Literary calendar for the week of Oct. 23
KASIM ALI: Professor of literature at the University of California, San Diego, reads selections from his recent publication “Northern Light: Power, Land, and the Memory of Water” (Milkweed Editions), and from his poetry collections. His books encompass poetry, novels, and translations.
Free. 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 25, University of St. Thomas Anderson Student Center, 2115 Summit Ave., St. Paul, presented in the school’s Diverse Voices Author Lecture Series. Parking ($1.50 an hour) at Anderson Parking Facility, Cretin and Grand Avenues.
LAUREL OSTERKAMP: Minnesotan signs copies of her novel “Favorite Daughters,” about three young women who met in college and go on to careers in politics, leading them a heartbeat away from the White House. Inspired by the friendship between presidents’ daughters Ivanka Trump and Chelsea Clinton.
1-3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29, Barnes and Noble, 3216 W. Lake St., Minneapolis.
LITERATURE LOVERS’ NIGHT OUT: Final program in this season’s reading series spotlights authors Laurie Lico Albanese (“Hester”), Kristina McMorris (“The Ways We Hide” and “When We Had Wings”), Maren Ellingboe King (“Fresh Midwest Cookbook”) and Allen Eskens (“Forsaken Country.”) Presented by Valley Bookseller.
7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 26, Zephyr Theatre, 601 N. Main St,, Stillwater. $15. Go to: valleybokseller.com.
KATRINA MONROE: Discusses her novel “They Drown Our Daughters.”
7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 26, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.
CELESTE NG: Discusses her third novel, “Our Missing Hearts,” about the ways supposedly civilized communities can ignore the most searing injustice, in the Talking Volumes series.
7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 26, Fitzgerald Theater, 10 E. Exchange St., St. Paul. $30. Go to: MPRNews.org.
BETTY BRANDT PASSICK: Minnesotan hosts a meet-and-greet so readers can learn more about her historical Gangster Series, which began with “Gangster in Our Midst: Bookkeeper, Lieutenant, and Sometimes Hitman for Al Capone,” winner of a Notable Indie Book Award, and her most recent, “The Black Bag of Dr. Wiltse: Murder on the Prairie,” about a pioneer physician with an attraction to murder investigations who settles in a small Midwestern town.
Free. 6-7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 24, Washington County Library Oakdale Branch, 1010 Heron Ave. N., Oakdale.
DANI SHAPIRO: Bestselling novelist and memoirist discusses “Signal Fires,” her first work of fiction in 15 years, which examines the ties that bind families together and secrets that can break them apart. Presented in the Talking Volumes series.
7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28, Fitzgerald Theater, 10 E. Exchange St., St. Paul. $30. Go to: MPRNews.org.
BOOK SALE: Books for all ages, as well as DVDs, CDs and VHS tapes available at Friends of the Wentworth Library’s book sale Oct. 29-Nov. 3 at the library, 199 E. Wentworth Ave., West St. Paul. Cash/check; no credit cards.
Hours:10 a.m-5 p.m. Oct. 29, 1-5 p.m. Oct 30, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Oct. 31, Nov. 1, Nov. 2, Nov. 3. (Donations of items for the sale accepted Oct. 23-27 during library business hours.)
WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON
Todd Boss, a former St. Paulite, and an award-winning producer, poet and innovator whose creative practice includes literature, film, lyrics, public art, theater and programmatic initiatives, has won a regional Emmy for best composition for composer Jake Runestad’s Earth Symphony, a 35-minute, complete symphony in five movements for chorus and orchestra that imagines Mother Earth’s original hope for humanity, her discovery of its ruination and her eventual recovery.
Boss grew up on a cattle farm in Wisconsin and attended St. Olaf College in Northfield and the University of Alaska-Anchorage. In 2018 he sold all his possessions and became a nomad, circling the globe in a series of 30 house-sits and short-term rentals. His most recent poetry, published earlier this year, is “Someday the Plan of a Town.”
A new, expanded edition of “How Dare We Write,” an anthology that expresses the concerns, struggles and successes of 24 writers of color, was published in August by LH Press. This second edition offers six new pieces, including Minnesotan Carolyn Holbrook’s advice on teaching creative writing in an alternative setting.
“CASTE: the Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson will be published Nov. 22 by Delacorte Press in a young adult adaptation that gives tweens and teens the opportunity to read the author’s exploration of race in an accessible format for their ages. In this adaptation, Wilkerson explores the unspoken hierarchies that divide us across lines of race and class.
Just arrived from Nodin Press and can’t wait to read — “The Way She Wants to Get There: Telling on Myself,” poet Mary Moore Easter’s memoir of her decade-long journey toward becoming the dancer/choreographer for whom the dance studio at Carleton College in Northfield would eventually be named.
