The lineup for the 2010-2011 Pen Pals lecture series has been announced, and it includes a popular local writer, a National Book Award-winning poet, a travel writer, a novelist and Dave Eggers, who defies description.

Lorna Landvik will lead off the series Oct. 7-8. Landvik, who grew up in Minneapolis, is the author of "Patty Jane's House of Curl," "Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons" and other novels. An actress and comedian, she has performed with Dudley Riggs and at Bryant-Lake Bowl.

Travel writer, grammar expert and memoirist Bill Bryson will be here Nov. 4-5. Bryson, originally from Iowa, lived in the British Isles for many years, working as a newspaper travel writer and writing books: "The Lost Continent," "A Walk in the Woods," "I'm a Stranger Here, Myself." His newest book, "At Home: A Short History of Private Life," will be released this fall.

Ann Patchett, author of the Orange Prize-winning "Bel Canto," will be here March 10-11, 2011. Patchett's first novel, "The Patron Saint of Liars," was a New York Times notable book. She is also the author of "Truth and Beauty," "Taft" and "The Magician's Assistant."

Poet/memoirist Mark Doty is here March 31-April 1. Doty wrote "Dog Years," a bestselling memoir. His "Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems" won a National Book Award in 2008. He earned a National Book Critics Circle Award and is the only American poet to have won the T.S. Eliot Prize in the U.K.

The series will wrap up with Dave Eggers May 12-13. Eggers is founder of McSweeney's magazine and author of seven books, including the bestselling "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius." In 2002 he co-founded 826 Valencia, a nonprofit writing center for youths in San Francisco. Since then, centers have opened in six other cities. In 2008, Utne Reader named him one of 50 visionaries who are changing the world.

Laurie Hertzel • 612-673-7302