Book It: The Five Best Literary Events This Week

Remember when you were a kid and made a decorated mailbox for your desk in case the one kid from your class who you didn’t think was all that gross might give you one of the “cool” valentines that his parents bought for him for the obligatory school celebration of a holiday that’s supposed to be all about romantic love? Yeah, that was deeply weird, wasn’t it? Anyway, we proudly present you with four literary options that have nothing to do with relationships or love or sex or anything even slightly resembling Cupid. That fifth one…well, that one’s all on you, Valentino.

So here, five far better choices for your Valentine’s week than the latest soul-killing iteration of Fifty Shades of Grey. Ugh.

Margie Mauldin, Feedback Revolution
Monday, February 12, 7 p.m.
Tattered Cover
2526 East Colfax Avenue
As president of Executive Forum, a Denver leadership training and development company, Margie M. Mauldin has been helping business types to enhance their chances of advancement for over thirty years. She puts that know-how and insight to work in her new book, Feedback Revolution: Building Relationships and Boosting Results, which suggests ways to put those pesky performance reviews to use. Come discuss how to make delicious and profitable lemonade out of the lemons of corporate life.

Tom Noel, Colorado
Tuesday, February 13, 5:30 p.m.
City Stacks Books and Coffee
1743 Wazee Street
Tom Noel, University of Colorado Denver professor of history and Director of History, Preservation and Public Studies, signs and discusses his book Colorado: The Highest State. Illustrated with stunning, full-color photography by Carol Highsmith, this book is a project by the Library of Congress designed to capture the essence of each state. Who better to tackle an assignment like that than Tom “Dr. Colorado” Noel himself?

Typewriter Poet Michael Prince
Wednesday, February 14, 4 p.m.
BookBar
4280 Tennyson Street
Does every love poem you try to write end up either starting with “roses are red” or coming out sounding like a dirty limerick? Millions of creative-writing students throughout the years share your pain. But not Michael Prince, the “Typewriter Poet.” Armed only with his typewriter, Howard and his rapier-sharp skills in poesy will take a word or phrase of your choosing and turn it into a kick-ass custom poem. Come up with a person, place or thing, and watch the creative process come to life — on a typewriter, as was intended.

Kirstin Valdez Quade, Night at the Fiestas
Thursday, February 15, 6:30 p.m.
Auraria Campus, Tivoli 640 (Zenith Room)
900 Auraria Parkway
Join the Creative Writing program at the University of Colorado Denver in welcoming noted author Kirstin Valdez Quade, whose short-story collection Night at the Fiestas was named a New York Times Notable Book, among other prestigious awards. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, Best American Short Stories, O. Henry Prize Stories, the New York Times and other places that would make the pens of even literati like Steve Martin quiver with envy.

Tom Strelich, Dog Logic
Friday, February 16, 7 p.m.
Tattered Cover Avenue
2526 East Colfax
Tom Strelich says he likes to work in “fiction slightly askew,” which makes sense if you read his post-apocalyptic socio-politicial romp Dog Logic. “I’ve always operated under the belief that you can’t make up stuff any weirder than it really is,” says Strelich. But again, if you read this funny, affecting and (yes) strange novel, you can see that Strelich sure is giving it a shot.