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Open poetry reading

YOUNGSTOWN — Pig Iron Literary & Arts Works Second Open Poetry Reading is set for Tuesday at Skeeter’s Jazz Bar & Grill, 15 Federal Plaza West. Participants may sign up at the door at 7:45 p.m., and readings will commence at 8. Call (330) 747-6932 for information.

HONORS

Buckeye Book Award

CLEVELAND— Elementary school children and teachers across Ohio have chosen “The Topsy-Turvey Towel,” a 2006 book by Northeast Ohioans Julie Goulis and John Ferguson, as a finalist for a 2008 Buckeye Children’s Book Award in the grades K-2 category.

“Towel” is the third book in a series written by Goulis and illustrated by Ferguson, an Austintown Fitch High and Youngstown State University graduate, which uses ordinary objects to challenge children of our tech-based society to use their imaginations to entertain themselves. Published by Bubblegum Books, the series began with “The Things A String Can Be” and “Something Shiny, Something Round,” which was named best book of 2005 by the Akron Beacon Journal.

There are two other book categories — grades 3-5 and 6-8 — with five selections competing in each. Voting will continue until Nov. 10, with the winner to be announced in early December. Visit www.bcbookaward.info.

Thurber Prize

NEW YORK — Larry Doyle, a former TV writer-producer for “The Simpsons,” was named the winner of the 2008 Thurber Prize for American Humor for his novel, “I Love You, Beth Cooper.”

Doyle will receive $5,000. The two other finalists were Patricia Marx for the novel “Him Her Him Again The End of Him,” and Simon Rich for “Ant Farm,” an essay collection.

The Thurber Prize, named for author-illustrator James Thurber, was founded in 1996.

REA Award

NEW YORK — Author Amy Hempel, whose candid takes on modern life have brought her a small but devoted following, has been named this year’s winner of the Rea Award for the Short Story, a $30,000 prize that in previous years has been given to Paul Bowles, Eudora Welty and Grace Paley.

A native of Chicago who lives in New York, the 56-year-old Hempel has published such acclaimed collections as “Reasons to Live” and “The Dog of the Marriage.”

The Rea Award was established in 1986 by Michael M. Rea, a publisher and collector of first-edition short stories who died in 1996.

BOOK DEALS

Fey to write humor book

NEW YORK — Tina Fey, already the busiest of stars thanks to her Emmy-winning role in “30 Rock” and definitive impersonation of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, is working on a book.

According to two publishing officials with knowledge of the negotiations, Little, Brown and Company will release a book of humorous essays by the 38-year-old Fey. Her many writing credits include “30 Rock” and “Saturday Night Live,” and the feature film “Mean Girls.”

The officials asked not to be identified, citing the confidentiality of negotiations, and declined to give financial details. Little, Brown spokeswoman Heather Rizzo did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

The deal was first reported by The New York Observer.

LEGAL MATTERS

Publisher-attack plot

LONDON — Three men charged with plotting to attack Gibson Square, publisher of U.S. author Sherry Jones’ controversial novel, “The Jewel of Medina,” will have another day in court: Friday.

Ali Beheshti, 40, Abrar Mirza, 22, and Abbas Taj, 30, Beheshti also were charged with possession of a weapon designed or adapted for the discharge of a noxious liquid or gas — reportedly a gasoline bomb. They were arrested early Sept. 27 under anti-terrorism laws, but were not charged with any terrorist offenses.

No one was injured in the incident.

Holocaust memoir suit

BOSTON — A woman who fabricated a best-selling memoir about surviving the Holocaust by living with wolves has won a Massachusetts court battle with her former publisher.

A judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by publisher Jane Daniel against Misha Defonseca (and her ghost writer. He said Daniel had missed a one-year statute of limitations.

Daniel sued this year after Defonseca admitted she made up the story of her tortured childhood in her 1997 book, “Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years.”

Daniel argued that the court should overturn a jury decision that forced her to pay Defonseca $32.4 million in a fight over the book’s profits.

Vindicator staff/wire reports