It's Cheap Wine and Poetry tonight at the Hugo House. John Burgess and Kate Lebo. Essayist Elissa Washuta will also read. And Brian McGuigan, the Hugo House's resident media relations/event organizing whiz-kid will be reading too. It is his birthday today. He will hopefully be spanked after his reading, which is how many poetry readings should end anyway. Wine is a dollar a glass.

Open Books in Wallingford is hosting a poetry reading that probably shouldn't end with a spanking. David Biespiel will read tonight. Here is a piece of a poem from Bespiel's new book The Book of Men and Women: "Bloom and decay, and without question / Our eyes have opened to blackness and what is left unsaid: / This passage of delight is our sorrow and our bed."

Fremont Place Books hosts the Seattle7Writers tonight. The press release says "Maria Semple, Randy Sue Coburn and Kit Bakke are the Seattle7Writers, an upstart group of local published writers working to enrich Seattle's literary landscape." They should start enriching the landscape by taking a math class or getting three more writers.

Pacific Science Center hosts Andrew Chaikin. Chaikin interviewed a bunch of astronauts and came away with A Man on the Moon, "a definitive account of the Apollo 11 mission."

And at Town Hall, James McManus reads from Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker. Like everyone else in the world, you probably secretly suspect you are better at poker than everyone else.

The full readings calendar, including the next week or so, is here. And if you're planning on staying in and you're looking for personalized book recommendations, feel free to tell me the books you like and ask me what to read next over at Questionland.

UPDATE: Chihuly canceled.