November is National Novel Writing Month, in which contestants write a 50,000-word novel over the thirty days of November. I've taken part six times, and I can't recommend it enough to aspiring writers: Nothing demystifies writing like pounding out 1,667 words every day for thirty straight days. One of the first questions people ask when I tell them about "competing" in NaNoWriMo is "what do you get if you win?" The answer, basically, is: Nothing. You win the right to say you wrote a novel in one month.

This year, though, there will be a prize. The good folks at University Book Store are hosting a competition for local NaNoWriMo winners: Just drop off or e-mail the novel you wrote for NaNoWriMo 2011 with University Book Store by December 2nd, and one winner will be chosen to be published by University Book Store Press. (What that means is that the winner will receive ten free copies of their book, their novel will be stocked on UBS shelves for at least three months, they'll take part in a special reading to celebrate the contest, and they'll get a $100 gift card. Two finalists will get $50 gift cards and will also take part in the post-contest reading.)

I'm one of the judges for this competition. I'm looking forward to reading your book. More information about the contest is right here.

It's going to be a lot of fun. Get your tickets—just $5—right here.

* Get a load of this line, from Ron Charles at the Washington Post: "It’s a remarkable episode, drenched in the matinee carnage of classic horror but elevated by the power of Whitehead’s prose to the level of those other ash-covered nightmares imagined by T.S. Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Cormac McCarthy."

• Click to enlarge.

If you're new to the idea, 2BE1BL is a bookish swap meet: Your entry "fee" is two books you've read and loved. The books you bring are added to the tables of books placed all around the Hugo House's cabaret area. For every two books you bring, you get to choose one new-to-you book from the stacks to bring home with you! All the books left over are donated to Friends of the Seattle Public Library, who will sell them at their twice-yearly book sales to raise money for SPL. There will be a bar, with drink specials. And some music.

The drunky book swap fun starts on Thursday, October 13th at 5 pm at the Hugo House. If you want to explain to some random stranger why they should take your book home, we're setting up a recommendation station where you explain on a Post-It exactly why the book you brought is so special. This worked really well last time. Feel free to sit in the Hugo House's cabaret with a drink or two and read through the books you're thinking about bringing home. Hell, feel free to strike up a conversation with a stranger or two about the books you're looking at. These events are always fun, laid-back, and literary. You should come.

Tonight at 7 p.m., at the onomatopoetic SPLAB in Columbia City, two poets who don't suck:

1. David Rowe* of New Orleans, reading from his collection Unsolicited Poems—poems that not only acknowledge their unsolicitedness (unlike all those other poems, trying to pretend they're wanted), but also are unpretentious, unannoying, often funny, and possibly great. If you require more adjectives, Bookslut.com called Unsolicited Poems “beautiful and chaotic and sexy and sonorous.”

2. Alex Bleecker, whom Paul Constant calls "local awesome poet" and who claims to have spent most of 2010 "being the falangster of love in southeast Asia" (I don't know what that means, either)—Bleecker is also one of the facilitators of Capitol Hill's Breadline reading series at Vermillion on Capitol Hill (the one tomorrow looks good).

Part of the mission of the Unsolicited Poetry Tour is to gather submissions for Dorado, a letterpress literary magazine from David Rowe's publisher, so poets are urged to bring poems (making them, for once, solicited).

*The conflict of interest here: David Rowe and I went to college together. He lived directly upstairs from me in the dorms at one point, and I could hear him walking around. He wore a wool plaid jacket—of the hunting variety, not professorial—nearly constantly, as far as I recall. He seemed brooding, but was actually quite pleasant when you talked to him.

If you've already read the book, feel free to dive right in with your questions and observations. There's a lot to discuss. If you've read other books by Charles Portis (Norwood and Masters of Atlantis are also favorites of mine) we can talk about the differences between his novels. Since there are two very interesting True Grit films, we can talk about the pluses and minuses of film adaptations. We can discuss voice and narration in prose, too (some people can't stand Mattie's narration). Just be sure to start your conversations here, and we'll come and find you. In addition to your fellow book clubbers, librarians and booksellers are standing by.

Take your dad to brunch. Maybe coax him into getting that extra bloody mary. Then, after he's railed about the Commies and puked all over his own khakis, tuck dad into bed and head to Central Cinema tonight to watch Stranger writers Cienna Madrid and Derek Erdman (along with the Hugo House's Brian McGuigan) talk about their awful fathers in an audio-visual odyssey titled "Fuck Father's Day." After you've heard the hilarious, mortifying stories they have to tell about the men who knocked their moms up, you will call your drunk, slightly racist dad and thank him for not being one of these three terrible men. That's a successful Father's Day, right there.

Come and have a drink and talk about books, the internet, and everything.

Tonight, from 5:30 until 8 pm, we'll be hosting Two Books Enter, One Book Leaves at the Hugo House. For every two books you bring to the reading, you can take one new-to-you book from the stacks of books tastefully arranged in tables around the House. While you're deliberating over which books to choose, you should buy a drink at the Hugo House's full bar and sit in the cabaret area, where the acoustic stylings of WEGO will entertain you.

You can find a FAQ about the event here. And we'll be trying something new at this 2BE1BL. Caitlin, a bookseller at University Book Store, had a great idea: She said she didn't want to just cast her old books out into the cold, cruel void with just its back cover text to explain itself. She said she wished she could write a little recommendation on a Post-It note and stick that on the cover of the book. Thanks to Caitlin, we'll have a table with pens and Post-Its at the event so if you want, you can explain to browsers why the book you brought is so awesome and why they should take it home.

And every book that's left at the end of the night is donated to Friends of the Seattle Public Library, so it's all for a good cause. I hope to see you tonight.