Book Notes: Poet Olstein headlines GU’s Writers Series

The second installment of the Gonzaga University Visiting Writers Series will be at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and will feature poet Lisa Olstein.

Olstein won the Hayden Carruth Award for her 2006 poetry collection “Radio Crackling, Radio Gone.” “Lost Alphabet” was named one of the top nine poetry books of 2009 by Library Journal. “Little Stranger,” from 2010, was Lannan Literary Selection. She has a Pushcart Prize and numerous fellowships.

When she’s not writing poetry or teaching poetry at the University of Texas in Austin, she writes songs for the rock band Cold Satellite, fronted by Jeffrey Foucault. The band’s most recent album, “Cavalcade,” was released this past spring.

Olstein’s presentation will be held in the Wolff Auditorium on GU’s campus, and admission is free.

Speaking of poetry

Also on Wednesday, Auntie’s Bookstore is hosting An Evening with Poet Laureates, beginning at 7 p.m.

The speakers will include Washington poet laureate Kathleen Flenniken (“Plume”), Boise poet laureate Diane Raptosh (“American Amnesiac”), U.S. children’s poet laureate Kenn Nesbitt (“The Tighty Whitey Spider”) and Spokane poet laureate Thom Caraway (“A Visitor’s Guide to North Dakota”).

Moderating this panel discussion will be fellow poet Jonathan Johnson, MFA program director at Eastern Washington University.

Auntie’s is located at 402 W. Main Ave. Call (509) 838-0206 for more information.

Parenti talks

Journalist and author Christian Parenti is presenting a lecture today as a benefit for KYRS – Thin Air Community Radio.

Parenti is the author of “Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence” who has reported from around the world for publications such as the Washington Post, the New York Times, Mother Jones, the Nation and London Review of Books. His talk in Spokane is titled “Being Realistic About the Politics and Economics of Climate Change.”

The event will be at the Bing Crosby Theater, 901 W. Sprague Ave. Tickets are $15, available through TicketsWest or at the door. For more information, call (509) 747-3012.

Back at GU

Jane Rinehart, of Gonzaga University’s sociology department, and Ellen Maccarone, of Gonzaga’s philosophy department, will discuss the question “What Can We Learn From Feminism?” from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday in the Wolff Auditorium (Jepson 114), on Gonzaga’s campus. 

Both women work with the university’s women and gender studies department.

Rinehart’s talk will focus on the work of writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, while Maccarone’s will focus on the work of philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum. 

The event is part of Gonzaga’s long-running “What Can We Learn?” series co-sponsored by Gonzaga’s College of Arts and Sciences and its Powers Chair of the Humanities. For more information, email Wayne Pomerleau at pomerleau@ calvin.gonzaga.edu or call (509) 313-6750.

Admission is free.