JENNIFER CROFT: Presents “The Extinction of Irena Rey” in conversation with Lizzie Davis. 7 p.m. Thursday, March 28, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. s., Mpls.

DANNY KLECKO: St. Paul’s poet/baker talks about his latest book “A Bakeable Feast” and conquering New York during a recent visit to the Big Apple when he read his poetry in the rain in Times Square (nobody paid any attention to him), played chess with a master in Bryant Park (he lost), and visited celebrity sites such as the grate Marilyn Monroe stood on for the famous picture of her skirt flying, as well as having high tea on the Big Pink Bus with 73 women, inspiration for what might be his next book.

St. Paul poet Danny Klecko, left, plays chess with a man named Moses in a New York City park during a recent visit. (Courtesy of Danny Klecko)

Why go to New York with no plan?

“I’ve hit the ceiling in St. Paul and now I’m following the formula of past successful Minnesota writers — Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, Garrison Keillor — who realized you can’t win St Paul until you conquer New York and become a big deal,” he says. “And I wanted to cultivate my relationship with an editor at the New York Times who’s looking at publishing my fourth poem in the Times’ Metropolitan feature.”

The editor also asked for two copies of “A Bakeable Feast.”

Continuing his reputation for modesty, Klecko says: “I am the most loved and hated writer in Minnesota  There has never been a writer in the history of Minnesota who has had a more interesting career path than myself. I encourage people to stop sitting around whining. Go make up stories, go love people, meet people the way Klecko does.”

In conversation with Pioneer Press books editor Mary Ann Grossmann, who will try to keep Klecko under control. 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 27, Next Chapter Booksellers, 38 S. Snelling Ave., St. Paul.

KHENPO SHERAB SANGPO: Launches “The Heart of Tibetan Buddhism: Advice for Life, Death, and Enlightenment,” in conversation with Roger R. Jackson. 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 26, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S, Mpls.

EVIE SHOCKLEY: Zora Neale Hurston distinguished professor of English at Rutgers University and author of “Renegade Poetics: Black Aesthetics and Formal Innovation in African American Poetry,” shares current scholarship in a lecture presented in the University of Minnesota Zabel Series. Virtual event. 2:30 p.m. Thursday, March 28  Go to z.umn.edu/EShock24.

LOIS QUAM: Pathfinder CEO, named three times to Fortune’s list of the most influential women leaders in business, offers personal relationships and a global perspective in “Who Runs the World,” in which she demonstrates that unlocking the talent of the world’s women is the key for global progress in the 21st century. 6 p.m. Monday, March 25, Next Chapter Booksellers, 38 S. Snelling Ave., St. Paul.

What else is going on

Graywolf Press announces events through 2024 celebrating the Minneapolis-based literary press’s 50th anniversary featuring debut and longstanding authors taking place in Minneapolis, New York City, San Francisco, Chicago and Tucson. Founded in 1974 in Port Townsend, Wash., by Scott Walker, moving to Minnesota in 1985, Graywolf today is considered one of the nation’s leading independent, nonprofit publishers of poetry, fiction and nonfiction, winning numerous national and international awards, including the Nobel Prize for Literature and Pulitzer Prize for poetry. The Minnesota celebration will be a literary gala Sept. 19 at Machine Shop, 300 Second St. N.E., Mpls. Featured readers will be Graywolf authors Edwidge Danticat, Heid Erdrich, Donika Kelly, Layli Long Solder, Manuel Munoz, and others. The evening includes a VIP dinner. Ticketed event. Go to graywolfpress.org.

If you’ve seen or are going to see the film “Cabrini” and want to know more about this Italian immigrant who worked for better housing and health care in New York City, Angel Studios and Sophia Institute Press have a double book release inspired by the movie.

Angel Studios, an affiliate of the Angel Guild, offers “The Mother Cabrini Companion,” a devotional, and a biography, “The World is Too Small: The Life and Times of Mother Cabrini.” Sophia Institute Press publishes Christian books.

Related Articles

Readers and writers: Enger’s latest novel considers a dark future and a sentient Superior — with hope

Book artist wins award for ‘Letters to Amerika’

Stillwater: ‘House of Broken Angels’ by Luis Alberto Urrea is this year’s ‘Valley Reads’ pick

Sarah Tomlinson blends rock music, celebrity and ghostwriting in debut novel

It’s ‘Read Brave St. Paul’ week