* 6:30 PM: Ravenna author Ann Wendell talks about her 2007 book Seattle’s Ravenna Neighborhood at the SPL Ravenna branch. I’m pretty sure that that is not an accident. You may recall that last year Wendell’s eponymous, and very interesting, book on Frederick & Nelson was released.
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* 7:00 PM: Paul Brians, author of Common Errors in English Usage, celebrates the reissue of “the most cheerfully useful book… since the Kama Sutra”[Scott Simon, NPR] with a discussion and book signing at the U-District UW Bookstore. And really, is that not the best recommendation for a reference book, ever?
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* 7:00 PM: Richard Hugo House promises “an intimate night of poetry” as a fundraiser to send the Fierce Five to Detroit for the Women of the World Poetry Slam. It’s just like 8 Mile– except in the ways that it’s entirely different! I’m not sure how they plan to raise funds with this event- there is no cover charge posted on the site- but I’m sure there is something planned. A rummage sale? Tupperware party? Does Tupperware even exist anymore?
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* 7:30 PM: The Seattle Arts and Lecture series hosts Junot Diaz at Benaroya Hall, to discuss… um. Writing? Life? What it’s like to win a bunch of prestigious awards, crowned by the 2008 Pulitzer? Diaz won the Pulitzer for his first full-length novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, in the process becoming both a beacon of hope to aspiring writers, and an object of envy and despair to those who’ve been around the publishing block a few times.
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* 7:30 PM: Yiyun Li came to the US to study medicine, and earned a Master’s degree in immunology, but threw it over for the angst and horror of fiction writing. Medicine would probably have been easier, but fortunately for us Li is as crazy as any other writer, because her fiction is superb. She’ll be visiting Elliott Bay Book Co. to read and sign her first novel, The Vagrants.
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