Book-lovers can turn the pages this week with a very different pair of Colorado genre authors or immerse themselves in the world of Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe at a class co-sponsored by Lighthouse Writers Workshop and the Art Students League of Denver. Whether you fancy sci-fi, noir fiction or pop-culture history, there’s a book event for you.

Warren Hammond, Tides of Maritinia
Tattered Cover Colfax Avenue
7 p.m. Tuesday, March 31

Denver author Warren Hammond, who’s already garnered a following for his KOP series of futuristic detective fiction (read our cover story on Hammond here), will introduce a purely sci-fi series with the release of the first installment, Tides of Maritinia, set amid a rebellion on a distant planet. The paperback is only $6.99, a small price for a voyage into space. 

James Anderson, The Never-Open Desert Diner

Tattered Cover Colfax Avenue
7 p.m. Wednesday, April 1

BookBar
7 p.m. Saturday, April 4

James Anderson, a new author familiar with the Four Corners region, took his time getting around to writing a novel, preferring to take a crooked route in life, which took him from truck-driving to book-publishing over a period of decades. At 63, he’s written The Never-Open Desert Diner, a literary mystery set in the Utah desert. Anderson reads a passage or two Wednesday at the Tattered Cover, and then will be at the BookBar on Saturday.

Art+Lit, Discussion about Patti Smith, the ’80s NYC Art Scene, and Art by Robert Mapplethorpe
Art Students League of Denver
6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, April 2
Tickets: $10 

Lighthouse Writers and the Art Students League of Denver are teaming up for Art+Lit, a series of cross-disciplinary workshops exploring literary works and the arts milieus that inspired them, presented by experts in both fields. This week, Lighthouse’s Michael Henry and Colorado Photographic Arts Center’s Rupert Jenkins will share insights on musician/poet Patti Smith’s memoir Just Kids and the explicit and controversial photography of Robert Mapplethorpe. You’ll be able to follow this presentation even if you haven’t read the book — and be transported to another time and place.

What's on the next page in Denver's literary world? Visit Westword's Literary Event listings for this week.