Thursday, Sept 17
Ted Kooser signing and book launch. The University of Nebraska Press and poet Ted Kooser will celebrate the publication of his new memoir, Lights on a Ground of Darkness, with a book signing. (7 pm., W. Dale Clark Library, 215 South 15th St.; Free and open to the public.)

Friday, Sept. 18
pulp & poetry: tales of romance & adventure at the joslyn. An hour-long tour of the Joslyn Museum's permanent collection, led by poets reading their original work inspired by the museum’s paintings and sculptures. (1 pm, Joslyn Art Museum, 2200 Dodge St.; Cost: Joslyn admission.)

(downtown) omaha lit fest opening night party
Featuring: twisted lives, tormented loves and the rocking chairity fundraiser.
(6:30 pm-10 pm, W. Dale Clark Library, 215 South 15th St.; Suggested donation of your choice.)

Features artwork by Wendy Jane Bantam, Lynn Batten, Scott Blake, Eddith Buis, Miss Cake, JJ Carroll, Faith Enright, Wanda Ewing, James Freeman, Carlleta Harty, Linda Hatfield, Skyelar Hawkins, Bill Hoover, Jeff Koterba, Kim Reid Kuhn, Natalie Linstrom, Jean Mason, Deborah McColley, Krysztof Nemeth, Bonnie O’Connell, Stephanie Olesh, Kristin Pluhacek, Eric Post, Rodney Rahl, Timothy Schaffert, Michael Scheef, Bryce Speed, Roxanne Wach, Trilety Wade, Watie White.

Featuring performance by aetherplough

the rocking chairity fundraiser.
Food, drink, and artful interpretation of novels inspired by the work of the nation's leading writers of urban fiction. Suggested donations benefit the Urban Speculative Fiction Literary Foundation's project to improve the lives of Omaha's at-risk youth through literature. Here's how to sponsor the organization’s mission of helping young people develop their life skills, business acumen, literary talents and imagination: www.rockingchairity.com

twisted lives, tormented loves: savage art inspired by jim thompson.
Original artwork inspired by the pulp classics of one-time Nebraskan Jim Thompson. (Each piece sold benefits the Lit Fest, the Omaha Public Library Foundation, and USFLF.) According to the book Soul of a People: The WPA Writers' Project Uncovers Depression America by David A. Taylor, Thompson began writing while taking courses at UNL and studying with Lowry Wimberly, the founding editor of the Prairie Schooner literary journal. "Thompson left Oklahoma City just ahead of the law. Police wanted to arrest him for selling twenty cases of bootleg whiskey at the hotel where he worked. Thompson funded his education in Lincoln with moonlighting jobs in a funeral parlor, as a movie projectionist, and in a bakery." Thompson's work was forever influenced by his experiences in small-town America. For example, his second novel, Heed the Thunder, was set in a fictional Nebraska town in 1914. Publisher's Weekly writes: it tells of the interlocking lives of the mean-spirited, brawling Fargo clan, a charming young lawyer who becomes a crooked politico, an embittered English bank clerk dying slowly of syphilis, sundry vivacious kids, and the glamorous Bella, whose longing to get away to the big city ends in death.

Saturday, Sept. 19
afternoon conversations with writers at KANEKO. Writers and critics discuss the influence of classic pulp fiction (romance, westerns, noir, horror, etc.), and contemporary genre fiction, on their work specifically and the literary culture in general, at KANEKO (1111 Jones St.—11th and Jones), noon to 5 pm. (buy books at Aromas Coffee House; sales provided by the Bookworm.) All panels below are free and open to the public.

12 Noon. Noir at Noon: the comforts of crime in scary times. The unseemly appeal of the criminal element. With: Sean Doolittle (Safer); Harley Jane Kozak (A Date You Can’t Refuse); Evie Rhodes (Expired); and Jonathan Segura (Occupational Hazards). Moderated by Joi Brozek (I’ll See You Soon at Coney Island).

1 pm. Trashy Behavior: the writer’s life in the new economy. The roles and challenges of the publishing industry, newspapers, and memoir in chronicling hard times. With: Belinda Acosta (Damas, Dramas, and Ana Ruiz), Joy Castro (The Truth Book), publicist Lauren Cerand, Jeff Koterba (Inklings), and Amelia María de la Luz Montes (contributor to An Angle of Vision: Women Writers on Their Poor and Working Class Roots).

2 pm. Love &/or Seduction: women writing romance. Women writers discuss writing for and about women. With: Victoria Alexander (The Virgin’s Secret); Kim Louise (Sweet Like Honey); Amelia María de la Luz Montes (editor of the Penguin Classics reissue of Who Would Have Thought It? by Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton); Rachel Shukert (Have You No Shame? And Other Regrettable Stories). Moderated by emily danforth (Lucky Human).

3 pm. Vampires ♥ Zombies: the art and language of horror. The enduring appeal of the bloodsucker and other archetypes of misanthropy. With: Artist Jeremy Caniglia; D. Lee Hatchett (the Black Angel Trilogy); Chloe Neill (Some Girls Bite); Marcus Pelegrimas (Blood Blade); Evie Rhodes (Expired). Moderated by Timothy Schaffert.

4 pm. Wild: mythmaking and the American West. Writing about the legends and realities of the classic and contemporary West. With: Marcus Galloway (The Man from Boot Hill); Stew Magnuson (The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder: And Other True Stories from the Nebraska Pine-Ridge Border Towns), David Philip Mullins (True Love Versus the Cigar Store Indian).

literary happy hour. An evening at Nomad Lounge. (5 pm, 1013 Jones St.) Also, Fashion Week Finale! Free Fashion Week finale tickets for Lit Fest event-goers.