MARK GUSTAFSON: Discusses his book “Sowing Seeds: The Minnesota Literary Renaissance & Robert Bly, 1958-1980” in conversation with poet and writer Jim Lenfestey. Free. 6 p.m. Saturday, Open Book, 1011 Washington Ave. S., Mpls., presented by the Loft Literary Center.

SHANNON T. L. KEARNS: Catholic priest, writer, theologian and speaker on transgender issues and religion launches “No One Taught Me How To Be a Man: What a Trans Man’s Experience Reveals About Masculinity” with Chris Stedman, professor in Augsburg University’s department of religion and philosophy, and poet Kyle Tran Myhre. 6 p.m. Monday, Moon Palace Books, 3032 Minnehaha Ave., Mpls.

(Courtesy of Free Spirit Publishing)

MELINA MANGAL: School library media teacher in Minneapolis reads from her books “Trees Stand Tall” and “Birds Sing Their Words” during an early Earth Day story time. 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Red Balloon Bookshop, 891 Grand Ave., St. Paul.

NORMANDALE WRITING FESTIVAL: Marcie Rendon, enrolled member of the White Earth Nation, playwright, author of stand-alone novels and the Cash Blackbear crime series, gives the keynote address at this 15th annual festival, in conversation with Normandale English instructor and author Lynette Reini-Grandell. Free. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday, Normandale Community College, 9700 France Ave. S., Bloomington. Information at normandale.edu/2025writingfestival.

WHITE/YOUNGBLOM: Poets J.P. White and Tracy Youngblom in conversation. 7 p.m. Wednesday, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.

READINGS BY WRITERS: With poets Sarah Ghazal Ali, Donna Isaac and Connie Wanek. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, University Club, 420 Summit Ave., St. Paul.

LAYSHA WARD: Presents “Lead Like You Mean It” in conversation with Chanda Smith Baker. 7 p.m. Monday, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.

JACK ZIPES: Minnesota expert in the history of fairy tales discusses his book “The Wrath of Peace, or How the Wellikans Saved the World.” 7 p.m. Thursday, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.

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(Courtesy of the author)

“Horse Lovers: Unpacking the Female Fascination”: by Karin Winegar (Horse Feed Press, $27.95)

Although I know about climate chaos and political apocalypse, and although I woke up feeling creaky and unloved, for now, I feel all is well… All is well as his unshod hooves crush the frozen, short-shorn alfalfa. All is well as we slip into the woods where deer flash among the birches, where woodpeckers dart and bob and a pair of eagles abide.  All is well as we follow the side-by-side prints of a pair of coyotes in a rime of new snow. … Millions of other girls are born this way, and because it never stops, for a while, any while, in the company of horses, for us all is truly well. — from “Horse Lovers”

Karin Winegar (Courtesy of the author)

What is it about horses that keeps girls mucking out barns in dirty clothes, grown women spending money on saddles and equipment they sometimes can’t afford?

After three decades of riding adventures, Karin Winegar tried to get answers to this puzzle as she rode with the top horsewomen in the United States and the United Kingdom. She rode and talked horses in Virginia horse country and in the American West. She talked to carriage drivers and women who did 100-mile endurance races.

Winegar, a former Star Tribune writer, has loved horses since her childhood in Albert Lea when she “rode” her dad’s back and rode bareback on her pony, Molly. She and other “horse girls” were a close community as they did stable work and cared for their horses. She even took her horse with her to Carleton College in Northfield.

“What was the sensation I felt most often then?” she writes of riding. “Aliveness.”

When Winegar was earning her own money, she formed that horse-woman bond with Gabe, her gray Arabian “heart horse.”

Unlike some women, who ride only their own horse in the same place all the time, Winegar was willing to ride any mount she was given during her adventures. Closer to home, she drove carriages in downtown St. Paul, taking kids to proms and others for rides in cold weather.

One of the most elusive parts of Winegar’s quest for information is how males differ from females when it comes to horses. She writes of seeing a change in men when she was about 16, as they looked at her in a different way. Is it that men want power over horses while women listen to the animal?

Written beautifully (as you’d expect from an award-winning journalist), “Horse Lovers” includes chapters about horses in film and books, the heartbreak of losing your “heart horse,” women who give what money they can to stop the killing of wild horses and to rescue good horses sent to kill pens because nobody wants them. (This is a hard but important chapter to read.)

Among the horsewomen Winegar interviewed (often while riding together) are Pulitzer Prize winner Maxine Kumin; author and civil rights activist Rita Mae Brown; Minnesota Jungian analyst and psychologist Mary Lynn Kittelson; author and PBS documentary film maker Ginger Kathrens; and Carole Federighi, lawyer and endurance rider.

In the end, Winegar has no definitive answer to why there is a strong and fascinating bond between women and their horses. But a reader who is unfamiliar with the world of riding may simply say it is inherent love.

If you are a horse girl or even if you have never been near a Thoroughbred, you will enjoy this meditation on some women’s passion written by someone who lives it.

Winegar, who has won awards for investigative and maritime writing, will launch her book at 7 p.m. April 23 at Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S.,  Mpls., in conversation with fellow horse-lover Sarah T. Williams, former Star Tribune books editor. Free; registration at magersandquinn.com.

(Courtesy of the author)

“The Sun”: by Frank Weber (Book Baby, $21)

When Melanie slipped off the edge, I immediately lunged and grabbed her around the shoulders. We fell past twelve feet and were still falling. We were going to die. — from “The Sun”

Frank F. Weber (Courtesy of the author)

Forensic psychologist Weber gives us a sort-of sequel to last year’s “Scandal of Vandals” in his new crime novel populated by am unsavory cast of characters except for Jon Frederick, an investigator for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and profiler and his wife, Serena, a private investigator.

“Scandal for Vandals” is based on the high-profile, real-life case of T. Eugene Thompson, a St. Paul man who went to prison for being behind the contract killing of his wife, Carol. In that book and the new one, the Thompson character is Tug Grant. Tug is in prison and his beautiful attorney and lover, Taytum Hanson, is working on getting him released.

Each chapter of “The Sun” is told from a character’s perspective, and there are so many that the author includes a helpful list of who and what they are. Mostly, they are either Mafia or gang members out to kill one another. There’s Tug, who will do anything to become a millionaire again; convicted murderer Roan, married to Mafia boss Catania; Ricky, convicted killer who is trying to go straight; Melanie Pearson, who wants revenge; and the unnamed Assassin. It’s not surprising there are dead bodies. It takes Jon and pregnant Serena to sort out this inter-connected web of criminals and what they are after.

Besides writing awards, Weber’s professional honors include an Outstanding Achievement award from the MN Psychological Association and the President’s Award from the MN Correctional Association for his forensic work. Weber and his wife, Brenda, are founders of CORE Professional Services, which helps offenders transition back into the community after incarceration.

Weber will be featured guest at Minnesota Mystery Night at 7 p.m. April 21 at Lucky’s 13 Pub in Mendota. He will be in conversation with Minnesotan Betty Brandt Passick, author of three Gangster Series historical mysteries. Her most recent is “The Black Bag of Dr. Wiltse.”

There is a $13 cover charge for the program, for which reservations are available at mnmysterynight.com/reservations. Dinner service begins at 5:30 p.m.

(Courtesy of the author)

“The Flip Side”: by Jason Walz (Rocky Pond Books/Penguin Young Readers, $17.99)

I thought that once I got here everything would make sense. I thought there would be reason for… all this. — from “The Flip Side.”

Jason Walz (Courtesy of the author)

Theo is devastated by the death of his best friend. He doesn’t want sympathy; he doesn’t want to be at the funeral lunch. He just wants to be alone in his depression that no one seems to understand. As his sadness grows into haunting by the shapeshifting manifestation of his depression, the boy is turned upside down to the Flip Side, an alternative reality where he meets Emma, who is haunted by her own twisted creature. Together, they must open up to one another and find a way out.

Walz, who has worked many years as a special-education teacher, infuses his drawings with energy, with Theo free falling, sometimes upside down, in a palette of grays and maroons. He says the book was inspired by a short story, written by his friend before he died of cancer, about a father trying to keep his kids alive in a world where gravity had reversed. “After losing Kris, my world seemed completely upside down and the literal version of that struck me as a powerful metaphor for loss, depression, and loneliness,” he writes. “For the three years it took to create ‘The Flip Side’ it was like Kris and I were nerding out together once again, and it was wonderful.”

“The Flip Side” earned starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus Reviews, which described it as “Thrilling, inclusive, and unforgettable.”

Walz will introduce his book at 6:30 pm. April 23 at Fresh Eye Gallery, 4238 Nicollet Ave., Mpls.

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Why does child abuse happen? A new public service announcement says most people think it’s a “bad parent problem,” but the ad suggests “the root causes may be different than you think.”

This message from Prevent Child Abuse America goes on to explain that child abuse is the result of families’ lack of financial resources — a problem that can be fixed with a variety of universal family support programs.

If only it were that simple. Sadly, this claim misrepresents research, and this script (which is recited by a series of child narrators) will only contribute to the misinformation about child maltreatment that seems to be guiding public sentiment and public policy.

According to Prevent Child Abuse America, the “new campaign seeks to break the harmful stigma that child abuse is solely a result of ‘bad parenting’ and instead highlights the broader social, economic, and environmental factors that contribute to family crises.” The child actors list the policies that would supposedly prevent abuse from occurring, including “affordable housing,” “access to healthcare,” “high-quality, affordable childcare,” “school breakfast and lunch programs” and “paid family leave.”

Yes, this sounds like a progressive wish list — and it is. But that’s beside the point. The ad’s cheerful children suggest that preventing child abuse hinges on keeping “families out of crisis,” yet the financial challenges faced by parents who abuse and neglect their children are deeply intertwined with a web of other social problems, not just economic hardship.

The most common conditions of maltreatment include parental drug and alcohol abuse, severe mental illness, domestic violence and the presence of nonrelative males in a home. The offending parents often grew up in abusive homes themselves. The ad’s framing also conveniently ignores abuse that occurs in middle-class and affluent homes.

These facts have done little to dispel the misconception among some critics that what child welfare agencies call “neglect” is just poverty. In this narrative, children show up to school without a winter coat or having not eaten over the weekend or report that their home has no heat. As the story goes, biased or uninformed teachers call a child protection hotline, and out-of-touch caseworkers deem the parents neglectful and remove their children.

In reality, when child protection is called, the problems are far greater than a mere lack of resources. And, importantly, most families referred to child protection are already receiving an array of benefits, including Medicaid, free or reduced-price school lunch and food assistance. But the same things that prevent parents from maintaining employment or housing — especially substance abuse and mental illness — often inhibit them from engaging in services, while also diminishing their ability to protect and care for their children.

Oversimplifying the causes of child maltreatment will only lead policymakers to offer ineffective solutions. Even if providing families with more financial resources would prevent some instances of maltreatment, these policies come at an enormous cost while also failing to address the risks faced by our most vulnerable children.

Resources are limited, and policymakers must make choices: Should we pay for school lunches for 72 million children a day or should we fund more and better-trained child welfare caseworkers? Should we fund affordable housing for everyone or should we provide more drug treatment options for parents suffering from addiction?

Assuming that poverty is the real problem has even led some jurisdictions like Washington, D.C., to offer cash payments to families involved with the child welfare system. When many of these parents have debilitating problems with substance abuse, what exactly do officials imagine that cash is going to go toward?

Prevent Child Abuse America has a budget of more than $10 million, including a current grant of $1.7 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s entirely appropriate for advocacy groups to try to help families in poverty. But using federal funding to mislead the public into believing that housing assistance and free lunches are a cure-all for child maltreatment is absurd and, frankly, dangerous.

Emily Putnam-Hornstein is a professor at UNC Chapel Hill’s School of Social Work. Naomi Schaefer Riley is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. They lead Lives Cut Short, a project to document child maltreatment fatalities. They wrote this column for the Los Angeles Times.

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The two brightest nighttime stars available in the Minnesota and Wisconsin sky are Sirius and Arcturus. April is the only month of the year we can enjoy both of them at the same time in the early evening: Sirius in the low southwest sky and Arcturus in the low eastern heavens.

Sirius is the king of stellar brightness and is often referred to as the star of winter, although it’s visible every evening from late December into early May. As most stars do in our celestial dome, it migrates from east to west from night to night as Earth orbits the sun. This is Sirius’ swan song as it shines away in the southwest evening sky. By mid-May, it’ll already be below the horizon as twilight ends, as it begins its summer vacation. Incidentally, when you’re looking for Sirius in the southwest this week, don’t mistake Jupiter for Sirius. Without a doubt, Jupiter is brighter than Sirius, but of course, Jupiter isn’t a star. It just happens to be in that part of the heavens this spring.

(Mike Lynch)

Sirius is so bright because it’s one of the closest stars to the Earth, a little over eight and a half light-years away, with just one light-year, the distance light travels in a year, equaling nearly 6 trillion miles. That puts Sirius at nearly 50 trillion miles away. Astronomically, that is considered just down the street. Sirius’ brightness is also helped by its size, nearly 1.5 million miles in diameter. Our sun isn’t even a million miles across.

Meanwhile, Arcturus, the star of summer, is on the rise in the eastern sky. It’s by far the brightest evening star in the east this spring. You’ll notice that it has an orange glow to it. That’s because it’s considered a red giant star, a bloated star nearing the end of its life. It’s over 25 times the diameter of our sun. It’s also considered to be a nearby star at a little over 36 light-years away. Since a light-year is the distance light travels in a year, the light that we see from Arcturus tonight left that star just over 36 years ago when Madonna was in her prime. Eventually Arcturus will belch away most of its gas and will shrink down to a white dwarf star.

Arcturus is the brightest star in the constellation Bootes, which is supposed to outline a herdsman or plowman, but honestly, it much more resembles a sideways kite with Arcturus marking the tail. Just below Bootes is a very small constellation, Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown. It arguably resembles a crown or a tiara on its side. To me, I see it this time of year as a backward C.

T-Coronae Borealis (Mike Lynch)

Corona Borealis is the home of a potential “guest star.” At the lower left side of the backward C that makes up the northern crown is an extremely faint star, T-Coronae Borealis. It’s very close to the star Epsilon at the end of the C. There’s no way you can see that star with the naked eye. Even with a moderately large telescope, it’s extremely difficult to find. The big news about T- Coronae Borealis is that there’s a decent chance that it’ll suddenly dramatically brighten into a new naked star, at least temporarily. T-Coronae Borealis is also known as the “Blaze Star,” but it sure doesn’t blaze that often. In the last 150 years, it’s only blazed up for a few days back in 1866 and again in 1946, but many astronomers predict it could blaze again in the very near future.

So, what’s going on? T-Coronae Borealis, about 3,000 light-years away, is a double star system comprising a large red giant star and a dying white dwarf star. As the two orbit each other, the intense gravity of the white dwarf pulls gas off the red giant star. The details are complicated, but the white dwarf star can only acquire so much additional gas before it becomes extremely unstable and ignites in a brief flash of nuclear fusion on its surface, triggering what is known as a nova outburst. When this happens to T-Coronae Borealis, it could temporarily become as bright as Polaris, the North Star. But after about a week, T-Coronae Borealis will fade back to obscurity.

No one really knows for sure when T-Coronae Borealis will flare up but most astronomers think it’ll be soon. In fact, there were predictions that it would flare up last summer. I heard one wild prediction about a month ago that it would brighten up on March 27. Obviously, that didn’t pan out. I think someone was trying to create some overhyped headlines. My advice is to keep an eye on Corona Borealis. The Northern Crown might soon process another jewel very, very soon!

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