mundane. Beautifully, honestly written and as close as you will ever get to being in a Throwing Muses song." - Wesley Stace. Free downloads of Throwing Muses performing songs from Rat Girl are available at www.kristinhersh.com.

R. TRIPP EVANS
Wednesday, October 6 at 8 p.m.

Wheaton College (MA) art history professor R. Tripp Evans has written a remarkable biography of one of this country's iconic artists with his brilliant new book, Grant Wood: A Biography (Knopf). "This audacious, ingenious and powerful book blows the lid off the study of Grant Wood, the creator of America's best-known work of art, aptly titled American Gothic. Evans frankly acknowledges Wood's homosexuality, which earlier biographers avoided entirely, and mines layer upon layer of meaning in his fascinating paintings that earlier writers completely missed. This is certainly one of the best and most psychologically penetrating studies ever done on an American artist, but it is more than that. It is a book that transforms our understanding of what goes on in the American heartland—and of the swirling currents and undercurrents of American life." - Henry Adams. R. Tripp Evans is also the author of Romancing the Maya.

ROBERT K. ELDER
Thursday, October 7 at 5 p.m.

Drawn from seven years of research and presenting statements ranging well back into the 17th-century, Northwestern University journalism professor Robert Elder's Last Words of the Executed (University of Chicago) is exactly what its title says it is. Organized by method of execution and time period, it makes no overt statements for or against capital punishment. "This is a dangerous book. Who knows how we will emerge from the encounter? It makes me want to live, use my energies in soul-sized pursuits like justice, like love. One of the psalms says that God collects our tears in a flask—so too does this collection of last words from human beings before they were killed." - Sister Helen Prejean.

JESSICA KANE & TIPHANIE YANIQUE
Thursday, October 7 at 7 p.m.

Two terrific younger writers based in New York, both published by Graywolf Press, read here this evening through some fortuitous coincidences in travel plans. Jessica Kane follows a debut book of stories, Bending Heaven, with an evocative first novel set in London during World War II, The Report. "An absorbing, thought-provoking first novel about a terrible civilian tragedy during wartime, The Report manages the delicate literary feat of being both a probing historical inquiry into a disaster, and a moving, multi-faceted portrait of a community under extreme duress ... the book's moral complexities linger long after the book is finished. A memorable debut." – John Burnham Schwartz. Originally from St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, Tiphanie Yanique draws from island life for her engaging debut book of stories, How to Escape from a Leper Colony. "In this Widest of Sargasso Seas Tiphanie Yanique gives us the pan-Caribbean, from the old lepers' colony on Chacachacare, off the coast of Trinidad, to St. John, Accra, and London. It's an astonishing debut collection—as brutal, sexual, magical, and seductively disturbing as if Jean Rhys had written it today." – Robert Antoni. "Let us hail this new literary voice, vibrant, humorous, original and powerful. These stories introduce us to a new world free of the old images and too familiar clichés of the Caribbean." – Maryse Condé. This reading is presented as part of National Book Group Week.

STEVEN KOTLER
Friday, October 8 at 7 p.m.

A Small Furry Prayer: Dog Rescue and the Meaning of Life (Bloomsbury) is writer Steven Kotler's autobiographical account of how falling in love would change his life, and what that change has meant. The woman Steven Kotler would one day marry was devoted to animal rescue. To love her would be to take this on as well. The change included moving from Los Angeles to rural New Mexico, continuing the work there. "Kotler, owner of Rancho de Chihuahua, an organization that treats dog with special needs, offers a joyous, almost spiritual chronicle of his journey from L.A.-based apartment dweller to owner of a dog sanctuary in New Mexico ... Brimming with humor, gratitude, and grace, this is a remarkable story." - Publishers Weekly.

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Saturday, October 9 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!

AMY LANG
Saturday, October 9 at 1 p.m.

Amy Lang, author of Birds + Bees + YOUR Kids: A Guide to Sharing Your Beliefs About Sexuality, Love, and Relationships (Peanutbutter Publishing), wants to help parents talk to their children about key issues in a way that's easy, fun, and empowering. She'll provide some quick and easy tips for making those conversations go more smoothly, will address what can be done to improve dismal teen pregnancy and STD rates, and will answer questions people bring. A sexual health educator for over 20 years, Amy Lang teaches parents and others folks how to talk to kids of any age about the birds and the bees. Both Birds + Bees + YOUR Kids and The Ask ANYTHING Journal are Mom's Choice Award-winners.

ALLISON HOOVER BARTLETT
Saturday, October 9 at 4 p.m.

Journalist Allison Hoover Bartlett won national attention—and inclusion in Best American Crime Reporting 2007—for work on the case of John Charles Gilkey, whose thefts earned him conviction and prison time. The object of his thievery? Books. In The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession (Riverhead, new in paper), Allison Hoover Bartlett tells this story with all the suspense of the best literary thriller. This book has been a word-of-mouth hit since first being published last year. "The Man Who Loved Books Too Much is the enthralling account of a gently mad con artist and his fraudulent credit card scams, but it's also a meditation on the urge to collect, and a terrific introduction to the close-knit, swashbuckling world of antiquarian book dealers." - Michael Dirda.

ANGIE CHAU
Saturday, October 9 at 6:30 p.m.

Co-presented with HEDGEBROOK. At 6:30 p.m., we'll have a brief presentation on Hedgebrook, the vital, non-profit, Whidbey Island-based women's writers retreat, focusing on Hedgebrook's excellent master class residencies. This will be followed by Hedgebrook alum Angie Chau's reading, commencing at 7 p.m. (give or take). A marvelous debut is celebrated this evening as Angie Chau reads here from her new book of stories, Quiet As They Come (Ig Publishing). "We call it naturalization, but these bright, authentic, well-made stories both personalize and illuminate just how unnatural the first twenty years in America felt for thousands of Vietnamese families who fled to San Francisco to escape the Vietnam War. Angie Chau writes with humor, intensity, and forgiveness about lives full of danger, insult, momentary reprieve, unending tenacity, and undying hope." - Pam Houston. "Heartbreaking tales of ordinary people lost between the extraordinary circumstances of history. Bitter and beautiful all at once." - Sandra Cisneros. For more information on Hedgebrook, please see www.hedgebrook.org.

ARTS CRUSH/Writing Workshops for Elementary and High School-aged Kids
Sunday, October 10 from 1 - 5 p.m.
      KIDS EVENT

Four writers-in-residence from the Writers in the Schools (WITS) program at Seattle Arts & Lectures will offer separate, hour-long free writing workshops for elementary and high school-age students this afternoon. Pre-registration is required as enrolment is limited to 15 students per workshop. Workshop 1: 1 - 2 p.m., "Poetic Mashups" with Emily Bedard (middle school); Workshop 2: 2 - 3 p.m., "Hip Hop Poetry Remix" with Aaron Counts (upper level high school); Workshop 3: 3 - 4 p.m., "The Idea Jar" with Karen Finneyfrock (high school); Workshop 4: 4 - 5 p.m., "Oh! The Shape I'm In! Shape Poems" with Ann Teplick (elementary school). Further information and free pre-registration is at www.artscrush.org.

ARTS CRUSH/Kids and Family Storytime
Sunday, October 10 from 3 - 4:30 p.m.
      KIDS EVENT

Local authors involved in Humanities Washington's Motheread Program will read stories from around the world every half hour from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. at the Castle in our Children's section. Each Storytime session will last about a half hour and include different stories with 'Story Exploring' handouts. Take home a free kit for making a Family Storybook. Free, no registration necessary.

ARTS CRUSH/The Novel: Live! Launch Party
Sunday, October 10 at 6:30 p.m.

Yes, we're almost needing a field guide to our own place ... busy! This evening, Garth Stein and friends from Seattle7Writers launch The Novel: Live!, a six-day marathon novel-writing event. Tonight's soiree includes free entertainment, food and drink in our Readings Room. Festivities begin at 6:30 p.m. as the Vis-à-Vis Society (aka Sierra Nelson and Rachel Kessler of The Typing Explosion) write poems and poem-surveys with the help of assembled party-goers, using song, dance, graphs, and snacks to bring the data to life. Musician Laurie Katherine Carolsson, whose past gigs include backup for Imogen Heap and moderating a discussion with the Kingston Trio, provides musical entertainment throughout. Seattle's Librarian-at-Large Nancy Pearl, the event's "Fairy God-Author," will serve as auctioneer of character-naming rights, including someone who gets bumped off (high bid gets it!). Participatory Literary Games-ship at work here tonight ... The Novel: Live!, which includes 36 Seattle writers writing a marathon, six-day novel together at Richard Hugo House, takes place October 11 - 16, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. at 1634 Eleventh Avenue. For more about the writing, the writers, the novel, the fun, and a related, city-wide reading series, please see www.thenovellive.org.

SARA MARCUS with LED TO SEA
Monday, October 11 at 5 p.m.
      MUSIC

New York writer/musician Sara Marcus visits with a groundbreaking book on Riot Grrrl, Girls to the Front (HarperPerennial). This first-ever history tells the story of Riot Grrrl bursting audaciously onto the scene in 1991, countering in all sorts of ways a fallback in gains made by women from activism in earlier decades. This was a new generation—intense, driven, galvanized. "For a Second Wave feminist like myself, Girls to the Front evokes wonderfully the way the generation after mine soaked up the promise and the punishment of feminist consciousness: all in all, a richly moving story." - Vivian Gornick. A special part of this will be the accompanying presence and performance of Led to Sea (www.ledtosea.com). This should be a live one.

JOSEPH O'NEILL with MARY ANN GWINN
Monday, October 11 at 7 p.m.

When Joseph O'Neill's novel Netherland was published to great acclaim in 2008—going on to received the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award—it almost felt as though he was a newly hatched author. His publisher responded to the fervent, sudden interest—on very short notice, Seattle was added to a modest-scaled tour in 2008—as it was slowly dawning on people that Joseph O'Neill had indeed written books before, two other novels, and one extraordinary memoir. That last book, Blood-Dark Track: A Family History (Vintage), the story of Joseph O'Neill's two grandfathers—one Turkish, one Irish, both imprisoned for espionage-like charges during World War II—is now newly re-published. While very different from Netherland, it's abundantly clear that a masterful writer has been at work. Joining Joseph O'Neill, in conversation this evening, is Seattle Times book editor Mary Ann Gwinn. "Essential reading ... A fascinating exploration of the personal complexities and private intimacies that lie behind a crude word like 'terrorism.' - The New York Times Book Review. "An enormously intelligent plunge into the WWII era ... We are lucky to have writers like O'Neill, who are willing to recover secrets that the dead so wished we might never know." - The New York Times Book Review.

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Tuesday, October 12 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!

BENJAMIN PERCY
Tuesday, October 12 at 6 p.m.

Presently living and teaching in Iowa, debut novelist Benjamin Percy hails from high desert country in central Oregon. That landscape plays a central role in his just-released novel, The Wilding (Graywolf Press). "Not your father's eco-novel. In compelling, image-driven prose, Benjamin Percy confounds the old polarities about wilderness and development by sending three generations of men into a doomed canyon, and letting so much hell break loose we can't tell the heroes from the villains—which feels exactly right. This is a dark, sly, slip-under-your-skin-and-stay-there kind of a book." - Pam Houston. Benjamin Percy is also the author of a book of stories, Refresh, Refresh, and the recipient of a Whiting Writers' Award and the Plimpton Prize.

ELLIOTT BAY GLOBAL ISSUES & ETHICS BOOK GROUP
Tuesday, October 12 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 October selection is Beyond the Fence: A Journey to the Roots of the Migration Crisis by Dori Stone. While the immigration debate in the U.S. has focused narrowly on political and physical barriers, on legalization versus deportation, on border security and enforcement, this book takes us beyond the fence and past that polarized debate, to examine the underlying forces driving immigration and the promising grassroots solutions already underway.

ROBERT MICHAEL PYLE
Tuesday, October 12 at 8 p.m.

The butterfly bard of Grays River, Washington makes this most welcome first visit to Elliott Bay's new home this evening. Internationally known for his scholarly—and popular—research and writings on butterflies, Bob Pyle is also known for his writings on this wet side of the mountains—its pleasures and mysteries. We believe the most recent was his chronicle of a year in his home place—Grays River—a lovely book on all the things that happen in one year in one place. Contrast that with the thousands of miles travel involved for his newest book, Mariposa Road: The First Butterfly Big Year (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). By land and air, Bob Pyle set out to see how many species of the United States' 800 varieties he could see. Hawai'i, Alaska, and states hither and yon all figure. "Toss out any notion you might have had about butterfly watchers and meet Bob Pyle: scientist and daredevil, philosopher and magician, pioneer and rebel, and the finest companions for a vagabond journey. Follow him down the rip-roaring Mariposa Road and you'll never look at a butterfly, or the world, in the same way again." - Kenn Kaufman.

TED RALL
Wednesday, October 13 at 6 p.m.

Cartoonist/columnist Ted Rall considers his new manifesto for a United States heading toward economic and political collapse his most radical yet—which is saying something. He has just returned from a trip to Afghanistan, stopping here now on tour with The Anti-American Manifesto (Seven Stories). Ted Rall sees opportunity in the current economic devastation—opportunity to first work against the kind of gangsterism that has rushed into place when Russia went through its collapse, then to push for the big radical shift that would be called revolution. "This great book lays the foundation for the revolution we know is necessary. This is the book we've all been waiting for. Pick up this book. Read it. And then get ready to fight back." - Derrick Jensen. A Pulitzer Prize finalist and twice the winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, Ted Rall is also a syndicated political cartoonist, op-ed columnist, graphic novelist, and occasional war correspondent.

THADDEUS RUSSELL
Wednesday, October 13 at 8 p.m.

Portion Two of what should be a lively, politically-informed evening at Elliott Bay has historian Thaddeus Russell, who has taught at Occidental College, Columbia, The New School, and Barnard, discussing his big new book, A Renegade History of the United States (Free Press). "Thaddeus Russell's A Renegade History of the United States is a work of history like no other—a bold, controversial, original view of American history that will amuse, inspire, outrage, and, most of all, instruct readers. Russell strips away conventional wisdom and explodes many myths. In the process, he sheds new light on ideas, institutions, and people." - Alan Brinkley. "Thaddeus Russell has written the history of the American People Whom Historians Would Rather Forget: the whores, delinquents, roustabouts—the so-called bums and immoral minority who did more for our civil rights and personal freedoms than anyone could count—until now. There is no understanding of American feminism, sexual liberation, civil rights or dancing in the streets without this careful analysis that Russell has put before us." - Susie Bright. Also with early praise: Steven Johnson, Nancy Cott, Thomas E. Woods, Jr., Kirkus Reviews, and Elliott Gorn.

TOM GRIMES
Thursday, October 14 at 4 p.m.

This special appearance by novelist Tom Grimes, who also directs the creative writing program at Texas State, should bring students from Seattle University's creative program here, as well as everyone else interested, for a remarkable book. Mentor: A Memoir (Tin House Books) is Tom Grimes' account of his decades-long bond with Frank Conroy. Conroy, the author of the classic memoir, Stop-Time, was also the legendary, longtime head of the Iowa Writers' Workshop (now headed by Lan Samantha Chang, see October 4). From being Frank Conroy's student, on through being friends, fellow writers, and teaching colleagues, Tom Grimes has written a marvel of a book. "One of the truest accounts of a writer's life—of two writers' lives—I've yet seen. A poignant and beautiful book." - T.C. Boyle. Others with early ardent praise: Tim O'Brien, Jayne Anne Phillips, Abraham Verghese, Yiyun Li, Robert Stone, Elizabeth McCracken, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews.

DAVE ZIRIN
Thursday, October 14 at 7 p.m.

One of our favorite writers on sports—and society—Dave Zirin is back in the friendly confines of Elliott Bay for his newest book, Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games We Love (Scribner). All the male major league sports are addressed in here—save Major League Soccer—and a rogue's gallery of poster boy sports owners it is. Guess what iconic local basketball franchise and its departure, is among the tales recounted. Yes, the Howard Schultz-to-Clay Bennett era of local sports history is here. "Not since Hunter S. Thompson has a sportswriter shown the right snarl for the job ... Zirin puts the politics back in sports and makes good sport of the politics. Even if you don't know the difference between March Madness and Spring Break, read this book: It's an original and scathing look at how America works." - Naomi Klein. Dave Zirin is the host of Sirius/XM's Edge of Sports radio show, and also the author of What's My Name, Fool?, Welcome to the Terrordome, and A People's History of Sports in the United States. As part of this Seattle visit, Dave Zirin will also be making an appearance on behalf of 826 Seattle—please see www.826seattle.org for information.

T.A. BARRON
Friday, October 15 at 10:30 a.m.
      KIDS EVENT

Special morning at Elliott Bay reading. This morning, we offer a special treat: a children's event, suitable for young readers and interested adults, featuring the very popular children's book author T.A. Barron. He's here to talk about his newest book, Ultimate Magic (Philomel), the third book in his Merlin's Dragon series of chapter books. A renowned storyteller, writer (and Rhodes Scholar), T.A. Barron is the author of nearly two dozen books, including both chapter books (the Lost Years of Merlin series, Great Tree of Avalon trilogy, Adventures of Kate trilogy) and children's picture books (High as a Hawk, The Day the Stones Walked). He founded the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes, recognizing extraordinary young people from all backgrounds. T.A. Barron's appearances with us have been some of the highlights of our series. (Want to bring a classroom? Call us at (206) 624-6600.) For more, please see www.tabarron.com.

MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM
Friday, October 15 at 12:15 p.m.

Special midday at Elliott Bay reading. A Seattle visit that begins with a Thursday evening reading at Town Hall and concludes with this noon-hour reading at Elliott Bay brings Pulitzer- and PEN/Faulkner Award-winning novelist Michael Cunningham here for his new novel, By Nightfall (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). This is the present-day story of a couple seemingly at the peak of their purpose—in work (arts), in family, in friends. Then, things happen. Delicate balances are altered. How they seem to happen—are perceived and acted upon—make up the heart of this intelligent, perceptive novel. "'What do you do when you're no longer the hero of your own story?' That jolt, that upending realization that your life is just a stream of small dreams and small mistakes, is a defining theme in Cunnigham's coruscatingly excellent fiction (remember The Hours?), expressed here in a way that makes you ache ... Extraordinary." - Library Journal. Michael Cunningham's other novels include A Home at the End of the World, Flesh and Blood, The Hours, and Specimen Days. Please join us.

SEATTLE OPERA presents ASPECTS OF LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR
Friday, October 15 at 7:30 p.m.
      ADMISSION CHARGE

Presented by SEATTLE OPERA. The curtain goes up on Seattle Opera's 2010-11 season on Saturday with its opening production of the Gaetano Ronizetti opera, Lucia di Lammermoor. Seattle Opera General Director Speight Jenkins and an invited guest will discuss cultural, historical, and artistic aspects of the opera and its times. These are always engaging, lively evenings. Lucia di Lammermoor is scheduled for eight performances October 16 - 30 at McCaw Hall. $5 admission to this discussion is handled at the door by Seattle Opera. For more information, please see www.seattleopera.org or call (206) 389-7676.

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Saturday, October 16 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!

EDWIDGE DANTICAT
Saturday, October 16 at 2 p.m.

As part of a visit highlighted by a Town Hall appearance on the evening before today's event (see listing for Friday, October 15th), Edwidge Danticat will also make this Saturday afternoon appearance at Elliott Bay—for those wanting to continue the conversations started Friday night, as well as those who couldn’t attend (a lot is going on in Seattle that Friday evening). She is visiting Seattle with a book of essays drawn from the Toni Morrison Lectures she gave earlier this year at Princeton, Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work (Princeton University Press). This is the newest volume in a remarkable body of work that includes two novels, two books of stories, two young adult books, and two other nonfiction books. Her most recent book, the autobiographical, Brother, I'm Dying, was a National Book Award finalist and received the National Book Critics Circle Award. Create Dangerously is a beautiful rumination on what role immigrant artists can and do play, and a powerful exploration of her deep connections to her homeland of Haiti, especially with the devastating earthquake which struck earlier this year. At Town Hall or here, this is one of those vital writers not to be missed.

REACT THEATRE presents YELLOW FACE
Sunday, October 17 at 2 p.m.
      PERFORMANCE
      ADMISSION CHARGE

Co-presented with ReACT THEATRE. We're pleased to wrap up our Eleventh Annual Staged Play Reading Series with a presentation of the recent Pulitzer Prize finalist play by David Henry Hwang, Yellow Face. In this OBIE Award-winning, mock-documentary comedic play, Hwang puts himself center stage, as he use the controversy over color-blind casting for Miss Saigon and the racially motivated federal investigation of his own father to explore ethnic identity, and the ever-changing definition of what it is to be an American. Don't miss this special presentation of a hilarious new play. This is an ARTS CRUSH event. Suggested donation ($5) at the door. Reservations encouraged. For more information, please see www.reacttheatre.org.

SAM HOWE VERHOVEK
Monday, October 18 at 7 p.m.

We are delighted to help celebrate publication, and welcome into the world, Seattle journalist Sam Howe Verhovek's chronicle of a heyday in local and aviation history, Jet Age: The Comet, the 707, and the Race to Shrink the World (Avery). This bracing story tells of the race to develop the first passenger jetliner that would be able to provide trans-oceanic service—this within fifty years of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk. The executives, the engineers, and the test pilots all played key roles—these and more are vividly drawn by Sam Howe Verhovek, a former national correspondent for The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times. "In this marvel of a tale, Sam Howe Verhovek reveals the most astounding miracle in modern life, and it's been hiding in plain sight. Forget computers and television, Facebook, and Google. The Jet Age has shrunk our planet, obliterated borders, and changed virtually every aspect of life on earth. At its heart is the gripping story of two extraordinary, larger-than-life men whose race to unlock the secret of jet travel transformed our world." - William Broyles, Jr.

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Tuesday, October 19 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 YOUNG ADULT BOOK GROUP
Tuesday, October 19 at 4 p.m.

After School & Beyond. This hosted, after-school book discussion group has Sherman Alexie's National Book Award-winning novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Little, Brown), as its pick for this month. Based on the authors own experiences, this first young adult novel by bestselling author Alexie features poignant drawings by acclaimed artist Ellen Forney that reflect the characters art as it chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy attempting to break away from the life he was destined to live. This should be fun. Please join us.

SPECULATIONS - ELLIOTT BAY SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY BOOK GROUP
Tuesday, October 19 at 6:30 p.m.

As the literature of ideas and imagination, Science Fiction and Fantasy simply demands discussion. Our pick this month is Steal Across the Sky by Hug Award-winning novelist Nancy Kress. The aliens appeared one day, built a base on the moon, and put an ad on the internet: "We are an alien race you may call the Atoners. Ten thousand years ago we wronged humanity profoundly. We cannot undo what has been done, but we wish humanity to understand it. Therefore we request twenty-one volunteers to visit seven planets to Witness for us. We will convey each volunteer there and back in complete safety. Volunteers must speak English. Send requests for electronic applications to witness@Atoners.com." At first, everyone thought it was a joke. But it wasn't. This is the story of three of those volunteers, and what they found on Kular A and Kular B. Please join us

RAHNA REIKO RIZZUTO
Thursday, October 21 at 7 p.m.

Readers who were moved, like us, by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto's debut novel of a decade ago, Why She Left Us, will be glad to know that the wait for new work from this talented Brooklyn-based writer is finally over. Her memoir, Hiroshima in the Morning (Feminist Press), begins with a solo trip to research the memories of atomic bomb survivors and gradually becomes a haunting meditation on motherhood, identity, memory, and history. "This searing and redemptive memoir is an explosive account of motherhood reconstructed. Pulling from the wreckage of two wars, as well as the loss of her own mother to Alzheimer's, Rahna Reiko Rizzuto recasts her identity as a mother and a daughter, and finds a truer connection to her family." - Ayelet Waldman.

DAVID ABRAM
Friday, October 22 at 7 p.m.

Fourteen years after his spellbinding book, The Spell of the Sensuous, David Abram at last is here again with a long-awaited new book on the human relationship with nature (and nature's relationship with the human), Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology (Pantheon). "As with many deeply original—and radical—books, this work may startle, even provoke the reader in its electric reversal of conventional thought. Worth any provocation for the profundity of its insights, this is the portrait of the artist as a young raven, with all the subtlety of his mind, for the mindedness of the body. An exercise of uncanny imagination by a writer who has a sixth sense for the intelligence of the first five." - Jay Griffiths. "Abrams shows brilliantly how this body brings us back to Earth in a series of acutely moving descriptions of its polysensory genius. An original work of primary philosophy, it is written with verve, passion, and poetry." - Edward S. Casey.

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Saturday, October 23 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!

ELIZABETH AUSTEN
Saturday, October 23 at 7 p.m.
      POETRY

We're pleased to welcome Seattle poet Elizabeth Austen back to Elliott Bay this evening to read from two recently published collections. Where Currents Meet, one of a quartet of chapbooks published in Sightline (ToadLily Press), includes a poetic reinterpretation of the story of Adam and Eve. She also reads from her recently published, well-received collection, The Girl Who Goes Alone (Floating Bridge Press). For more than ten years, Elizabeth Austen has presented poetry and author interviews on Seattle's NPR affiliate, KUOW. She served as the 2007 Washington "roadshow poet," giving readings and workshops in rural areas around the state and as part of the Hugo House Literary Series.

KEN ARMSTRONG & NICK PERRY
Sunday, October 24 at 2 p.m.

Seattle Times reporters Ken Armstrong and Ken Perry won the George Polk Award and the Michael Kelly Award—two of journalism's highest honors—for their investigative work on troubled parts of the 2000 University of Washington Husky football program. The report then received national headlines, and now sees larger, more in-depth form as Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime, and Complicity (University of Nebraska Press). "The great fraud of 'student-athletes,' higher education, and big-time football has never been detailed better than in Scoreboard, Baby ... Theirs is a vivid, cautionary tale that, sadly, plays out in so many college athletic departments." - Frank Deford. "The most harrowing book I have ever read about college sports." - Buzz Bissinger.

YIYUN LI
Monday, October 23 at 7 p.m.

The second New Yorker "20 Under 40" writer to read here this month, following Dinaw Mengestu on the 18th, Yiyun Li is here from her Oakland home with an amazing new book of stories, Gold Boy, Emerald Girl (Random House). "A stellar assortment of stories ... further proof that Li deserves to be considered among the best living fiction writers." - Kirkus Reviews. "In the most dismal circumstances and with the most unlikely subjects, Yiyun Li has the rare ability to conjure hope. She writes with precision and delicacy about the Chinese diaspora and about the new China, and in doing so she writes about us all." - Mona Simpson. Yiyun Li's other books are the novel, The Vagrants, and a first book of stories, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers. She has also received the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Guardian First Book Award, and the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Tuesday, October 26 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, October 26 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 October selection is the newest winner of the Tony Award for Best Play, Red by John Logan. A moving and compelling account of one of the greatest artists of the 20th century whose struggle to accept his growing riches and praise became his ultimate undoing.
Under the watchful gaze of his young assistant and the threatening presence of a new generation of artists, Mark Rothko takes on his greatest challenge yet: to create a definitive work for an extraordinary setting.

CHRISTOPHER RYAN
Tuesday, October 26 at 7 p.m.

Over from Barcelona is Christopher Ryan, who, with Cacilda Jethá, is author of a hugely popular new work, Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Human Sexuality (Harper). The attention that has come the way of this book which was originally published in fairly low-key manner is highlighted by The Stranger's Dan Savage and his ardent championing of the research, findings, and conclusions made by the authors. This should be a good and lively one. "One of the most original books I've read in years. Sex at Dawn manages to be both enormously erudite and wildly entertaining—even, frequently, hilarious. Ryan and Jethá slip effortlessly across millions of years, from prehistoric Africa to the contemporary bedroom, presenting cutting-edge research with clarity and wit. A must-read for anyone interested in where our sexual impulses come from ..." - Tony Perrottet. "The single most important book on human sexuality since Kinsey unleashed Sexual Behavior of the Human Male on the American public in 1948." - Dan Savage, The Stranger.

LISA BIRNBACH
Wednesday, October 27 at 7 p.m.

Some of us were here when, thirty years ago, a plaid-clad little volume, The Official Preppy Handbook, became a surprise bestseller, even in seemingly unlikely places. Who knew that Lisa Birnbach so had her hand on the pulse of a sizable public? These many years later, the tenets of preppydom are revisited, and variously revised, by Ms. Birnbach and ace book designer Chip Kidd (who has said the publication of The Preppy Handbook when he was in the tenth grade changed his life), in the very entertaining new book, True Prep: It's a Whole New Old World (Knopf). All sorts of tips, practical and otherwise, are presented in high form, along with a lexicon of terms and traditions, all good for preparing one for knowing what's prep and what's not. Included are guest contributors such as Christopher Buckley (on being an 'aging' prepster) and Edmund White, with a travel narrative on gays and the preppy universe.

KIM O'DONNEL
Thursday, October 28 at 5 p.m.

Seattle chef and food writer Kim O'Donnel—most known for writing on food for many years at the Washington Post—and now prominent in the blogosphere (Trueslant.com), visits with her newly published first book, The Meat Lover's Meatless Cookbook: Vegetarian Recipes Carnivores Will Devour (Da Cap Lifelong). "I can't think of a more cordial or welcoming tone with which to invite possibly skeptical meat eaters into the world of delicious, accessible plant-based cooking. With her characteristic warmth and great sense of humor—and with no dogma—Kim O'Donnel presents a great set of compelling recipes that will draw everyone into a big, shared tent of healthier eating." - Mollie Katzen.

JACK de YONGE
Thursday, October 28 at 7 p.m.

Legendary journalist Jack de Yonge, whose byline appeared in the Fairbanks News-Miner, Seattle Times, and the much-missed Seattle Post-Intelligencer, grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska during the 1930s and 40s. Boom Town Boy: Coming of Age on Alaska's Lost Frontier (Epicenter Press) is set in a tough, hell-raising town in an area where rowdy bars, a flourishing red-light district, gambling, and various other types of behavior frowned upon in 'polite' society were the norm. World War II would change Fairbanks forever, but Jack de Yonge and those of his generation remain to tell the tale. "Jack de Yonge's boyhood memoir starts as a wry, engaging story and quickly becomes a great read. He was a Tom Sawyer on the tundra and his tale is worthy of Mark Twain." - David Horsey, SeattlePI.com.

LAWRENCE MATSUDA
Friday, October 29 at 7 p.m.
      POETRY

Born in Hunt, Idaho at the Minidoka "War Relocation Center," Lawrence Matsuda is a poet, father, author (Community and Difference), and retired Seattle School District teacher and administrator. We welcome him here this evening to read from his first book-length collection of poetry, A Cold Wind from Idaho (Black Lawrence Press). His work reflects his experience as a Japanese-American, a relative of Hiroshima survivors, and as a keen observer of community, family, post-9/11 courage, and much more. "This moves us to new levels of empathy and seeks to heal the speaker, the Japanese-American community, Japan in its relation to America, and this nation itself. I admire its dignity, its ferocious honesty and intimate witnessing of something we thought we knew, but didn't really know, until he told us." - Tess Gallagher.

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Saturday, October 30 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!

KARY WAYSON & Friends
Saturday, October 30 at 7 p.m.
      POETRY

Seattle poet Kary Wayson is joined by other Seattle poets Kevin Craft, Rebecca Hoogs, Erin Malone, and Ed Skoogs, for what should be a lively, spirited Saturday evening. A particular highlight is the recent publication of Kary Wayson's first, full-length collection, American Husband (Ohio State University Press), recipient of OSU Press' The Journal Award. "Readers of American Husband may occasionally be reminded of Plath and Berryman, Roethke, Sexson and Lowell: poets that changed the ways in which we understood the private self in America to be a series of identities forged through a rejection of publicly constructed masks. But though American Husband taps into some of these poets' most potent confessions and anxieties ... the sound and stance of these poems is entirely Wayson's. American Husband is rife with jazz riffs, dazzling with verbal play, awash with wit and sonic intelligence. It's a book that samples its literary forbears without fear or fealty and, in the end, reinvents the love lyric into something utterly strange, and weirdly true." - Paisley Rekdal.

Conversations with PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET presents ALL THARP
Sunday, October 31 at 2 p.m.

Presented by PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET. PNB's popular, free discussion series continues this afternoon as PNB Education programs manager Doug Fullington and guests discuss PNB's forthcoming All Tharp program, which features three ballets choreographed by Twyla Tharp. Dancers, choreographers, and other special guests make these lively and enjoyable programs for ballet fans interested in what goes on behind the scenes. For more about Pacific Northwest Ballet, its season, and/or this program, please see www.pnb.org, or call (206) 441-2440.

ALSO TO NOTE:

• Book Drive for Preschoolers from Homeless Families. Elliott Bay is proud to participate in this special book drive benefitting Seattle/King COunty Coalistion on Homelessness and its Project Cool for Back to School. Sept. 13 - October 22, 2010. Visit the event's Wish List or www.preschoolbookbrive.com for more information.
• Seattle Arts & Lectures. In addition to SARA PARETSKY (see Oct. 19 listing), SAL in October also presents: poets ROBERT PINSKY, Oct. 15, and ROBERT HASS, Oct. 28; and T.R. REID on Oct. 5. For tickets/information on these and others in the 2010/11 season, please see www.lectures.org or call (206) 621-2230.
• Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas. Besides presenting MICHELE NORRIS (see Oct. 4 listing), the CD Forum also presents a performance piece based on the work of OCTAVIA BUTLER, Dance Theatre X: World Headquarters, Sept. 30 - Oct. 2 at Velocity Dance Center. See www.cdforum.org or call (206) 323-4032 for tickets/information.
• Richard Hugo House. See www.hugohouse.org for information on a wide array of readings, panels, and workshops, highlighted by the opener of the 2010/11 Hugo Literary Series on Oct. 15 (see listings here online.)
• World Affairs Council. Among its October offerings, the World Affairs Council presents: Dr. IBRAHIM ASSANE MAYAKI, Oct. 7; BRIAN CONCANNON, Oct. 14; Dr. JAMES ZOGBY, Oct. 21, and LESLEY HAZLETON, Oct. 27. See www.world-affairs.org for ticket, program, and venue information.
• Pilot Books. Our neighbors at 219 Broadway E. (upstairs) offer readings & panels regularly, including E.E. KING, Oct. 6; ANSELM BERRIGAN & KAREN WEISER, Oct. 14; JOSHUA BALDWIN, Oct. 16; JAMES YEARY, Oct. 19; OPP Reading Series, Oct. 21; and JOSHUA WILKINSON with MATHIAS SVALINA & SLOAN, Oct. See www.pilotbooksseattle.com for more information.
• Book-It Repertory Theatre. Book-It continues its run of John Irving's The Cider House Rules: Parts 1 & 2, through Oct. 16. See www.book-it.org for information/tickets.
• Seattle Symphony. GARRISON KEILLOR takes to the podium with the Symphony on Oct. 12 at Benaroya Hall. See www.seattlesymphony.org.
• 826 Seattle. 826 Seattle has many things going: A Special Evening with MYLA GOLDBERG, Sept. 30; 826's 5th Annual "Don't Forget to Write (A Check) Fundraiser Breakfast, Oct. 1; BRENDAN KILEY, Oct. 12; MAC BARNETT, Oct. 14; DAVE ZIRIN, Oct. 16. See www.826seattle.org for more information.
• Northwest African American Museum. In addition to helping present EUGENE ROBINSON on Oct. 14 (see listing here), NAAM's programs include "15 on the 15th" on Oct. 15; and "4 Beats to the Bar," Oct. 28. See www.naamnw.org for more information.

• Laugh Your Way to Giving, The Sequel. A benefit for the Jewish Federation of Seattle featuring writers from The Onion, takes place Oct. 6 at Benaroya Hall. For tickets/information, please see www.jewishinseattle.org or call (206) 443-5400.
• Seattle Art Museum = Picasso. Well, almost. SAM is many things, including what should be the fabulous 2010 staging of the Diwali Ball on Oct. 23, but it is especially about the opening of Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso on Oct. 8. The art above all, but many lectures, films, and more are part of things. See www.seattleartmuseum.org.
• Northwest Film Forum. Our neighbors at the NW Film Forum, have a "Local Sightings Film Festival," Oct. 1 - 6; and among the many films over the month, one that jumps out is Howl, set for Oct. 29 - Nov. 4, based on ALLEN GINSBERG's poem. See www.nwfilmforum.org.
• Northwest Immigrant Rights Benefit. NWIRP has its annual benefit fundraiser gala set for Oct. 1 starting at 5:30 p.m. at the Sky Bridge of the Washington State Convention Center. See www.nwirp.org for information.
• Bedtime Stories. The Washington Commission for the Humanities' annual Bedtime Stories benefit evening, "Night Flight," also takes place Oct. 1, featuring CAROL CASSELLA, CHARLES JOHNSON, SUSAN RICH, JENNIE SHORTRIDGE, and GARTH STEIN. For information, please see www.humanities.org; for tickets, write kari@humanities.org or call (206) 682-1770 ext. 103.
• Write on the Sound: Natalie Goldberg. Edmonds' annual 'Write on the Sound' 3-day writers' conference is all booked. Space remains at this writing for NATALIE GOLDBERG's keynote on Oct. 2. See www.ci.edmonds.wa.us or call (425) 275-9595 for information.

NEXT, NOVEMBER

Next, November. Among those due here, and near, in November: ROBERT CAMUTO, Nov. 1 at 5; GEOFFREY WOLFF, Nov. 1 at 7; Rabbi MARK GLICKMAN, Nov. 2; SUSAN STRAIGHT, Nov. 3; NICOLE KRAUSS, Nov. 4; SHAILA PATEL, Nov. 5; BORETH LY presented by the Gardner Center for Asian Art & Ideas, Nov. 6 at 9:30 a.m. at Seattle Asian Art Museum; SUZANNE COLLINS Booksigning for Mockingjay, Nov. 6 at 11 a.m. (check back on our website for more information); ANNE GERMANICOS, Nov. 6; Jack Straw anthology group reading, Nov. 7; MARK KURLANSKY, Nov. 8; PATRICK McMANUS, Nov. 9 at 6; THOMAS McGUANE, Nov. 9 at 8; URSULA K. LE GUIN & ROGER DORMAND, Nov. 10 at Seattle Public Central Library; MICHAEL MEADE, Nov. 11; MICHAEL FISCHMAN, Nov. 12; PAM McCLUSKY presented by the Gardner Center for Asian Art & Ideas, Nov. 13 at Seattle Asian Art Museum; MICHELLE BATES, Nov. 13; Best American Poetry anthology group reading, Nov. 13; JOEL RICHARD PAUL, Nov. 14 at 2; DOUGLAS STARR, Nov. 14; JUSTIN SPRINGER & WENDY MOFFAT, Nov. 15; VALERIE TRUEBLOOD with MEGAN COLE, Nov. 16; CEDAR SIGO, Nov. 17; IAN MORRIS, Nov. 17 at Town Hall Seattle; CHASE JARVIS, Nov. 18; JO SCOTT, Nov. 19 at 6; CHARLOTTE GRAY, Nov. 19 at 8; NINA TITONE, Nov. 21; BARBARA POLLACK, Nov. 21 at Seattle Asian Art Museum; The Etiquette of Freedom: JACK SHOEMAKER on the work of GARY SNYDER, Nov. 29; NANCY MEDWELL, Nov. 30. 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 October and/or see our November newsletter for more current and detailed information forthcoming. Thanks.

THE SPEECH OF THINGS is from DAVID ABRAM's splendid book, Becoming Animal (see October 22).