Twin Cities poet David Mura's new book, "The Last Incantations," has been published by TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press. This is Mura's first collection in 10 years (although he published a novel, "Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire," in 2008).
Mura will launch the book at 7 p.m. Friday at the Loft Literary Center with the help of a host of fellow writers: Alexs Pate, Ed Bok Lee, Bao Phi and Julianna Pegues. The event will also be a celebration of the life of Mura's late aunt Ruth, whose birthday is Friday and who he says inspired and supported his career.
Mura is a founder of the Asian American Renaissance. He is a winner of the Carl Sandburg Literary Award, a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers Award, four Loft-McKnight Awards and many other honors.
Also …
• Children's author Laura Purdie Salas will donate 10 percent of her proceeds from her new book, "Water Can Be …" to the nonprofit group WaterAid, which works for clean water worldwide. The book will be published in April by Millbrook Press, a division of Lerner Publications. Salas, who lives in Maple Grove, won a Minnesota Book Award for "BookSpeak: Poems About Books."
• "Dear Luke, We Need to Talk. Darth," by John Moe, will be published in June by Random House. Moe, who lives in St. Paul, is the host of Minnesota Public Radio's "Wits." His book is a collection of imaginary letters between various figures in popular culture.
• Rachel Kushner, author of "The Flamethrowers," and Wendy Lower, author of "Hitler's Furies," will speak at 7 p.m. Thursday at Concordia College in Moorhead as part of the annual "National Book Awards at Concordia" writers series. Kushner and Lower were both finalists in 2013.
• "Over the Portage, Into History," by John Henricksson, has been published by 4Square Books. Henricksson has been writing about northern Minnesota and its history and culture for more than 50 years. His book about the Gunflint Trail, "A Wild Neighborhood," published by the University of Minnesota Press, won a Minnesota Book Award.
