It wasn't until she was in her 60s that Lucille Broderson began studying creative writing, when she signed up for a class at the University of Minnesota. Since then, her poems have been published in Poetry magazine, Triquarterly, Agassiz Review and other journals, included in anthologies, and read aloud on Garrison Keillor's "Writer's Almanac." She's published two chapbooks and now, at age 94, her first book, "But You're Wearing a Blue Shirt the Color of the Sky," published by Nodin Press.

In the book's foreword, poet Michael Dennis Browne calls Broderson one of the most natural writers he has ever worked with., "a poet of brilliant detail."

Broderson will read at 7 p.m. Nov. 4 at Open Book, 1011 Wash-ington Av. S., Mpls., with Browne, Marilyn Anderson and others. She'll also read at 2 p.m. Dec. 11 at Borders in Roseville.

Also ...

•"Dogs and the Women Who Love Them," the latest book by Allen and Linda Anderson, will be celebrated at a series of events in the Twin Cities in November. Bring photos of yourself and your dog and share your stories at 7 p.m. Nov. 3 at Barnes & Noble in St. Cloud, or at 7 p.m. Nov. 4 at Common Good Books in St. Paul, or at 2 p.m. Nov. 6 at Borders in Minnetonka. The Andersons' book of dog stories includes some by local women -- Jenny Pavlovic, who helped rescue animals following Hurricane Katrina, and Barbara Techel of Elkhart Lake, Wis., who cares for a paraplegic dachshund name Frankie.

•Bruce Machart will be the visiting writer at the University of St. Thomas, and will read from his debut novel, "The Wake of Forgiveness," at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 2 at Magers & Quinn. His novel, about a Czech immigrant and his sons, was named one of the top five novels of the fall by the Wall Street Journal and one of 10 debut novels to watch by Publishers Weekly.

•"The Bigness of the World," short stories by Lori Ostlund, has been released in paperback by the University of Georgia Press. It has won the Flannery O'Connor Award, the California Book Award for First Fiction and the Edmund White Debut Fiction award. Ostlund grew up near Alexandria and earned a degree from Minnesota State University, Moorhead. Her story, "All Boy," has been included in "Best American Short Stories 2010."

•"All Rise: The Remarkable Journey of Alan Page," by Bill McGrane, with a foreword by Bill Clinton, has been published by Triumph Books.