Nguyen’s debut novel looks at future media

Spokane author Thuy-Dzuong Nguyen will launch her novel “The Truth Lenders” in a manner that befits its innovative style.

She’ll stage a concert/reading/multimedia show on Friday at 7 p.m. at the Empyrean Coffeehouse, 171 S. Washington St.

The book – a speculative-fiction work about a futuristic world of news and information – is a true multimedia novel, complete with an enclosed CD that includes songs and sounds that add to and complement the text.

The CD, titled “Footnotes,” has contributions from regional musicians Kevin Long, Dane Ueland, Ross Robinette and Isamu Jordan. It’s produced by Joe Varela. All will perform at the launch event.

Nguyen, a 2007 Gonzaga University grad (and a former writer-editor at The Spokesman-Review), said her self-published novel is about the fictional News Now! Corporation, which has collaborated with a pharmaceutical company to “deliver news as a sleeping pill with a psychedelic news anchor.” It’s set in the 26th century.

There will be a $5 cover charge at the door. Nguyen said “steampunk” attire is recommended.

If you’re not sure what that means, you probably should just wear browns, black and white.

Free comic book weekend

The annual Free Comic Book Weekend is coming up again on May 1 and 2.

Once again, Merlyn’s, 19 W. Main Ave., is among the participating locations. People dressed as “Star Wars” characters will be available for photos both afternoons.

Local comic artists will also be available to do sketches for kids age 9 and younger.

And, of course, they’ll be handing out some free comic books.

A Ruben Trejo book

A sweeping new overview of the career of the late local artist Ruben Trejo will be released at an event on Saturday at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture.

“Ruben Trejo: Beyond Boundaries/Aztlan y Mas Alla” (University of Washington Press/Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, $35) was edited by MAC art curator Ben Mitchell, with essays by Tomas Ybarra-Frausto and John Keeble.

It contains dozens of full-color plates of Trejo’s groundbreaking sculptures, drawings, paintings and collages.

Trejo, who spent three decades teaching at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, was one of the nation’s most influential Chicano artists. He died last year.

“In Ruben Trejo’s rich and generous life he created an art of atmosphere, art of effortlessness, clarity, transparency, joy, peace, silence,” writes Mitchell in the book. “Of complexity, chaos, tumult. An art of hope.”

The book has been published in conjunction with a major exhibit of Trejo’s work (by the same title) which opens Saturday and runs through Nov. 13 at the MAC, 2316 W. First Ave.

The book launch will be part of the opening-day celebration Saturday, with a panel discussion at 3 p.m., a signing at 4 and a reception at 4:30. All events are free with museum admission.