Author Events

Matthew Kroenig The Georgetown prof discusses his Time to Attack: The Looming Iranian Nuclear Threat. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., 652-4255, townhallseattle.org. $5. 7:30 p.m. Weds., May 28.

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Evan Osnos Covering China for The New Yorker is a plumb beat. Osnos spent five years reporting there, a depth of experience that informs Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27). The booming country is, to put it mildly, full of news: cozening up to Russia recently for natural gas; hacking into U.S. businesses to steal trade secrets; and producing seemingly all of our electronics and consumer goods. What is China importing from us? Our culture. As Osnos noted recently, while political protests are taboo, there was an unlikely outcry last month when the TV show The Big Bang Theory—hugely popular online—was banned for “content that violates China’s constitution, endangers the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, provokes troubles in society, promotes illegal religion and triggers ethnic hatred,” per the Chinese government. The pronouncement was mocked online, Osnos reports, by precisely the kind of brainy, Web-savvy youth that both countries depend on, a kindred transnational class of knowledge workers. And on that side of the Pacific, as Age of Ambition relates, a young generation of Internet-connected, urban Chinese is growing discontented with what Osnos calls a new Gilded Age. Corruption, income inequality, and pollution are far worse than we have it here. And soon they may begin protesting more than cancelled TV shows. BRIAN MILLER Seattle Asian Art Museum, 1400 E. Prospect St. (Volunteer Park), 654-3100, seattleartmuseum.org. Free. 7 p.m. Weds., May 28.

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Elizabeth Warren US Senator from Massachusetts, rising star in the Democratic party, her latest book is A Fighting Chance. University Temple United Methodist Church, 1415 N.E. 43rd St., 634-3400, bookstore.washington.edu. Free. 7 p.m. Thurs., May 29.

Antonya Nelson

Funny Once collects her new stories. Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave., 322-7030, hugohouse.org. $8-$10. 7 p.m. Fri., May 30.

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Daniel James Brown His acclaimed sports history book The Boys in the Boat, new in paperback, follows the UW crew team to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. About it, our Daniel Person wrote last year, “With the story of gold-medal rower Joe Rantz (1914–2007), Brown has found in the annals of Northwest history a hero of Potteresque proportions. As Brown relates in, Rantz is all but an orphan when he leaves Sequim to enroll at the UW,  just as the Great Depression sets in. He’s far from the campus’ privileged elite, but there’s one place where all that matters is your grit and determination: the Quidditch field . . . er, Lake Washington. During the ’30s, the UW and Berkeley became staunch rivals of Ivy League oarsmen. Rantz’s eight-man team celebrates its victories in Hogwarts fashion, with ‘mountains of ice cream, as much as they could eat.’  Then the rowers set their eyes upon that most evil of opponents: Voldemort . . . er, Hitler.” (Also: University Book Store in Bellevue, 6 p.m. Mon., June 2.) University Book Store, 4326 University Way N.E., 634-3400, bookstore.washington.edu. Free. 6 p.m. Sat., May 31.

Janet Norman Knox She reads from her fantasy novel The Immortal Crown: An Age of X Novel. Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way N.E., 366-3333, thirdplacebooks.com. Free. 6:30 p.m. Sat., May 31.

Maya Lang The ex-local resident returns with a debut novel, The Sixteenth of June. Elliott Bay Book Co., 1521 10th Ave., 624-6600, elliottbaybook.com. Free. 3 p.m. Sun., June 1

Brian Doyle The ex-local resident returns with a debut novel, The Sixteenth of June. University Book Store, Free, 7 p.m. Mon., June 2.

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Karl Ove Knausgaard The Swedish writer shares selections from his maximalist series of novels, My Struggle. Elliott Bay, Free, 7 p.m. Mon., June 2.

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Roz Chast Longtime genius cartoonist for The New Yorker, her graphic memoir Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant concerns the death of her parents. Elliott Bay, Free, 7 p.m. Tues., June 3.

Brian Komei Dempster He’s joined by fellow poets Alan Lau, Arlene Kim, and Sharon Hashimoto in a tribute to the late San Francisco poet Kim-An Lieberm. (Dempster also appears with poet Janet Norman Knox at Eagle Harbor Books: 3 p.m. Sun., June 1.) Univers

ity Book Store, Free, 6:30 p.m. Tues., June 3.