Annual spring crime spree back

Ah, a rite of spring, the Write of Spring at Once Upon a Crime bookstore. (And spring! Oh joy!)

The annual event -- held this year on March 20 -- draws mystery writers and readers from all over.

This year 52 authors will be there, appearing hourly in groups of 13.

Among them: Laura Childs, Monica Ferris, Brian Freeman, Ellen Hart, Pete Hautman, William Kent Krueger, Steve Thayer, Julie Kramer.

The event runs from noon to 4 p.m., with autographs, prizes and refreshments.

Once Upon a Crime is at 604 W. 26th St., Minneapolis.

Also ...

•"If You Lived Here, You'd Already Be Home," by John Jodzio of Minneapolis, will be the first book published by Replacement Press in St. Paul. The launch party will be at 7:30 p.m. March 19 at Magers & Quinn Booksellers, 3038 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls.

•"The Seasons of the Robin," by Don Grussing, has been published by the University of Texas Press. The book covers a year in the life of a robin, from the bird's point of view. Grussing is a longtime outdoorsman and writer. He lives in Minnetonka.

•This month marks the 20th anniversary of Tim O'Brien's book, "The Things They Carried." In celebration, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is reissuing the book in hardcover, paperback and e-book, and O'Brien (formerly of Minnesota) will tour the country (though he will skip Minnesota). Public radio will rebroadcast his reading of the book between March 18 and 24 on "Selected Shorts." Go to www.symphonyspace.org/shorts/shorts_radio.

•"Find the Girl," a collection of poems by Lightsey Darst of Minneapolis, has been published by Coffee House Press. Darst is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. Her poetry has appeared in Antioch Review, Diagram and elsewhere.

•"Pipestone: My Life in an Indian Boarding School," by Adam Fortunate Eagle, has been published by the University of Oklahoma Press. Fortunate Eagle's memoir covers 1935 through 1945, when he was a student at the Pipestone Indian Boarding School in western Minnesota.