Saturday returns! Predictable, I suppose, but these days I try not to take any small steadiness for granted, whether it's a day of the week or a public institution.

Last Sunday night I attended the Boston Public Library's Literary Lights dinner, celebrating a group of authors and raising funds to support the library's special collections. The kind of good and important work even I will put on a suit and tie for, and I was honored to be invited as the guest of a friend who worked to organize the event. Hearing library staff and one author after another talk about what libraries mean to them and what libraries mean to us all, and particularly the emphasis on libraries on one of the few — increasingly few — spaces open to all equally, where anyone can find themself, was an inspiring reminder of what libraries have meant in my own life. I often think about the books I found in libraries from the Tintin comics of childhood to the incredible entire floor of literature in translation where I lingered in college, working my way from country to country. But I don't think often enough about the places themselves, and I don't want to take them for granted at a time when they're at risk. We need to make and maintain and keep making the institutions, large and small, we want to bring forward, so Sunday's event was a welcome inspiration for me to do more where and when I can for the libraries around me.

Here's what we brought forward this week on our site: 

John Baum reviewed Wrongful by Lee Upton, published by Sagging Meniscus Press. John has reviewed for us several times and we're glad to share his words again.

Our featured story was "Last Respects at Maggie O’Malley’s Wake" by Laurence Lumsden, publishing with us for the first time. You'll find more of his work at his website.

And in research notes, Valerie Nieman wrote about Upon The Corner of the Moon from Regal House. Valerie previously wrote about her books To The Bones and In The Lonely Backwater, and we're glad to have her return with her latest.

Elsewhere, Deaf Heaven, a novel by contributor Curtis Smith, will be published by Running Wild Press this month.

Finally, submissions for our October series of spooky stories will be open for only a couple more days, closing on May 5, so scare us soon if you're going to scare us.

Thanks for reading.

Steve Himmer