FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – University of Arkansas Press author Kathleen Rooney will be appearing at Fayetteville’s Nightbird Books to promote her new book Live Nude Girl: My Life as an Object, a memoir about Rooney’s experiences working as an artists’ model. Her reading will take place at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 27, at Nightbird Books, 557 S. School St. The event is free and open to the public.

Rooney will be joined by fellow author Kyle Minor, who will read from his own collection of short stories, In the Devil’s Territory, recently published by Dzanc Publishing. Also appearing will be Miroslav Penkov, who is currently finishing his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of Arkansas and whose short story “Buying Lenin” was selected for inclusion in the 2008 edition of the prestigious Best American Short Stories series.

The Nightbird event is similar to the many other readings Rooney and Minor have done on their extensive tour, which they call “Live Nude Girl in the Devil’s Territory,” and which has included venerable independent bookstores in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., Baltimore, New York and Memphis, Tenn. In each city, the authors have teamed up with a third, local writer. These guest writers have ranged from the very well-known, such as Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snickett), Steve Almond and Joshuah Bearman, to promising up-and-comers like Penkov in Fayetteville.

According to Tom Lavoie, marketing director for the University of Arkansas Press, the stop at Nightbird is about the 15^th on the tour, which is proving to be an effective way for the young authors to get attention for their books. “Kathleen is not only an excellent writer but also an incredibly energetic person whose engaging personality and wit are very well showcased when she’s in front of a crowd. She represents that world of generous authors who support and connect with each other, and this makes the signings more fun and varied for everyone.”

Rooney is an active blogger and has kept her readers up to date on the tour’s progress at http://booktourdiary.blogspot.com. She says she’s enjoying the “travelling literary circus,” as she has described the tour, and she says that she’s been very encouraged by the crowds that have turned out to support local bookstores in a difficult economy.