books

For nine years, Rain Taxi Review of Books has been quietly putting on a book festival each autumn. This year's festival -- a big, fun, one-day affair on Saturday -- brings in a long list of notable writers: Lorrie Moore, Nicholson Baker, Robert Olen Butler, Ruth Reichl and so many others you can hardly believe it. Your jaw drops. (Read the whole list at www.raintaxi.com/bookfest.)

You can spend all day there, attending readings, book signings and discussions. Activities for children include a storytelling circle with local writers Emilie Buchwald, John Coy, Alison McGhee and Phyllis Root (and so many others you can hardly believe it).

"It's a way to celebrate our amazing local environment," says Rain Taxi editor Eric Lorberer. "We have such a great book town. And I think it's an especially good year. It's a great fall for books, just an unusually amazing season, and certainly that's trickling over into the festival itself. But I would say that this year does reflect our basic recipe -- an assortment of national and internationally acclaimed authors, and various ways we can shine the spotlight on local authors."

Rain Taxi Review of Books has been around for 15 years, a nonprofit, midsize (circulation 18,000) publication that specializes in reviewing what Lorberer calls "under-the-radar books."

The free festival runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, 1501 Hennepin Av. S.

Also ...

• So you think you want to be a writer? Let's see how you feel after you take this Loft class. A group of working writers will share their expertise and anecdotes about the realities of the writing life at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Loft Literary Center. Cost is $46. Register at 612-379-8999 or www.loft.org

• "Tragic Magic," Laura Childs' latest scrapbooking mystery, is out this month with Berkley. She'll sign books at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Bookcase of Wayzata, and her publication party will be at noon Saturday at Once Upon a Crime, 604 W. 26th St., Mpls.

• "All of It Singing: New and Selected Poems" by Linda Gregg has won the Academy of American Poets Lenore Marshall Prize, which carries a $25,000 honorarium. Gregg's book was published by Graywolf Press of Minneapolis.

• "Between," a collection of poems by Morgan Grayce Willow, has been published by Nodin Press of Minneapolis. Willow will sign books at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Nodin Press table at the Rain Taxi book festival, at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 20 at the University Club in St. Paul and at 7 p.m. Oct. 26 at Barnes & Noble Har-Mar in Roseville.

• "Horses With a Mission: Extraordinary True Stories of Equine Service" by Allen and Linda Anderson of St. Louis Park has been published by New World Library. The book launch party will be at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Common Good Books. Ten percent of that night's sales will go to a local nonprofit animal therapy organization. The Andersons will also sign books at 2 p.m. Saturday at Borders Books in Minnetonka.