Host of Writers, Novelists Visit Seattle in April

Walter Mosley
Thursday, April 2 at 7 p.m.
NW African American Museum, 2300 S. Massachusetts St.
Walter Mosley, returns to Seattle after a year and a half, an event occasioned not by his first new book since then, but his fourth. Since taking Easy Rawlins to the brink (leaving readers hanging) in "Blonde Faith," he has seen the publication of "Diablerie," "The Tempest Tales," "The Right Mistake," and now, the first in a whole new series of "Leonid McGill" mysteries, "The Long Fall" (Riverhead).
Co-presented with the Central District Forum for Arts and Ideas.
Tickets are $7, available via www.brownpapertickets.com or by calling 1-800-838-3006. For more information, please call Elliott Bay at 206-624-6600, the CD Forum at 206-323-4032, or see www.cdforum.org.

Mahmood Mamdani
Saturday, April 11 at 3 p.m.
Elliot Bay Book Company, 101 S. Main St. Seattle
Mahmood Mamdani, an eminent professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, will be speaking about his new book "Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics and the War on Terror."
Mamdani was born and raised in Uganda, and has lived there and elsewhere in Africa for much of his life. Much of his writing has been about, or included Africa – including "Good Muslim," "Bad Muslim;" "Citizen and Subject" and "When Victims Become Killers" (on Rwanda).
For more information please call Elliott Bay at 206-624-6600 or see http://www.elliottbaybook.com.

Wangari Maathai
Sunday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m. at
Town Hall Seattle, 1119 Eighth Ave.
The 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai is returning to Seattle to discuss her new book "The Challenge for Africa." Here in the U.S. from her home in Nairobi, the Kenyan activist who first became known for her work in starting the Green Belt Movement. "The Challenge for Africa" seeks to dispel many of the stereotypes and assumptions laid out by the western media and, at the same time, casts a strong challenge to African people themselves to redirect their individual and collective destinies. Maathai looks at the whole - in the details, in the big picture - with a knowing eye. Those who heard her on her last Seattle visit – for her remarkable memoir, "Unbowed," know this is a night not to be missed. Co-presented with the Town Hall Center for Civic Life.
Tickets are available for $5 via http://www.brownpapertickets.com or 1-800-838-3006, or at the door starting at 6:30 p.m. Preferred seating for Town Hall members.

Mende Nazer
Sunday, April 26 at 2 p.m.
Microsoft Auditorium, Seattle Central Public Library
The 2009 Seattle Reads title, Nancy Rawles' novel "My Jim," is a novel narrated by a woman who lived as a slave in the U.S. in the 19th century. The continued existence of slavery now into the 21st century is one told by Mende Nazer of Sudan, who at age 12, was captured in a murderous raid, and eventually sold to a wealthy family in Khartoum. She would live that way until circumstances brought her to London – where she would eventually escape to freedom. Her story, which is the story of many places around the world today, is told in her harrowing, and inspirational, book, "Slave: My True Story" (Public Affairs, co-authored by Damien Lewis).
Free admission is on a first-come, first-serve basis. Presented as part of SEATTLE READS by The SEATTLE PUBLIC LIBRARY
The Seattle Public Central Library is located at 1000 Fourth Ave. Special $5 parking coupons for use in the Central Library garage are available on a limited basis for those attending the program. For more information on Seattle Reads and this program, please call 206-386-4636 or visit www.spl.org.