Literati Roundup: From the Sublime to the Hilarious

It's not too late to change your plans for tonight and head to either of the evening' stellar literary offerings, is it? Better yet, if you don't have any, consider this: KGB Bar (84 E 4th St) is hosting a reading of non-fiction that should kick off Black History Month with style - Elizabeth Gardner Hines, Rebecca Carroll, Kathy Y. Wilson, and G. Bell. Then, heading uptown to the 92nd St. Y (Lexington Ave. and 92nd St.), everyone's favorite journalist-slash-novelists Tom Wolfe and Pete Hamill are sitting down for a discussion on New York: Fact and Fiction. It starts at 8PM and will cost you $25.

Tomorrow night, it's literature of an entirely different sort - yours. Head on over to Freddy's Back Room (485 Dean St. in Brooklyn) at 8:30PM for the awesome Cringe!, hosted by internet superstar Sarah Brown and friends (full disclosure: we totally once got drunk on pink zinfandel watching Beyond the Valley of the Dolls with Miss Brown, and have the priviledge of calling her a friend). As the hot organizers call it, "witness funny people reading from their old diaries, letters, songs, poems, and other general representations of the crushing misery of their humiliating adolescence, but it’s okay because they’re totally cool and well-adjusted and super attractive now." You know you've got that journal under your bed. Bust it out, bloggers, now is the time.

And on Saturday (2/4), refresh your winter weekend by stopping by Coliseum Books (W 42nd St. across from the NYPL) at 6PM for a reading by Pamela des Barres, professional groupie, writer, and author of her new re-issued book, aptly titled I'm With the Band: Confessions of a Groupie. And hey, Sandra Bernhard is attending!

And lastly, on a more serious note (because this next author is the most serious person we can imagine), novelist Joyce Carol Oates will be reading from her new short story collection, The Female of the Species: Tales of Mystery and Suspense at the New School (66 W 12th St.) on Monday, February 6th at 6PM. The reading costs $5.