Kim Barnes reading Wednesday at Auntie’s

Kim Barnes is a name you should find familiar.

If you don’t know the Moscow writer’s first novel, 2003’s “Finding Caruso,” then you might recognize the titles of her two award-winning memoirs: 1996’s “In the Wilderness: Coming of Age in Unknown Country” and 2000’s “Hungry for the World.”

If none of the three rings a literary bell, then you need to get reading. Because Barnes, an Inland Northwest treasure, is coming to read from her second novel, “A Country Called Home,” on Wednesday at Auntie’s Bookstore.

“A Country Called Home” tells the circa-1960s story of a naïve young couple who forsake urban Connecticut life to live off the land in rural Idaho.

Given a starred review by Publishers Weekly, the novel was described as having “descriptions of the rugged landscape (that) are vivid, and the characters’ sadness and desires are revealed with wrenching detail.”

The Washington Post called the book “quietly haunting” with “descriptions of the rugged landscape (that) quiver with stark beauty, wisdom and redemptive grace, much as her characters do.”

Smiley at Get Lit!

Get Lit!, Eastern Washington University’s annual literary event, will bring in writer Jane Smiley to anchor its 2009 gathering, which will be held in Cheney and Spokane April 10 through 19.

Smiley, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the 1991 novel “A Thousand Acres,” will headline “An Evening with Jane Smiley” at 7:30 p.m. April 16.

Smiley’s other books include the novel “Barn Blind” (1980), the story collection “The Age of Grief” (1987) and the nonfiction “Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel” (2005).

Tickets for all Get Lit! events can be purchased at all TicketsWest outlets, by phoning (509) 325-SEAT or by going online at www.ticketswest.com. Further Get Lit! information will be posted, as it become available, online at www.ewu.edu/getlit.

Awards galore

An essay by Idaho writer Renée D’Aoust, “Graham Crackers,” is included in the anthology “Reading Dance: A Gathering of Memoirs, Reportage, Criticism, Profiles, Interviews, and Some Uncategorizable Extras” (Pantheon, 1,360 pages, $45), compiled and annotated by Robert Gottlieb.

D’Aoust’s essay had previously been deemed a “Notable Essay” in “Best American Essays 2006.” She received a 2008 Puffin Foundation grant to help her complete her book “Travels with Truffle: A Canine Tour of America.”

Homecoming tour

Young-adult author Janette Rallison, who attended middle school and high school in Pullman, will return home this coming week to give a series of talks in Pullman (at Pullman High and Lincoln Middle School) and Moscow (Moscow Junior and Senior High).

Rallison is best known for her books “All’s Fair in Love and War” and “Revenge of the Cheerleaders.” She lives in Chandler, Ariz., with her husband, five children and, as she says on her Web site, “enough cats to classify her as ‘an eccentric cat lady.’ ”

For more information about Rallison, go online at www.janetterallison.com.

Unless otherwise noted, all events are free and open to the public.

Book notes

•On Sacred Grounds Writers Club, noon Wednesday, 12212 E. Palouse Highway. Call (509) 747-6294.

The reader board

•Gina Robinson (“Spy Candy”), Gerri Russell (“Warrior’s Lady”), readings, 12:30 p.m. today, Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington. Call (509) 838-0206.

•Kim Barnes (“A Country Called Home”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Stephen Kuusisto (“Planet of the Blind”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, University of Idaho Law School Courtroom, Moscow. Call (208) 885-7407.

•Quintard Taylor (“In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West, 1528-1990”), presentation titled “The Other Black Northwest: Beyond Portland and Seattle,” 3:45 p.m. Thursday, Jepson Center, Gonzaga University. Call (509) 313-6693.

•Suzanne and Tony Bamonte (“Life Behind the Badge: the Spokane Police Department’s Founding Years, 1881-1903”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Tony Earley (“The Blue Star”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Weyerhaeuser Hall, Whitworth University. Call (509) 777-4212.

•John Keeble (“Yellowfish”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Auntie’s Bookstore.