Book It: The Five Best Literary Events This Week

This week’s literary events tell a variety of stories, from historic fiction to real-life-inspired novels to a touching memoir. It’s also celebrity-stocked, with actress Amber Tamblyn visiting Alamo Drafthouse and local-comic-made-good Adam Cayton-Holland. It’s a pretty full week, so make room on your schedule – and your bookshelf.

Tricia Downing, Chance for Rain
Tuesday, August 21, 5 p.m.
Fiction Beer Company
7101 East Colfax Avenue
Free
Denver dynamo Tricia Downing – athlete, motivational speaker, community activist and author – celebrates the debut of her first novel, Chance for Rain, at Fiction Beer Company. The book closely parallels some of Downing’s own challenges in living a life in the face of physical adversity, dealing with the “worries, experiences, and growth” of wheelchair users. Books will be available for purchase (and an autograph by the author) at the event.

Adam Cayton-Holland, Tragedy Plus Time
Tuesday, August 21, 7 p.m.
Tattered Cover
2526 East Colfax Avenue
$26
Denver’s own Adam Cayton-Holland (a former Westword writer) takes a break from his national comedy appearances and his TV series Those Who Can’t to come home to the Mile High City to launch his book Tragedy Plus Time: A Tragi-Comic Memoir. The book is a paean to his sister, who took her own life after struggling with mental illness, and is an honest and heartfelt look at the beautiful, funny and heartbreaking relationship that they shared. Tickets to the event include a copy of the book and a spot in the autograph line.

Diane Byington, Who She Is
Eldonna Edwards, This I Know
Amanda Skenandore, Between Earth and Sky
Thursday, August 23, 7 p.m.
Tattered Cover
2526 East Colfax Avenue
Free
The Tattered Cover will offer a celebration of historical fiction when three authors come to the Colfax location to share their work with each other and the fans who gather. Local author and former University of Denver professor Diane Byington presents her new book, Who She Is, a novel about a young girl with epilepsy and parents who seem to be hiding something. Eldonna Edwards’s book This I Know is a coming-of-age story set in the American Midwest in the turbulent 1960s. And Amanda Skenandore’s Between Earth and Sky deals with the intersection of white and Native American culture. Get your books signed – and your horizons broadened.

Amber Tamblyn, Any Man
Friday, August 24, 7 p.m.
Alamo Drafthouse
4255 West Colfax Avenue
$17
The Alamo Drafthouse teams up with the Tattered Cover to welcome actress and author Amber Tamblyn to Denver for a screening of her directorial debut, Paint It Black, and the launch of her new thriller, Any Man: A Novel. The movie centers on a young woman as she deals with the loss of her boyfriend and grapples with his mentally unstable mother. The book focuses on the stories of six men and the sexual trauma to which they’re subjected: It’s a shocking map of the ways our culture perpetuates rape culture. Tickets are $17 and include both admission to the movie and a signed copy of Any Man; Tamblyn will be on hand to take photos with fans after the film.

Tod Davies, Report to Megalopolis
Sunday, August 26, 5 p.m.
BookBar
4280 Tennyson Street
Free
Author Tod Davies comes to BookBar to read from and sign the newest book in her “History of Arcadia” series, Report to Megalopolis: The Post-Modern Prometheus. Although this is the fourth book in the series, new readers will feel right at home in this crossover world of “wonder tales,” which has been described as “Lewis Carroll with footnotes by Jonathan Swift.” If that description alone doesn’t get your bachelor’s degree in English Lit all tingly, then you’re reading the wrong list.

Know of an event that belongs on this list? Send information to editorial@westword.com.