Visiting poetry professor will read at Auntie’s

If you believe that art is best served in the service of politics, then you’re bound to love Carolyn Forché.

But no simple phrase can begin to describe Forché’s work, which has won her honors (Yale Younger Poets Award), fellowships (three from the National Endowment for the Arts) and a bevy of fans who admire her ability to, among other things, meld politics with passion.

As novelist Margaret Atwood wrote of Forché’s 1982 poetry collection “The Country Between Us,” “Here is a poetry of courage and passion, which manages to be tender and achingly sensual and what is often called ‘political’ at the same time. This is a major new voice.”

Now a visiting professor of poetry at Georgetown University, Forché will read from her works at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Gonzaga University’s Cataldo Globe Room.

Forché’s poetry collections include “Gathering the Tribes” (1976), “The Angel of History” (1994) and “Blue Hour” (2003). She’s also the editor of the anthology “Against Forgetting: Twentieth Century Poetry of Witness” (1994).

Forché’s reading, which is part of GU’s 2008-09 Visiting Writers Series, is free and open to the public. For information, call Tod Marshall at (509) 313-6681.

Local Lindsay

A group of Spokane-area writers and poets will gather at 4 p.m. today at the Davenport Hotel to present “An Evening with Vachel Lindsay,” a tribute to the noted poet who lived and worked in Spokane from 1924 to 1929.

Gonzaga University English Prof. Tod Marshall will talk about Lindsay’s poetry, novelist Jess Walter will address the myths he learned about Lindsay while growing up in Spokane, author Shaun O’L. Higgins will speak of Lindsay in historical terms, and poet Dennis Held will read from selected Lindsay works.

The event, which will be held in the hotel’s Marie Antoinette Ballroom, is free and open to the public. Call (509) 789-6813. The Davenport Hotel is at 10 S. Post St.

Awards galore

Louis Montano (“Puro”) and Dave Cryan (“A Bloomsday Letter”) took first-pace honors in, respectively, the unrhymed and rhymed categories of the 2008 Amy Woodward Fisher World Day of Poetry Contest, sponsored by Poetry Scribes of Spokane.

Other free-verse participants were: second place, Jennifer Burns (“Lot’s Wife”); third place, Louis Montano (“Standard, Open All Night”); honorable mention, Richard Lasater (“Adobe Road”). Other rhymed participants were: second place, Howard Davis (“End of Summer”); third place, Chris Crowel (“In the Moment”); honorable mention, Daniel Frusti (“The Spider”).

A total of 97 poets competed in the contest, which I had the honor of judging. For more information about Poetry Scribes, call Clararose Childs at (509) 325-4393.

•Three days after its release on Oct. 28, according to Spokane author Carol Edgemon Hipperson, her nonfiction book “Radioman: The Eyewitness Account of Pearl Harbor and WWII in the Pacific” (St. Martin’s Press, 284 pages, $25.95) was chosen as a featured alternate selection for the Military Book Club.

By the way, Hipperson will read from her book at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Auntie’s Bookstore.

‘McCabe’ on film

Robert Altman’s 1971 film “McCabe & Mrs. Miller,” which is based on Edmund Naughton’s 1959 novel “McCabe: A Novel of the West,” will screen at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the downtown branch of the Spokane Public Library, 906 W. Main Ave. The screening is free and open to the public.

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

Book talk

•Auntie’s Morning Book Group (“My Life in France,” by Julia Child), 11 a.m. Tuesday, Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington. Call (509) 838-0206.

•Auntie’s Evening Book Group (“Christine Falls,” by Benjamin Black), 7 p.m. Tuesday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•OSG Readers Club (“Iron John,” by Robert Bly), 1 p.m. Wednesday, On Sacred Grounds, 12212 E. Palouse Highway, Valleyford. Call (509) 747-6294.

•Auntie’s Youth Book Group (“Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox”), 2 p.m. Saturday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

The reader board

•David Shannon (“Too Many Toys”), reading, 12:30 p.m. today, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Carol Edgemon Hipperson (“Radioman: The Eyewitness Account of Pearl Harbor and WWII in the Pacific”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Dave Boling (“Guernica”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Dundun Open Mike

c, 7 p.m. Friday, Auntie’s Bookstore. Auntie’s employees Dan Vice, Michael Baccam and former Auntie’s manager Jill Malone will headline this first meeting of a planned monthly event.

•Elisa Brinton (“Courage to Stand: Stories of Young Strength and Triumph in Adversity”), signing, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Joy Corey (“The Tools of Spiritual Warfare”), signing, noon-2 p.m. Saturday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Jim Kershner (“Carl Maxey: A Fighting Life”), signing, 12:30-1:30 p.m. Saturday, On Sacred Grounds.

•Keith Lee Morris (“The Dart King”), reading/signing, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, BookPeople, 521 S. Main St., Moscow, Idaho. Call (208) 882-7957.