RIVERSIDE – Award-winning authors of all stripes – including poets, science fiction novelists and non-fiction writers covering topics as diverse as Al-Qaeda and the desert – will be in town to celebrate their craft during UC Riverside’s annual Writers Week, which takes place Feb. 9-13.

The keynote speaker for 2010 is Francisco Goldman, author of "The Art of Political Murder," "The Long Night of White Chickens" and other books of fiction and non-fiction. Goldman, an investigative journalist and novelist, has written for the New Yorker, Harper’s and many other national magazines.

Other authors participating in panels and readings during the week-long event include:

• Greg Benford, a professor of physics at UC Irvine and author of the

science fiction novel "Timescape"

• Tim Geiger, poet and author of "Blue Light Factory"

• Michelle Boisseau, a professor of English at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and author of "A Sunday in God-Years"

• Larry Niven, author of science fiction works including "Ringworld"

• Dixie Salazar, a poet, novelist and short story writer whose Advertisement

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• And many other writers including Victoria Patterson, Heidi Durrow, Laila Lalami, Jon Veinberg, and Sheila Finch.

Laurence Wright, a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine and author of the award-winning history of Al-Qaeda, "The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11," will be presenting the 42nd Hays Press Enterprise Lecture on Thursday, Feb. 11, at 7:30 p.m. in University Theatre.

A reception and book signing will follow. Reservations for the lecture are equested by Feb. 4, and may be made by calling (951) 827-3144 or emailing virginia.lerer@ucr.edu.

A discussion of "No Place for a Puritan: Literature of California’s Deserts" (Heyday Books) will take place on Sat. Feb. 13 at the downtown branch of Riverside’s public library at 3581 Mission Inn Ave.

All other events on campus are free and open to the public. All-day parking on campus costs $6. Complimentary parking will be available in Lot 6 for the Feb. 11 Hays Press-Enterprise Lecture.