Wednesday February 1st: Reading Through It: An American Book Club Discusses Hope in the Dark

See our Event of the Week column for more details. Third Place Books Seward Park, 5041 Wilson Ave S, 474-2200, http://thirdplacebooks.com. Free. All ages. 7 p.m.

Alternate Wednesday February 1st: Looseleaf Reading Series

Whenever we at the Seattle Review of Books recommend one of our own events, we try to find an alternate event to recommend in the name of fair representation. Tonight’s alternate event is the Looseleaf Reading Series, featuring a slate of up-and-coming writers including Tamiko Nimura, Renee Simms, Natalie A. Martínez, featured reader C. Rosalind Bell, and music by Kristin Allen-Zito. who you may know as the lead singer for The Trucks. Chop Suey, 1325 E. Madison St., 324-8005, http://chopsuey.com. Free. 21+. 7 p.m.

Thursday February 2nd: While Glaciers Slept Reading

In her new book While Glaciers Slept, M. Jackson intertwines the history of climate change with a personal story about cancer striking her family. Now that we live in a time when climate scientists are being silenced by our own government, this book is even more important. Town Hall Seattle, 1119 8th Ave., 652-4255, http://townhallseattle.org. $5. All ages. 7:30 p.m.

Friday February 3rd: Homesick for Another World Reading

Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel Eileen was a word-of-mouth success story; booksellers can’t stop raving about it, and David Sedaris fell so hard for the book that he brought Moshfegh to town during his annual visit to Benaroya Hall. Tonight, Moshfegh debuts her first, much-anticipated collection of short stories. Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave, 624-6600, http://elliottbaybook.com . Free. All ages. 7 p.m.

Saturday February 4th: Fire Safety and Other Stories

Author John Mullen is a graduate of a recent class of Jack Straw writers including big names like Jane Wong and Claudia Castro Luna. Barbra Earl Thomas is a painter who has been part of the fabric of Seattle for decades. Tonight they’ll tell stories, with music by Kate Farrell. Royal Room, 5000 Rainier Ave., 906-9920, http://theroyalroomseattle.com. Free. All ages. 6 p.m.

Monday February 6th: Margin Shift

The Seattle poetry collective hosts four poets: Steven Karl (sample line: “You were not petted or chatted to. You drank alone,”) erica lewis (“the past/has ruined/our entire future,”) Jamaica Baldwin (none of whose poems are online yet,) and Amber Nelson, who until recently was the publisher of the late, great Alice Blue Books. Common AREA Maintenance, 2125 2nd Ave, (253) 224-0746. http://commonartspace.com. Free. All ages. 7 p.m.

Tuesday February 7th: Ross Gay

Seattle Arts and Lectures bring the prolific poet and editor to Seattle to discuss poetry as a means to expand your imagination. Last spring, Gay published a terrific short poem in the New York Times that compared flutes and humans: “a man/sings by opening/his lungs by/turning himself into air…a flute lays/on its side/and prays a wind/might enter it.” McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St., 733-9725, https://www.lectures.org. $15. All ages. 7 p.m.