Peters to sign children’s book ‘Broadway Barks’

Bernadette Peters, whose natural habitat is Broadway, will venture into the Barnes & Noble Booksellers store in the Spokane Valley, 15310 E. Indiana Ave., on Saturday.

She’ll be signing copies of her children’s book, “Broadway Barks,” about a stray dog in a Manhattan park who ends up on Broadway.

All proceeds from the event go to Broadway Barks, an adopt-a-dog organization hosted by Peters and Mary Tyler Moore.

The 2 p.m. reading is free; seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Peters will be in Spokane for a show next Sunday at the Northern Quest Casino.

‘The Book of Dads’

A trio of nationally known writers – Anthony Doerr, Brandon Schrand and Ben George – will read from the new essay collection “The Book of Dads – Essays on the Joys, Perils and Humiliations of Fatherhood” (Harper Perennial, $14.99) at the University of Idaho on Wednesday.

George, a UI alumnus and editor of the literary journal Ecotone, is the book’s editor and the author of the introduction.

Doerr, an acclaimed novelist and short story writer, contributed an essay titled “Nine Times (Among Countless Others) I’ve Thought About the People Who Came Before Us In My Brief Career as a Father.”

Schrand is the author of the award-winning memoir of life in Idaho, “The Enders Hotel.” His essay, titled “Comparative History,” deals with the wayward history of his father, as well as his own experiences as a father in Idaho. Schrand is the director of the UI Creative Writing Program.

The “Book of Dads” on-sale date is May 12, but advance copies will be available at the event. Sounds like an excellent Father’s Day present.

Wednesday’s 7:30 p.m. reading will be in the UI’s College of Law Courtroom, 711 Rayburn, in Moscow.

Bob Wrigley on NPR

Garrison Keillor will read a poem titled “Mammoth,” by University of Idaho professor Bob Wrigley, on National Public Radio’s “The Writer’s Almanac” on Monday.

This will be the third poem by Wrigley that Keillor has featured on the show. Wrigley teaches poetry in the UI’s MFA program in creative writing.

You can hear it on KPBX-FM (91.1) between 9 and 9:05 a.m. on Monday.

‘Mudgy & Millie’

Congratulations to Mudgy and Millie, the moose and the mouse who star in the children’s book of the same name written by Susan Nipp and illustrated by Charles Reasoner.

They have just won a Take Pride in Idaho Award in the Outstanding Tourism Category. The 2008 book, which follows Mudgy and Millie around Coeur d’Alene and Tubbs Hill, was sponsored by the Coeur d’Alene Public Library Foundation.