Literary calendar: Pulitzer Prize finalist Elizabeth Rush discusses new climate change book

Mary Ann Grossmann, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
·3 min read

Jan. 15—TOM RADEMACHER — Launches this season's Fireside Readings series with "Raising Ollie: How My Nonbinary Art-Nerd Kid Changed (Nearly) Everything I Know." Presented by Friends of the St. Paul Public Library via Zoom. Free, registration required. Information and registration: thefriends.org.

READINGS BY WRITERS: Monthly series hosts readers Lee Colin Thomas, Carolyn Holbrook, Margaret Haase and Melissa Cundieff. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 18, University Club, 420 Summit Ave., St. Paul.

RYAN RODGERS: Minnesota author discusses his new book "Winter's Children: A Celebration of Nordic Skiing," which traces the sport we call cross-country skiing in the Midwest from its introduction in the late 1800s to its uncertain future in today's changing climate. Lots of text and illustrations, including pictures of those who made the sport popular. In-person. 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 20, The Loppet Foundation, The Trailhead, 1221 Theodore Wirth Parkway, Mpls. Register at: z.umn.edu/loppet. Open to the public but capacity is limited.

ELIZABETH RUSH: Pulitzer Prize finalist discusses her book about climate change, "Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore," in conversation with journalist Tom Weber about empathy, vulnerability and her poetic approach to reportage. Presented by her publisher, Milkweed Editions, in partnership with Climate Generation, the Minnesota Humanities Commission and The Blake School, where she will be in residence as Phillips Otis Environmental author. Rush teaches nonfiction writing at Brown University and has taught at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. As Antarctic Artist and Writer she spent more than 50 days in 2019 with an Antarctic team of U.S. and British scientists. 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 18, Blake's Northrop Campus, 511 Kenwood Pkwy., Mpls. The evening includes a climate art show and table exhibits starting at 6 p.m. Register at: milkweed.org/events. This event will also be live-streamed; select the online option during registration to receive the necessary link.

THRITY UMRIGAR: Presents her novel "Honor," about an Indian woman raised in the U.S. who vowed never to return to her native country but does so and forms a bond with a Hindu woman married to a Muslim man. There are tragic consequences. In conversation with Rebecca Makkai, presented by Magers & Quinn in partnership with Left Bank Books and Anderson's Bookshop. 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 18. Free, live streamed. Information: magersandquinn.com/events.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON

Little Free Library, which began in Hudson, Wis., in 2009 with a little structure built by the late Todd Bol, has unveiled a new logo and branding to reflect its evolution over more than a decade of sharing books. There are more than 138,000 Little Free Library book-sharing boxes in all shapes and sizes in 112 countries and all seven continents. The LFL movement hit a milestone recently, with an estimated 250 million books having been shared. The new logo represents the inventive LFL structures, a bookmark in the book-shaped roof connects LFL to its literary focus, and the roof is an upward arrow that promotes the positive outcomes that will continue for years to come. To see an animated video that tells the story behind the logo transformation, youtube.com/watch?v=vJ0rYwct1Mg.

Don't know how we missed this in our pursuit of coming books, but we're tickled that Kent Kreuger's 19th Cork O'Connor mystery, "Fox Creek," will be published by Atria on Aug. 23. Cork's friend Henry Meloux, ancient Ojibwe healer, has a vision of his death and walks alone into the woods. But his peace is broken by hunters looking for a woman who had come to the healer for help. Meloux guides this stranger and his great niece, O'Connor's wife, to safety deep in the Boundary Waters on the last journey he may take in his beloved northland. Meanwhile, Cork works to identify the hunters and the reason for their relentless pursuit but his quest is tested by nightfall and a late season snowstorm. Travel safe, Cork and Henry.