Readings feature novelist Beth Cooley
Spokane novelist Beth Cooley (“Shelter” and “Ostrich Eye,” which won the Delacorte Prize for First Young Adult Novel) will be busy this week with two big presentations:
•“Gonzaga Reads: Beth Cooley,” Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. at Gonzaga University’s Wolff Auditorium. This is part of Gonzaga’s Visiting Writers Series. Free and open to the public.
•The Nadine Chapman Endowed Reading Series, Friday, 7 p.m. in the Robinson Teaching Theatre in Weyerhaeuser Hall at Whitworth University. Cooley will be one of the three Spokane writers who will read at this event, along with poet, writer and editor Sarah Conover and poet Laura Read.
Admission is free and a book sale and reception will follow. This series is dedicated to Chapman, the late Whitworth English professor.
Oregon’s poet laureate
Lawson Fusao Inada, Oregon’s poet laureate, will read from his works as part of Spokane’s Japan Week celebration, Monday at 7 p.m., in the first-floor lounge of the Academic Center on the WSU/EWU Riverpoint Campus, 600 N. Riverpoint Blvd.
Inada has written five books, including the poetry volume “Legends from Camp,” which received the American Book Award. He also was the subject of the documentary, “What It Means to Be Free: A Video About Poetry and Japanese-American Internment.”
He narrated the PBS specials “Children of the Camps” and “Conscience and Constitution.”
Inada’s reading is free and open to the public.
Jennings on radio
Brian Jennings, a Spokane native whose first radio job was at KJRB-AM in 1971, is getting plenty of early buzz for his forthcoming book, “Censorship: The Threat to Silence Talk Radio,” which comes out May 5 from Threshold Editions.
Jennings has been one of the country’s leading radio programmers and was the national vice president for the Citadel radio group. The book is about the effect that the “new fairness doctrine” will have on talk radio.
He certainly has some big names endorsing the book. Rush Limbaugh is quoted on the cover, and Sean Hannity wrote the foreword. Jennings said the first print run will be 150,000, huge by most standards.
Jennings now lives in Bend, Ore. Look for him to come up for a Spokane signing sometime in June.
Auntie’s early warning
Here’s some advance notice of some of the big names who are coming to Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave.:
•David Sedaris, June 13, 2 p.m. This is a ticketed event with tickets given upon purchase of his latest book, “When You Are Engulfed in Flames.” Tickets should be available around May 1; call (509) 838-0206 for details.
•Rick Bass, July 27, 7:30 p.m., the acclaimed Montana author, with his latest book, “The Wild Marsh: Four Seasons at Home in Montana.”
•J.A. Jance, July 29, 7:30 p.m., the popular mystery writer, with her latest book, “Fire and Ice.”
•Jim Lynch, July 30, 7:30 p.m., the former Spokane author and journalist whose first novel was “The Highest Tide.” He’ll be reading from his new novel, “Border Song,” about a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Washington state.