Book Notes: Trio take spotlight at Beacon Hill event

The Beacon Hill Reading Series is hosting an Evening of Prose and Poetry at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The free event will feature Marianne Salina, a Spokane writer who is working on a collection of stories; David Thacker, a writing teacher from the University of Idaho and winner of the 2012 Fredrick Manfred Award from the Western Literature Association; and Sayantani Dasgupta, who teaches South Asian history and literature at the University of Idaho.

The free event will be at the Hagan Foundation Center for the Humanities at Spokane Community College, in the Learning Resources Center (Building 16).

A single shot of Vestal

Shawn Vestal, Spokesman-Review columnist and author of the short-story collection “Godforsaken Idaho,” has released a digital single on Amazon.com.

The essay delves into Vestal’s personal history. In “A.K.A. Charles Abbott,” Vestal explores his father’s criminal past and how his crimes reverberated in his family for decades.

The story begins when Vestal was 11 and his father, who had forged thousands in checks, fled the country to Canada, taking his pregnant wife and six children with him.

“I remember very little about this. And yet I think about it all the time,” Vestal writes.

The essay is available for download on Amazon.com. Cost is $1.99.

Teddy bear story

Spokane writer Tanya Bex has released a children’s book, “Maynard the Teddy Bear,” through Dorrance Publishing Co. Inc.

In the story, a little boy’s life is changed when he gets a special present from his Nana, a teddy bear he names Maynard. The book is available as a paperback or an ebook.