Best-selling author to speak, read at Whitworth
Best-selling author Mary Doria Russell, whose novels (“The Sparrow,” “Children of God” and “A Thread of Grace”) have been staples of book groups all over the country, will be the center of attention at Whitworth College on Thursday and Friday.
Russell is this year’s Endowed English Reader at Whitworth, which means the college is bringing her in for a lecture on Thursday at 7:30 p.m., titled “A Thread of Grace: Christians and Jews in Nazi-Occupied Italy,” and a reading on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
The Thursday lecture will explore issues that she raises in “A Thread of Grace,” about the Jewish underground in Genoa during the Nazi occupation. The lecture will be in Weyerhaeuser Hall’s Robinson Teaching Theatre on the Whitworth campus. Admission is free.
The Friday reading, at the same location, will encompass all of her published novels, as well as excerpts from an upcoming novel. Admission is free. A question-and-answer session, book sale and signing will follow the reading.
Russell has been quoted as saying she likes to be “slammed up against a vicarious emotional wall.” Her books are certainly diverse: “The Sparrow” won the 1997 Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science-Fiction Novel, while “A Thread of Grace” is better described a historical novel.
Kittredge appearances
The dean of Montana writers, William Kittredge (“The Last Best Place,” “A Hole in the Sky”), will be appearing in Spokane and Moscow, Idaho, to read from his new novel, “The Willow Field.”
It’s about a young cowboy who embarks on a 1,000-mile cattle drive. At the end, he finds a bride and a new life.
Kittredge found fame as an essayist and memoirist. This novel is, surprisingly, his first.
He’ll be reading at Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave. in Spokane, on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
Then he’ll head south for a reading at BookPeople, 521 S. Main in Moscow, on Friday at 7 p.m.
Whitworth Writing Rally
Time is running out to register for the 23rd annual Whitworth Writing Rally, for students in preschool through the sixth grade.
The deadline is Monday; register online at www.thewritingrally.org or call (509) 777-4404.
About 600 or 700 students, each accompanied by a parent or guardian, will work in small groups as they write and illustrate their own stories. Children’s book author and poet Janet Wong will be the leader.
The rally takes place Saturday in two sessions – 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. – at Whitworth College’s Cowles Memorial Auditorium, 300 W. Hawthorne Road. The cost is $16.
The reader board
“William Kittredge (“The Willow Field”), Thursday, 7:30 p.m., Auntie’s Bookstore; Friday, 7 p.m., BookPeople of Moscow.
“Tacoma author David Long (“Inhabited World”), Friday, 7:30 p.m., Auntie’s Bookstore.