Magazine Mingle, an annual networking event for magazine editors and freelance writers, will take place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Open Book, 1011 Washington Av. S., Mpls. It's sponsored by the Loft Literary Center and the Minnesota Magazine and Publishing Association. The event is open to all, but registration is required (online at www.mmpa.net). Individual admission ranges from $15 to $30.
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•The second annual Book Club Blast, sponsored by MinnPost, will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. Jan. 30 at Open Book. Meet with writers in small groups, listen to a keynote speech, browse books, get autographs, have a snack. Keynote speaker is David Housewright, Edgar Award-winning mystery author. Other authors include Jonis Agee, Todd Boss, Erin Hart, Doug Grow, John Reimringer and others. (Full disclosure: I am one of the others.) The event is free, but register online at www.minnpost.com.
•"Hmong America: Reconstructing Community in Diaspora," by Chia Youyee Vang, has been published by the University of Illinois Press. Vang, an assistant professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, is the author of "Hmong in Minnesota."
•"The Rivers of Minnesota," by Thomas F. Waters, has been published by Riparian Press. Waters, professor emeritus of the University of Minnesota, has written four other books, including "The Streams and Rivers of Minnesota," published in 1977 by the University of Minnesota Press and still in print. His new book focuses on conservation and recreation of the state's rivers.
•"Prayer Book," a collection of poems by Matt Mauch, has been published by Lowbrow Press of Minneapolis. Mauch's work has appeared in Salt Hill, Tule Review and elsewhere. He will read at O'Gara's in St. Paul at 7 p.m. Tuesday, and at Magers & Quinn in Mpls. at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
•"The Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion" was awarded the Dartmouth Medal this month by the American Library Association. The medal goes to a reference work of outstanding quality and significance. The encyclopedia's editor-in-chief was Joanne Eicher, a regents professor emerita at the University of Minnesota.
•Minnesota State University, Mankato's Good Thunder Reading Series continues this month with debut novelists Ru Freeman and Reif Larsen. They will lead a discussion on the craft of writing at 3 p.m. Thursday in the student union auditorium, and will read from their work at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the college. Freeman is the author of a novel, "A Disobedient Girl," and Larsen is the author of "The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet," a New York Times bestseller.
