Profs in print

A recent evening of readings by Boston University faculty offered tantalizing sneak previews. Leslie Epstein, director of the Creative Writing Program and the evening's host, lavished praise on his faculty, taking special note of upcoming books by them and by program graduates.

Perhaps his most effusive introduction was reserved for a special guest who was a no-show. Catherine Tudish had been invited to read but was recovering from a skiing accident. Epstein predicted that Tudish, whose novel "American Cream " is due in August, will join Arthur Golden, Sue Miller, and Ha Jin as a famous graduate of the BU program.

Jin, now a faculty member, has a novel -- his first set in America -- due out this year. "Gulf Music," by Robert Pinsky, a faculty member and former US poet laureate, is being published this fall. Faculty member Jennifer Haigh's third novel, "The Condition," is scheduled to come out in 2008.

Before the evening ended, Epstein, a novelist who began his career in the theater, shamelessly promoted his return to that world. He has adapted his novel "King of the Jews " for the stage. The production by the Boston Playwrights' Theatre opens Feb. 21 .

Few journalists have spent as much time with the Dalai Lama as Thomas Laird. Over the course of three years, Laird interviewed the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader for 60 hours in Dharamsala, India. "From the very first meeting, we argued -- and he seemed to enjoy that," said Laird, who lived in Asia for 30 years.

Laird had studied Tibet's past for years when he asked the Dalai Lama to help him put together a popular history of the nation. The result, "The Story of Tibet: Conversations With the Dalai Lama," is a colorful account that travels across 1,400 years as Laird and the Dalai Lama spar, joke, and dissect momentous periods, such as the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950.

Laird, who now divides his time between Kathmandu, Nepal, and New Orleans, speaks in Somerville today , at Harvard and MIT on Tuesday, and at the Newton Free Library on Wednesday. Details at thestoryoftibet.com .

In "Bridging the Divide," Edward W. Brooke looks back on a political career that made history. In 1962, Brooke, a Massachusetts Republican, became the first African-American state attorney general in the country. Four years later, he became the first African-American popularly elected to the US Senate.

He will speak about his memoir at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Boston Public Library.

"Homo Domesticus: Notes From a Same-Sex Marriage," by David Valdes Greenwood ( Da Capo)

"Love Poetry Out Loud," edited by Robert Alden Rubin (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill)

"Modern Love: 50 True and Extraordinary Tales of Desire, Deceit, and Devotion," edited by Daniel Jones (Three Rivers)

Susan Francis of the Colby College Bookstore, in Waterville, Maine, recommends: "The Knitting Circle," by Ann Hood (Norton): "A beautiful story about loss and healing, and the ways in which friendship knits us all together." Francis's pick is being featured this month in independent bookstores as part of the Book Sense marketing campaign.

Jan Gardner can be reached at JanLGardner@yahoo.com.