Book Briefs for Aug. 21-28

SHARE POEMS AT HUMAN EXPERIENCE

Polish up a poem or two and try them out at Human Experience, a free spoken word event, from 7 to 9 p.m. Mondays in The Beat Coffeehouse inside Emergency Arts, 520 Fremont St. For details, visit lasvegaspoets.org.

Series to feature Luzanne Lucas

The READ Local Author Series is scheduled to feature Luzanne Lucas, author of the book "A Sweet Breath Of Life: Transition - Making Necessary Changes," from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Monday at the Paseo Verde Library, 280 S. Green Valley Parkway. The fourth Monday of each month the series features local authors meeting with readers in the library's lobby. For more information, visit mypubliclibrary.org or call 492-6580.

Cheryl Strayed to participate
in Book Festival preview event

Maile Chapman is scheduled to interview Cheryl Strayed, the New York Times bestselling author of "Wild," "Tiny Beautiful Things" and "Torch," during a Vegas Valley Book Festival preview event scheduled for 7 p.m. Sept. 26 at the Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road.

Oprah Winfrey selected "Wild" as the first book for her Oprah's Book Club 2.0, and the memoir has been optioned for film by Reese Witherspoon's production company.

Chapman is the author of the novel "Your Presence Is Requested at Suvanto."

A book signing for both authors and a reception is scheduled to follow the interview.

For more information, visit vegasvalley
bookfestival.org or lvccld.org. For more on Strayed, visit cherylstrayed.com.

Writers of Southern Nevada plan freelance writing conference

Making Cent$ of a Writing Career, a Writers of Southern Nevada freelance writing conference, is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 13 at the Gold Coast, 4000 W. Flamingo Road.

Speakers slated include Steve Friess, Andrew Kiraly, Heidi Kyser, Becky A. Johnson, Steve Blust and Rick Lax. Topic discussions are to include marketing, avoiding common editing mistakes, reaching out to national markets and handling rejection.

Admission is $149. A $99 early bird rate is available to those who register before Aug. 31. Continental breakfast is included, as is lunch with industry experts leading table discussions.

For more information, visit nevadawriters.org.

Eddie Trunk to sign Hard Rock book

Music historian, author, radio and television personality Eddie Trunk is scheduled to sign "Eddie Trunk's Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal" from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Hard Rock Store in the Hard Rock Hotel, 4455 Paradise Road.

Black Mountain Institute sets schedule

The Black Mountain Institute has released its fall schedule.

The institute plans to host free, public presentations as part of the Nevada Emerging Writers Series featuring Melinda Moustakis at 7 p.m. Sept. 11 in the Greenspun Hall Auditorium, 4505 S. Maryland Parkway, and Leslie Jamison at 7 p.m. Feb. 19 in the hall.

An open house and discussion on medical ethics with Harriet Washington, David Ewing Duncan and Jacob Appel is scheduled at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 19 in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas' student union, 4505 S. Maryland Parkway.

Additional presentations include James Longenbach at 3:30 p.m. Oct. 18 at the Flamingo, 3555 Las Vegas Blvd. South; Jennifer Egan, in cooperation with the Vegas Valley Book Festival at 3:30 p.m. Nov. 3 at the Historic Fifth Street School, 401 S. Fourth St.; Wole Soyinka at 7 p.m. Feb. 12 in the UNLV student union; Mustapha Marrouchi at 7 p.m. March 6 in the student union; and a conversation with BMI Fellows Criselda Yabes and Oksana Marafioti, moderated by Richard Wiley, at 7 p.m. April 10 in the student union.

For more information, visit black
mountaininstitute.org.

LOVE YOUR LIBRARY? TELL A FRIEND

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month, and the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District and CSI: The Experience at the MGM Grand have teamed up to present "Love your Library? Tell a Friend!" The sign-up campaign begins Saturday and continues through Sept. 30.

Just sign up for a free library card during the month of September, or, if you already have a library card, "like" the library district on Facebook and be automatically entered for a chance to win a grand prize that includes a family pack of tickets to CSI: The Experience and CSI: The Experience official merchandise.

Existing library cardholders will receive a 50 percent discount off general admission to the CSI feature Sept. 1 through Nov. 30 (cannot be combined with other offers or discounts). Simply show your Las Vegas-Clark County Library card at the box office at the MGM Grand to receive the discount.

Getting a free library card is easy. Just stop in any library to fill out an application or visit lvccld.org.

Organizers are gearing up
for Vegas Valley Book Festival

Planning is in high gear for the Vegas Valley Book Festival, scheduled Nov. 1-3. The annual festival is expected to feature more than 100 authors participating in panel discussions, readings, book signings, workshops, spoken word performances and exhibitions.

Headlining speakers include 2011 Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Egan and Charlaine Harris, whose Sookie Stackhouse urban fantasy series is the basis for the HBO series "True Blood."

The Vegas Valley Children's Book Festival, scheduled from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 2, is set to feature David Shannon, Jon Agee, Patrick Carmen, Monica Brown, Charlotte Blake Alston, Susan Katz, Alex Raffi and more.

The Valley Comic Book Festival, scheduled from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Nov. 2, is scheduled to feature panel discussions, speakers, film screenings, an artist jam and portfolio reviews. Participating talent is set to include Gene Ha, Aaron Alexovich, Dan Parson and Tommy Kovac.

Landis Bahe has been selected to create three pieces of artwork for the event's official posters, one each for the main festival, the Vegas Valley Children's Book Festival and the Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival.

For more on the festival, visit vegas
valleybookfestival.org.

Henderson Writers Group
meets Mondays

The Henderson Writers Group meets from 6:30 to 8:45 p.m. Mondays at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf at 4550 S. Maryland Parkway on the second and fourth Mondays and at Saxbys Coffee Lounge, 72 W. Horizon Ridge Parkway in Henderson, on the first, third and occasional fifth Mondays. Meetings are typically canceled on holidays.

Visit hendersonwritersgroup.com for more information. Meetings are open to the public.

Barnes & Noble to host writing group

The 2191 N. Rainbow Blvd. Barnes & Noble hosts a writing critique group the fourth Monday of each month. The group is limited to the first 20 participants per meeting. Sign up at www.meetup.com/las-vegas-creative-writing-class.

FREE STORYCORPS TOOLKIT
HELPS COLLECT MEMORIES

The national StoryCorps' Memory Loss Initiative encourages people with memory loss to share their stories with loved ones and future generations. To make that task easier, a free step-by-step toolkit is available to download at storycorps.org/mli.

The Commemorate toolkit offers an individual reminiscence program that family members can initiate or memory loss care facilities can add to activities.

The initiative has collected more than 1,800 interviews with 180 partner organizations.

For more information, visit storycorps.org or call 646-723-7027.

ACCESS RECORDED BOOK PROGRAMS ONLINE

Too busy to get out to book programs? The Las Vegas-Clark County Library District has started posting videocasts and podcasts of many of its programs online. Selections available so far include: "An Afternoon with Tony Curtis," John L. Smith's presentation "Amelia's Long Journey: The Challenge of Writing What You Know," "Batman" movie producer Michael Uslan's presentation at the 2009 Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival, Jami Carpenter's "ABCs of Editing" workshop and Brian Rouff's "Getting Published: A Long Strange Trip." To access the programs, visit lvccld.org, select "Books, Movies & More" and then "Video and Podcasts."

The Black Mountain Institute has offered recordings of its programming since 2006. To access recordings of a gamut of writers from E.L. Doctorow to Alissa Nutting, visit blackmountain
institute.org and select "multimedia."

FREE READ TO ME PROGRAM
OFFERS STORIES ONLINE AND BY PHONE

Celebrity storytellers Oscar Goodman, Rita Rudner, Clint Holmes, Terry Fator, Carrot Top, The Scintas and others have donated their talents to the Clark County Education Association Community Foundation's Read To Me program. Children can view more than 15 videos of celebrities reading books on the website at readtomelv.com. Stories also can be accessed by calling 240-2665.

Both databases are frequently updated with fresh stories. Parents and teachers can download lesson plans for each book on the website.

DOWNLOAD BOOKS and MORE
FROM YOUR PUBLIC LIBRARY

Virtual Branch websites make it easy to browse, check out and download digital books and more to a home computer for free. All patrons need is a valid library card and an Internet-connected PC.

Virtual Branch download websites feature a digital catalog of downloadable audio books, e-books, music and video titles.

Each site is meant to look and feel like the library's main site, and it has many easy-to-use features similar to an online store.

Digital book downloads are borrowed just like print materials. Once patrons select the title or author they want, they follow the steps to check out and then download the title to their home computer.

Patrons can transfer most titles to portable media players, such as MP3 players, PDAs, Kindles or smart phones.

Each title that is downloaded has a designated lending period. When the title expires, it is automatically returned to the Virtual Branch, so there are no late fees.

For more information, visit
search.overdrive.com.

ZINE LIBRARY OPEN IN EMERGENCY ARTS

Grab a cup of coffee and check out the independently crafted magazines at the Las Vegas Zine Library inside The Beat Coffeehouse in Emergency Arts, 520 Fremont St.

The library is more of a collection on display for reference and on-site reading than a checkout repository. Contributions of zines are appreciated. For more information, visit lvzinelibrary.blogspot.com.

Teen Writing Club plans meetings

A Teen Writing Club meets at the Green Valley Library, 2797 N. Green Valley Parkway. The club schedules meetings every other month. For more information, call 207-4260.