This weekend and next week I have several book readings and lectures in east and middle Tennessee. If you live close by, I hope that you’ll consider attending. All are welcome. Please email me (dhaskell@sewanee.edu) if you have questions.

Chattanooga, TN: Artifact, 6-9pm, Saturday June 23rd, 2012. Hand-made Book Fair. In the words of the organizers: “It will be weird, it will be awesome, there will be useful handmade books on sale starting at 10 bucks! There will be a reading! There will be two readings! BYO refreshments, though we will have a short supply of wine at first.” I’ll do a short reading, as will Aubrey Lenahan. 1080 Duncan Ave, Chattanooga, TN. The folks at Artifact have designed a great poster which you can view on their website. Free and open to the public.

Nashville, TN: Sigourney Cheek Literary Garden, Cheekwood, 1200 Forrest Park Drive, Nashville, Tennessee. 3pm, Sunday, June 24th, 2012. I’ll give a reading and talk about the context for the book. There is no additional charge for the event but the usual Cheekwood admission price applies ($12 for adults; discounts for students, retired, etc).

Sewanee, TN: Sewanee School of Letters. Gailor Auditorium, Gailor Hall, University of the South. 4:30pm, Wednesday, 27th June, 2012. I’m speaking as part of the Guest Lectures series. Free and open to the public.

Monteagle, TN: Monteagle Assembly lecture. 11am, Thursday, 28th June, 2012. In Warren Chapel. The Assembly was “established in 1882 as a Chautauqua, a place where our members and guests gather in the summer for fellowship and for spiritual and intellectual growth.” If you’re coming from outside the Assembly, allow some extra time to get through the gates, parking, find the lecture, etc. One of the Assembly’s charms is its forest-like labyrinthine layout. I believe that this lecture is free and open to the public.

And, for a break from “What do you read, my lord? / Words, words, words,” David Coe and I are leading the annual butterfly census (our 15th year, I think) on Saturday June 30th. We leave from the Lake Cheston Pavilion in Sewanee at 9am, then the TN Ave Memorial Cross at 1pm. This is part of the continent-wide annual NABA survey, so our data is combined with data from hundreds of other surveys to give a large-scale and long-term view of butterfly populations.

As a sampler, here is a red-banded hairstreak that I photographed last April: