PATRICK BARB: Introduces “Pre-Approved for Haunting,” in conversation with Katrina Monroe. 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 31, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.
STEACY EASTON: Presents “Why Tammy Wynette Matters.” 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2, SubText Books, 6 W. Fifth St., St. Paul.
LITERATURE LOVERS’ NIGHT OUT: Hosts Julie Schumacher (“The English Experience”), Jimin Han (“The Apology”), Daniel Hornsby (“Sucker”), and Jocelyn Cole/Sharon Nagel, writing as Juneau Black (“Twilight Falls”), at two events. 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 3, Hopkins Activity Center, 33 14th Ave. N., Hopkins. $15.Hosted by Cream and Amber. 11 a.m. luncheon Saturday, Nov. 4, Grand Banquet Hall, 301 Second St. S., Stillwater, presented by Valley Bookseller of Stillwater. Contact the stores for more information.
LITERARY BRIDGES: With readers Jeanne Lutz, Diane Jarvenpa, Hardy Coleman, Frank Gioia and Jim Bohen, including a farewell to Donna Isaac, who is leaving as co-host of the series, and a welcome to the new co-host, Jeanne Lutz. 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 5, Next Chapter Booksellers, 38 S. Snelling Ave., St. Paul.
SALVATORE PANE: Associate professor at the University of St. Thomas introduces “The Neorealist,” made up of 11 short stories following Italian characters exploring life in an era of media oversaturation, in conversation with Brian Oliu, author of five works of nonfiction and three chapbooks. His newest is “Body Drop: Notes on Fandom and Pain in Professional Wrestling.” Both men live in St. Paul. 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2, Next Chapter Booksellers, 38 S. Snelling Ave., St. Paul.
JENNY ZHANG: University of Minnesota Edelstein-Keller Visiting Writer series presents the author of the poetry collections “My Baby First Birthday” and “Dear Jenny, We Are All Find,” as well as the story collection “Sour Heart.” Free. 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 1, Pillsbury Hall, 310 Pillsbury Dr. S.E., Mpls.
FIONA DAVIS: Author of seven bestselling historical novels discusses her latest, “The Spectacular,” about a 19-year-old who seeks a coveted position with the world-famous Radio City Rockettes, unaware that her ambitions will put her in the middle of a citywide dragnet to capture a terrorist. Virtual event. 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 1, in the MELSA Libraries Club Book reading series. Free. Streaming at facebook.com/ClubBook.
What else is going on
Jonathan Escoffery, who earned an MFA in creative writing at the University of Minnesota, is among six authors short-listed for the prestigious British Booker Prize for his collection of linked stories, “If I Survive You.” Among his honors are the Paris Review 2020 Plimpton Prize for Fiction, and a 2020 National Endowment for the Arts literature fellowship. In Boston he founded the Writers of Color Group, which has more than 2,000 members. Booker Prize winner will be announced Nov. 26 in London.
In 2025 F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby” will be 100 years old. So there’s going to be lots of all-things-Fitzgerald in the coming year. First out of the gate is the announcement by Scribner that it will publish the original 1941 edition of the St. Paul native’s unfinished novel, “The Last Tycoon,” this month. (Fitzgerald died in 1940.) According to the publisher, this edition includes a new introduction by novelist Haruki Murakami and restores the novel’s text to the original version published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1941, edited and arranged by Edmund Wilson, Fitzgerald’s friend, fellow Princetonian and “intellectual conscience.” Wilson based the 1941 edition on the manuscripts, typescripts, and notes Fitzgerald left behind, making it the novel that posthumously resurrected Fitzgerald’s literary reputation after it slumped in the 1930s.