Your Week in Readings: The best literary events from June 22nd - June 28th

Wednesday June 22: Grace Reading

If you’re going to attend one reading by a debut novelist this year, skip the horse-chokingly thick tour-de-force by the white-boy wunderkind from Brooklyn and attend this one instead. Narrated by a ghost—“I am dead” is the first line—Natashia Deón’s riveting Grace tells the story of black women in America’s slave trade. Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave, 624-6600, http://elliottbaybook.com . Free. All ages. 7 p.m.

Thursday June 23: Margin Shift/Paper-son Poet Readings

See our Event of the Week column for more details. Margin Shift: 1809 E John St. All ages. Free. 7 p.m. Paper-son Poet: Couth Buzzard Books, 8310 Greenwood Ave N., http://buonobuzzard.com. Free. All ages. 7 p.m.

Friday June 24: Mary-Louise Parker with Sherman Alexie

Celebrity bios are often disappointments. But in talking to booksellers who’ve read advance copies of Weeds star Mary-Louise Parker’s memoir Dear Mr. You, you’ll notice that a certain relief creeps into their faces. “No,” they’ll say, “it’s actually good! It’s well-written.” Tonight, Parker will be grilled onstage by Seattle’s own Sherman Alexie. Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave, 624-6600, http://elliottbaybook.com . Free. All ages. 8 p.m.

Saturday June 25: Don’t Look Away Launch

Seattle cartoonist Seth Goodkind’s artwork has a remarkable stickiness to it; your eye can’t look away from those inky depths and finely wrought details. Tonight, he’s debuting four new minicomics including Don’t Look Away, which collects his handsome, haunting portraits of people of color killed by police officers.
Push/Pull, 5484 Shilshole Ave., 789-1710, http://pushpullseattle.com. Free. All ages. 7 p.m.

Sunday June 26: Magic and Loss Reading

Virginia Heffernan calls the internet one of “mankind’s great masterpieces.” (Is she aware that YouTube comment sections exist? Unclear.) Her new book imagines the internet as a work of art, and it discusses how our online lives are shaping human thought. Is Heffernan the Marshall McLuhan of our time, or does Reddit render her argument invalid? Town Hall Seattle, 1119 8th Ave., 652-4255, http://townhallseattle.org. $5. All ages. 7:30 p.m.

Monday June 27: Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching Reading

Mychal Denzel Smith’s new book frankly discusses race in America. It opens with the murder of Trayvon Martin and touches on topics like Black Lives Matter and the challenge of black masculinity. If you think you don’t need to read it because you’ve already read Between the World and Me, you’re part of the problem Town Hall Seattle, 1119 8th Ave., 652-4255, http://townhallseattle.org. $5. All ages. 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday June 21: Fight Club 2 and The Clasp

Elliott Bay Book Company hosts two authors who couldn’t be more aesthetically opposed. At 4 pm, Chuck Palahniuk signs his Fight Club sequel comic, the inventively titled Fight Club 2. Then at 7 pm, Sloane Crosley reads from her smart, funny, and smartly funny novel The Clasp. You’re either a Crosley person or a Palahniuk person; which is it gonna be? Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave, 624-6600, http://elliottbaybook.com . Free. All ages. 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.