Readings

ALBANY — A speech presentation by Debito Arudou, who challenged the “Japanese Only/No Foreigners Allowed” practices at many Japanese businesses and garnered international support for confronting Japan’s xenophobia, will take place on Saturday, Aug. 23, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the University Village Community Center Gym, 1123 Jackson St. in Albany.

The entrance is at the intersection of San Pablo Avenue and Monroe Avenue, one block south of Marin Avenue.

BERKELEY — Haruki Murakami, internationally recognized as Japan’s leading novelist, writer and translator, and winner of the Yomiuri Prize for his critically acclaimed “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle,” will give a reading and talk Saturday, Oct. 11, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall.

A conversation with Roland Kelts, Tokyo University lecturer and author of “Japanamerica,” will be followed by a Q&A with the audience. This event is presented in association with the Center for Japanese Studies at UC Berkeley.

Bilingual storyteller Megumi will present “Japanese Folk Tales” at the following venues:

Saturday, June 21, at 3:50 p.m. at the Japanese Cultural Fair in Mission Plaza Park, 103 Emmett St. in Santa Cruz. Info: www.jcfsc.org.

Wednesday, June 25 — 1 p.m. at Marina Library, 190 Seaside Circle in Marina. Info: (831) 883-7507. 3:30 p.m. at Castroville Library, 11160 Speegle St. in Castroville. Info: (831) 769-8724.

BERKELEY — Renowned Northwest region author Paul Gerhards, publisher and author of “Mapping the Dharma,” will be at the BCA Bookstore, 2140 Durant Ave. (at Fulton) in Berkeley, on Saturday, June 14, from 1 to 3 p.m.

Gerhards has been studying and practicing Buddhism for more than 10 years. His principal course of study is Theravada, the school of Buddhism also known as Southern Transmission, which has its roots in Thailand, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

Mystery writer Naomi Hirahara will speak on Saturday, June 14, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Make-Out Room, 3225 22nd St. (between Valencia and Mission) in San Francisco. Doors open at 7 p.m.

Hirahara and arts writer Sheerly Avni of Salon.com will appear as part of Writers With Drinks, a monthly “spoken-word variety show” hosted by Charlie Anders, author of “Choir Boy.” The event features a variety of guests, including authors, poets, comedians, cartoonists and radio hosts.

HANFORD — Bilingual storyteller Megumi will present “Japanese Folk Tales’ on Sunday, April 20, at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. during the Spring Festival, to be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture, 15770 Tenth Ave. in Hanford.

Entrance fee for the festival is $7 in advance and $10 on the day of the event for non-members. Members are admitted free.

For the storytelling program, the fee is $5 for members, $7 for non-members.

For more information on the festival, call (559) 582-4915 or go on-line to www.ccjac.org.

Shig Yabu and Willie Ito, the author and illustrator of the childrenﾕs book Hello Maggie! (Yabitoon Books), will make two appearances in the Bay Area:

･ Saturday, April 19 (during the Cherry Blossom Festival), at the National Japanese American Historical Society, 1684 Post St. in San Francisco Japantown. There will be a meet-and-greet at 1 p.m., a reading and illustration demonstration at 1:30 p.m., and book-signing from 2:15 to 3 p.m.

INDEPENDENCE, Inyo County — Former internees Shig Yabu and Willie Ito will present their recently published children’s book, Hello Maggie, at the Manzanar National Historic Interpretive Center on Sunday, Feb. 17, and Monday, Feb. 18.

The book is an account of Yabu’s experience raising a wild magpie while interned as a 10-year-old boy at the Heart Mountain War Relocation Center in Wyoming. Ito, who illustrated the book, was 8 years old when his family was sent to the Topaz War Relocation Center in central Utah.

REDWOOD CITY — Gail Tsukiyama will read from and discuss her latest book, The Street of a Thousand Blossoms, on Thursday, Jan. 31, at 7 p.m. at Redwood City Public Library, 1044 Middlefield Rd.

This story of two brothers in Tokyo whose lives are turned upside down by World War II and its aftermath has received acclaim from other writers: