The next season of Talk of the Stacks will see writers in conversation with each other, and with editors, and also writers alone, reading from their work. Novelist Amy Tan and poet Nikki Giovanni headline a series that also includes Minnesota writer/singer/songwriter/rapper Dessa and two winners of the Milkweed Fiction Prize, Larry Watson and Jon Pineda.

Here's the lineup:

Sept. 12: Larry Watson ("Let Him Go") and Jon Pineda ("Apology"), in conversation with Milkweed Editions publisher Daniel Slager.

Oct. 25: Dessa, in conversation with Rain Taxi Review editor Eric Lorberer. They'll be discussing her new, as yet untitled chapbook of poetry.

Nov. 13: Amy Tan, discussing "The Valley of Amazement," her first new novel in nearly 10 years.

Dec. 12: Nikki Giovanni, reading from "Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid," her upcoming collection of poetry.

Novelist Amy Tan.

Talk of the Stacks is a free reading series of the Friends of the Hennepin County Library. All events will be held in Pohlad Hall of the Central Library on the Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis. Doors open at 6:15 p.m. and talks begin at 7 p.m. and are followed by book signings.