Wednesday June 1: Ancient Soil Reading

UW grad student Julia Kelson has done groundbreaking new work in the field of climate change. Kelson is predicting the future of global warming by investigating the past, using soil to find periods in ancient earth when carbon dioxide levels were similar to now. Are we doomed? Stay tuned. Town Hall Seattle, 1119 8th Ave., 652-4255, http://townhallseattle.org. $5. All ages. 7:30 p.m.

Thursday June 2: Contagious Exchanges: Queer Writers in Conversation

See our Event of the Week column for more details. Hugo House, 1021 Columbia St., 322-7030, http://hugohouse.org. Free. All ages. 7 p.m.

Friday June 3: Sweetbitter Reading

Stephanie Danler’s debut novel is about a young woman who moves to New York City to make it big in the restaurant world. “Eating becomes a discipline language-obsessed,” Danler writes early in Sweetbitter. “You will never simply eat food again.” It’s a novel about senses and sensation, which is to say it’s about being alive. Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave, 624-6600, http://elliottbaybook.com . Free. All ages. 7 p.m.

Saturday June 4: The Poet Is In

Seattle’s very first Civic Poet, Claudia Castro Luna, takes her charge seriously. For the last month, she’s been on a mission with the help of Seattle Public Library to teach Seattleites how to explore their neighborhoods through poetry. This afternoon, she’s hosting a reading of poems written in previous sessions. Seattle Public Library Southwest Branch, 9010 35th Ave. S.W., 684-7455, http://spl.org. Free. All ages. 3 p.m.

Sunday June 5: King of the Worlds Reading

M. Thomas Gammarino’s new book from Seattle publisher Chin Music Press is a hyperactive science fiction road trip about an actor who loses the lead role in Titanic and then travels across time and space in the throes of a “trans-dimensional midlife crisis.” After his reading, I’ll be joining Gammarino for a talk. James Cameron will be discussed. University Book Store, 4326 University Way N.E., 634-3400, http://www2.bookstore.washington.edu/. Free. 3 p.m.

Alternate Sunday June 5: The Face: A Time Code Reading

Ruth Ozeki’s A Time Code is the best of three debut books in the new series The Face, in which authors write book-length essays about their own faces. (I reviewed it a few months ago.) In her outing, Ozeki stares at her own face in the mirror for hours at a time, and records her reaction. It’s a story about meditation, vanity, gender, and aging, from one of the best writers in the Northwest. Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave, 624-6600, http://elliottbaybook.com . Free. All ages. 3 p.m.

Monday June 6: Ask the Oracle

This reading series adds an air of mystery to the literary experience. Audience members ask for advice (Should I leave my boyfriend? Should I move?) and Seattle-area authors divine the answers from their own books. Tonight’s fortune-tellers include poet Jane Wong, essayist David Schmader, and novelist Bruce Holbert. Sorrento Hotel, 900 Madison St., 622-6400, http://hotelsorrento.com. Free. 21 and over. 7 p.m.

Tuesday June 7: Vaseline Buddha Reading

Jung Young Moon is a prominent experimental South Korean author who is finally debuting a translation of one of his novels in America. Vaseline Buddha is about the events surrounding the funeral of a goldfish named Kierkegaard. Moon’s publisher compares him to Kafka or Beckett, and this is an incredibly rare stateside appearance. Seattle Asian Art Museum, 1400 E. Prospect, 624-6600, http://elliottbaybook.com. Free. All ages. 7 p.m.