MONDAY Your week begins with a weird, wonderful mashup of fiction and poetry at University Book Store, where poet Dennis Milam Bensie reads from his book Flit.The description for the event begins “Used twenty-one times in The Catcher in the Rye, the word "flit" was introduced by J.D. Salinger as a term for a homosexual man in 1951.” This book mashes up Salinger’s classic and 40 other works of fiction that use homophobic slurs to create a new narrative.

TUESDAY You’re going back to the U District tonight for a reading at University Temple United Methodist Church, where sci fi authors Greg Bear and Ann Leckie will read. Leckie is the author of Ancillary Justice, which Kate MacDonald reviewed for us back in August. She’ll be reading from the conclusion to the Ancillary series. Local author Bear will read from Killing Titan. You can get your church and your science fiction in the same place — how often does that happen?

WEDNESDAY This is a big night for SRoB. Our co-founder Martin McClellan will read from his brand new debut novel California Four O’Clock at Mercer Street Books. It’s an evening with books and drinks and prizes and that new-book smell. I’ll be on-hand to interview Martin about his book and the process of bringing it into the world, and it’s all free. Stop by and say hi!

But naturally, since there’s a conflict of interest here, we want to provide you with an ALTERNATE WEDNESDAY event, too, and this should really be something. At Hollow Earth Radio, local poet Anastacia Tolbert, who published a poem with us not so long ago, will read as part of the Furnace Reading Series, which combines readings with soundscapes and music and all manner of Hollow Earth-y goodness. Tolbert reads from her work “The City,” which is a story told by and about Seattle.

THURSDAY Joe Bar Gallery hosts a comic book art show presented by Short Run Seattle as part of Capitol Hill Art Walk. Otherworld features comics by artists including Hellen Jo, Keenan Marshall Keller, Krystal DiFronzo, Alisha Davidson, Darin Shuler and Bjorn Miner. Shuler and Miner are local, and the others are from all over the place: LA, Chicago, Toronto. This is your first October Short Run event. Go and have fun, but make sure you pace yourself; October is packed full of Short Run goodness.

FRIDAY Hugo House hosts a reading celebrating this year’s Best American Poetry. Editor Sherman Alexie will MC, and he'll be joined by poets including Natalie Diaz, Ed Skoog, Cody Walker, and Jane Wong. Those are five wonderful readers of their own work. Of course, this is maybe the only installment of Best American Poetry to ever be controversial. Hopefully, Alexie will discuss the controversy and perhaps allow for some audience conversation. That seems likely to me; he’s such a candid stage presence that whatever happens will be raw and real and unplanned.

SATURDAY Head to Town Hall for a reading from novelist Amitav Ghosh, who will finally deliver Flood of Fire, the long-awaited conclusion to his Ibis Trilogy. Ghosh, whose name I mistype as “Ghost” every single time, is one of the best novelists in the business today. He writes about Indian history and colonialism and the Opium War with China. If you attend the California Four O’Clock reading on Wednesday, be sure to ask Martin about Amitav Ghosh. He will be effusive.

SUNDAY It’s one of the best weekends of the year! Geek Girl Con is happening at the Washington State Convention Center all weekend long. There are panels about (real) science and (fictional) science and womens’ roles in horror movies and how to write book reviews (swoon!) and a panel titled “From Doom Patrol to Sense8: Trans Narratives in Popular Culture.” Geek Girl Con fills a necessary space in nerd culture, and it does it in a fun, supportive, intelligent way. This is a convention that deserves your love all weekend long.