Channel your inner T.S. Eliot tonight for the Poetry Slam DeLux. Not only will you have the opportunity to battle it out word-nerd style, but Individual World Poetry Slam champion Chris August will listen to your impromptu verses.

Whether you're more Carl Sandburg or Shel Silverstein, you can display your talents in front of a pro beginning at 8 p.m. Sign-ups start at 7:30 p.m., and it's all happening at the Neurolux, so sorry underage poetry prodigies, you'll have to wait until you can legally consume liquid courage before hitting the stage. The cost for the slam is $5. Visit boisepoetry.com for more info.

There's a mix of emotions when turning the final page in a book (or scanning the last word on your e-reader's screen)—sadness that the journey is over, reflection on the story, and a small sense of accomplishment.

Join in the Boise Public Library's Books to Action series, and you can add the feeling of giving back to that list. The program couples book discussions with service projects, so you can read, discuss and contribute to a worthy cause. The featured book for this go-round is Making West Home in Idaho: Stories and Recipes from Boise's Refugee Community by Sarah Barsness, with photos by Boise Weekly contributor Guy Hand.

You can join in a discussion at the Library! at Cole and Ustick today at 7 p.m. with fellow readers and refugees featured in the book. The event is FREE, and another discussion will be held Friday, May 11, at noon, which Barsness will join virtually.

It all culminates with a companion service project at a Global Garden site on Tuesday, May 15, from 3-5 p.m. Visit the library's website for more info.

Nature may be ubiquitous—trees in forests, shrubbery outside houses, the plant on your desk. But this year, some folks at Boise State decided to look beyond the foliage. They developed a series called Interdisciplinary Explorations: The Idea of Nature that examines how thoughts about nature are expressed in a variety of disciplines—including literature, music, philosophy and art.

The series wraps up today from 6-7 p.m. in the Boise State Student Union Building Simplot Ballroom. You can listen to Kevin Hutchings, University of Northern British Columbia's research chair in literature, culture and environmental studies, talk about Romanticism, Blake and the Politics of Nature. It won't cost you a cent, so you can save your money for the reception, where there's a cash bar and you can snack on appetizers.

Read more about the series here.

There may not be many cabins in the city of Boise, but there is one right in the heart of downtown. And it deals more with books than bears. The Cabin regularly brings acclaimed authors and other wordy types to the City of Trees for its Readings and Conversations series.

Scott Simon, a Peabody Award-winning journalist and host of NPR's Weekend Edition, will continue the series today at the Egyptian Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Doors open an hour prior, and ticket prices range from $12 for students to $55 and can be purchased at the Egyptian's box office or via its website.

A pre-reading reception will take place at Beside Bardenay, 612 Grove St., from 6-7 p.m. A no-host bar and light hors d'oeuvres will be served, and reservations can be made by calling 208-331-8000. The cost for the reception is $20, or bring a friend and get two tickets for $30.

Looking for something to occupy your Sunday evening that has nothing to do with rabbits or eggs? Need a quiet sanctuary from overjoyed, boisterous children hopped up on Easter candy? We have you covered.

Saunter on down to Pengilly's Saloon at 8 p.m. and revel in a peaceful, 21-and-up environment as the Boise State English Department presents its fourth installment of the Spring 2012 MFA Reading Series.

Poet Michael Earl Craig will be the featured reader. Craig is the author of Yes Master, Thin Kimono and You Can Relax in My House (or in this case, You Can Relax in Pengilly's). You can read more about the Montana poet and scope out his word-smithing skills at the Poetry Foundation's website. And this little bit of respite won't cost you a penny.

For more on the MFA Reading Series, check out the English Department's website.

Harry Potter is now casting his magic over e-Books across the globe. The electronic versions of the bestsellers went on sale Tuesday, and in a unique practice that could transform the e-Book industry, the books are not locked down by encryption, meaning that consumers can move them between devices.

Additionally, Rowling is maintaining tight control over her books' availability. Consumers can only purchase the Harry Potter books from pottermore.com, Rowling's new web store. If you go to Amazon, you're pushed back to Pottermore. No other Kindle book is sold in this fashion.

The first three books are selling for $7.99, while the final four are $9.99.

The folks at the Boise Public Library are pretty excited as well. They quickly bought up e-Book copies of the Potter series. Rowling charges libraries $22.95 for each lendable title. That's still a pretty good deal, considering that Random House, the world's largest English-language provider, recently jacked up its prices for libraries as much as 300 percent. As an example, a bestseller that cost the library $27 in January now costs lending institutions $81 per copy.

It's hard to believe it's been a month since we last told you about Story Story Night. In case you missed the last one, or are freakin' psyched to go to another, today is your day.

Story Story Night continues at 7 p.m. tonight at the Rose Room in downtown Boise with "Betrayal: Stories of Et Tu, Brute?" The event features music from Dan Costello, the always-lovely hosting skills of Jessica Holmes and back stabbin' stories from Taylor Murphy, Aaron Patterson and Whitney Rearick.

Pie Hole will dole out pizza and a full bar is available with I.D. Get your $5 advance tickets at the Story Story website, and while you're there, take a peek at the wicked-awesome poster for the event, which features a bottle of Caesar dressing with earphones on nearly being stabbed by a stalk of mischievous broccoli.

Ever heard the phrase, "If you're not first, you're last"? How about, "If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes"? For some reason, we want to believe that unless we're first across the finish line, we're worthless. But plenty of people have lost contests and still made a splash—just look at the slew of American almost-Idols who wound up bigger than the winners.

Author Scott Farris knows about coming close. The political columnist is a former bureau chief for United Press International, and has interviewed a whole bunch of people who ran for president. Farris has compiled his thoughts into the book, Almost President: The Men Who Lost the Race but Changed the Nation, and he'll be at Rediscovered Bookshop in Boise today at 6 p.m.

Oh, and if you go to this FREE event, you may end up on C-SPAN. Farris' presentation of his book will be filmed for an episode of the network's Book TV.

The Boise Public Library's Cole and Ustick branch has put together a veritable gold mine of good info for aspiring writers—or anyone interested in how their favorite writers craft the words they read.

A small crowd of 12 students, seniors and lit-curious individuals took part in the library's installment of the Spring Author Series March 14. They listened as co-founder of Boise State's MFA Program and acclaimed author Mitch Wieland taught them what makes a solid scene. The library's Sagebrush Room was transformed into a college classroom (sans lofty tuition rates) as Wieland took to the white board to demonstrate points on scene and summary, concrete and sensory details, events, function and structure.

• Mitch Wieland speaks about crafting quality scenes at the Spring Author Series.

Some scribbled notes, and others listened intently with complimentary cookies and coffee in hand as the former fiction editor of Black Warrior Review talked about what makes a manuscript gripping and the importance of constructing scenes well. Wieland spoke about his influences and "heroes," including Raymond Carver and Richard Ford, reading an excerpt from "Rock Springs."

"I had taken that passage as memory, as lived experience. Richard Ford had tricked my mind," Wieland said, noting how detail can engross a reader in a scene.

He also read a brief segment from one of his contemporaries, Anthony Doerr, using his story "Hunter's Wife" in his lecture. Wieland also included things he'd learned from screenwriters, and spoke about fiction's abilities to focus on and utilize the thoughts and feelings of characters, more so than film.

The event took on even more of a classroom feel when Wieland doled out paper, pencils and handouts with a writing exercise on it. Attendees were asked to craft a scene in five sentences, each with a certain specification, such as using six words of dialogue.

Attendees then asked the writer questions, such as, does he think about all of the things he mentioned every time he writes. The answer clued the audience into another of Wieland's interests—martial arts.

"I'm a Bruce Lee fan," Wieland said. "And he doesn't think about punching—his fist just goes."

The Spring Author series continues with Aaron Patterson Wednesday, March 21, at noon. Visit the library's website for more info.

Why is it that words sound so darn pretty in a different language? While that's not true for every language (sorry, Germans), someone speaking a romance language can say something appalling or profane and it sounds downright musical.

Forrest Gander's words would sound beautiful in any language. The poet/novelist/translator will read today at Rediscovered Bookshop as part of the Carried Across: A Celebration of Translation tour around Boise/Nampa, presented in conjunction with the Mexican Consulate.

You can catch Gander's bilingual reading of his first novel, As a Friend, at 5 p.m. Can't make it? He'll be at the Boise State Student Union Building Lookout Room at 7:30 p.m., and at Ontario's Four Rivers Cultural Center and Museum at noon Friday, March 16.