CEDAR RAPIDS—The planning committee for the annual community reading program known as Linn Area Reads has selected Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas for the 2009 edition of the program. Dallas will read from the book on Sunday, March 1 at 2 p.m. at Theatre Cedar Rapids’ Lindale facility. The reading will also be the first event of this year’s edition of Out Loud! The Metro Library Network Author Series. In addition to Dallas, the series will feature appearances by Sara Paretsky, Lan Samantha Chang, Lawrence Block, and Michael Buckley.

“Both the Linn Area Reads programs and the Out Loud! lineup offer great opportunities for readers across our wider community,” said Rob Cline, series coordinator for the Out Loud! series and a member of the Linn Area Reads planning committee. “There is quite a bit of variety this year in both programs and we believe that will get even more people involved.”

Tallgrass explores the underlying prejudice that led to the internment of those of Japanese descent during World War II. When a young girl is murdered in Ellis, Colorado, in the early 1940s, most of the town quickly assumes the killer escaped from the nearby internment camp. Guided by her parents, 13-year-old Rennie Stroud, stands in opposition to the prevailing winds.

The book was chosen in part due to its similarities to Harper Lee’s classic To Kill a Mockingbird. Classics at Brucemore, which will be presenting a theatrical version of Lee’s book July 9-11 and 16-18, is collaborating with Linn Area Reads to present programs that tie the two novels together. Both books address widespread prejudice and feature a young female narrator whose sense of justice is shaped by a noble father.

Dallas is the author of several novels, including the forthcoming Prayers for Sale which will be released in April.

Creator of the popular V.I. Warshawski series of detective novels, Sara Paretsky will give a talk, take audience questions, and sign books on Saturday, April 18 at 7 p.m. at TCR-Lindale. Paretsky, who was born in Ames, is often credited with revolutionizing the role of women in detective fiction with the introduction of Warshawski in 1982’s Indemnity Only. Her most recent novel, Bleeding Kansas, is set in the Kaw River Valley where she spent much of her childhood. The forthcoming Warshawski novel is entitled Hardball.

Lan Samantha Chang is the director of the University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop and is also an alumna of the acclaimed writing program. The author of the novel Inheritance as well as the fiction collection Hunger: A Novella and Stories, she will read from her work, take audience questions, and sign books on Wednesday, May 6 at 7 p.m. at TCR-Lindale. While a student at the UI, she was the winner of the James-Michener-Copernicus Award. She has also been honored as the California Book Award Silver Medalist, as a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and with a Bay Area Book Award and literary awards from the Greensboro Review and the Transatlantic Review. Her work has also been nominated for the PEN Center USA West Award and the PEN/Hemingway Literature Prize.

Lawrence Block is creator of several popular series including mysteries featuring Matthew Scudder and Bernie Rhodenbarr as well as novels featuring Keller, a contemplative hit man. Block is also an avid race walker and will read from Step by Step, his new memoir on that subject, on Thursday, May 21 at 7 p.m. at TCR-Lindale. The Mystery Writers of America Grand Master and four-time winner of the Edgar Allen Poe and Shamus Awards will also take audience questions and sign books.

Michael Buckley’s Sisters Grimm novels appeal to both children and adults, and fans of all ages will have the opportunity to meet Buckley on Saturday, June 20. Buckley will make presentations for the Cedar Rapids, Marion, and Hiawatha Public Libraries, reading from The Everafter War, the seventh book in his series about two feisty descendants of the Brothers Grimm and the magical community in which they live. Details of those appearances, which will be incorporated into the libraries’ annual Summer Reading Program, are forthcoming.

More information about both the Linn Area Reads program and the Out Loud! Author Series is available at www.metrolibrarynetwork.org.

Linn Area Reads is supported by Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Brucemore, Cornell College, East Central Library Services, Friends of the Cedar Rapids Public Library, Friends of the Hiawatha Public Library, The Gazette, the Giacoletto Foundation, Hancher Auditorium, Linn County Library Consortium, and the Metro Library Network.

Out Loud! The Metro Library Network Author Series is supported by the Giacoletto Foundation with media support from The Gazette and event book sales provided by the Cedar Rapids Barnes & Noble.