Artist and writer Andy Sturdevant — easily recognizable by his round glasses and bushy red beard — moved to the Twin Cities from Kentucky in 2005 and immersed himself in the local arts scene. He writes for Rain Taxi Review, Paper Darts and Mpls.St.Paul magazine; he has a weekly column for MinnPost about his walks around the city (whimsical, political, evocative, informative), and he works as an arts administrator in St. Paul's Lowertown.

His collection of essays, "Potluck Supper With Meeting to Follow," will be published by Coffee House Press in October. The book launch (with potluck supper) will be at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Pulaski Auditorium, 2114 NE. 5th St., Minneapolis, and will feature a dozen artists who have been commissioned to create art based on Sturdevant's writings.

In addition, his solo show, "Alley Atlas," will be shown at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts beginning Oct. 18, and he will be the Club Book-featured author Nov. 4 at Rum River Library in Anoka.

Also …

• The latest Laura Childs mystery, "Gilt Trip," will be launched at a party at noon Saturday at Once Upon a Crime, 604 W. 26th St., Mpls. Childs is the pen name for Plymouth resident Gerri Schmitt, the author of more than 10 New York Times bestselling mysteries.

• "Sky Tinged Red: A Chronicle of Two and a Half Years in Auschwitz," by Isaia Eiger, translated by Dora Eiger Zaidenweber, has been published by Beaver's Pond Press. Zaidenweber, Eiger's daughter, translated the story from Yiddish. The book launch will be at 7 p.m. Oct. 7 at the Jewish Community Center, 1375 St. Paul Av., St. Paul. The event is part of the Twin Cities Yiddish Fest.

• "Winter of the Robots," a middle-school book by Minneapolis writer Kurtis Scaletta, will be published in October by Knopf. He'll launch the book at 2 p.m. Oct. 20 at the Red Balloon Bookstore in St. Paul.

• The Center for Irish Studies at the University of St. Thomas will host a program in honor of Seamus Heaney, the Nobel-winning poet who died in August. The free event will include readings by Joyce Sutphen, Jim Lenfestey, Ethna McKiernan and Ed Bok Lee, plus bagpipes and uillean pipes, from 2 to 3 p.m. Oct. 5 in Terrence Murphy Hall on the Minneapolis campus. Afterward, people are invited to the nearby Local pub on Nicollet Mall to read aloud their favorite Heaney poem.

• "Minnesota Vikings Trivia," by Joe Hoey, has been published by Nodin Press. Hoey is the author of two other books about Minnesota sports — "Minnesota Twins Trivia" and "Puck Heaven."