Local

Local

Writing workshop

YOUNGSTOWN — Pig Iron Literary & Art Works will hold its monthly Work in Process creative writing workshop Wednesday at Pig Iron Press, 26 N. Phelps St. The session will run from 7 to 9 p.m. with Jim Villani of Pig Iron Press as facilitator. Writers of all ages and ability are welcome. The cost is $3; reservations are not required. For more information, call (330) 747-6932.

Regional

Islam critic emerges to accept award

CLEVELAND — Best-selling author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a prominent critic of Islam, said it’s difficult living in isolation because of death threats from Muslims offended by her work.

The Somali-born Hirsi Ali made a surprise appearance at the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards ceremony Sept. 11 to accept an award for her book “Infidel: My Life.” Security was tight, and she left with armed guards. The 38-year-old former Dutch lawmaker, lives under protection in Washington.

Ronn Richard, executive director of the Cleveland Foundation, which administers the awards, said Hirsi Ali’s prize was kept secret to protect both her and the 600 or so members of the audience, some of whom gasped at her appearance, then rose to encircle her with applause.

In “Infidel,” Hirsi Ali writes how she was subjected to genital mutilation in Somalia and later forced into an unwanted marriage that led her to flee to the Netherlands. She also argues that some tenets of Islam are inherently violent and must be rejected.

National

Banned Books Week

CHICAGO — Is your favorite book safe? Classics such as “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “Of Mice and Men” continue to run the risk of being banned from libraries and classrooms. In an effort to inform Americans about this possibility, thousands of libraries and bookstores will fight censorship by celebrating the freedom to read during Banned Books Week, Saturday through Oct. 4.

First observed in 1982, Banned Books Week reminds Americans not to take the freedom to read for granted and promotes intellectual freedom by creating awareness of book censorship. It is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the American Library Association (ALA), the Association of American Publishers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the National Association of College Stores and is endorsed by the Library of Congress Center for the Book.

To learn more or to get involved, go to www.ala.org/bbooks.

Grisham suit dismissed

OKLAHOMA CITY — A federal judge has dismissed a libel lawsuit filed against best-selling author John Grisham and two other writers over books they wrote about the wrongful conviction of two men in the 1982 murder of cocktail waitress Debbie Sue Carter.

The lawsuit was filed last year by former Pontotoc County District Attorney Bill Peterson, former Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation investigator Gary Rogers and Melvin Hett, a state criminalist, all of whom helped win the original convictions.

The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants conspired to commit libel, generate publicity for themselves by placing the plaintiffs in a false light and intentionally inflicted emotional distress. But U.S. District Judge Ronald White rejected those claims in his ruling Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

The two men initially convicted in the slaying — Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz — were later cleared by DNA evidence and freed after 12 years in prison. A key witness for the prosecution, Glen Gore, was later linked to the crime by DNA, found guilty of the murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Coming to bookshelves

Zits and the City?

NEW YORK — Meet Carrie Bradshaw, in her teenage years.

“Sex and the City” author Candace Bushnell is writing a pair of teen novels, “The Carrie Diaries,” that “takes readers back to Carrie Bradshaw’s formative years in high school, giving an inside look at Carrie’s friendships, romances and how she realized her dream of becoming a writer,” HarperCollins announced.

The first book will come out in 2010. Bushnell, in a statement issued by her publisher, said, “Carrie in high school did not follow the crowd — she led it. It was there that she began observing and commenting on the social scene.”

Bushnell’s adventures of Carrie and her Manhattan pals were adapted into the hit HBO series starring Sarah Jessica Parker and a feature film that came out this year. Her fifth novel, “One Fifth Avenue,” is due out this month.

Vindicator staff/wire reports