Dan Frazier has long been drawn to comic books. The Lansing native, 52, has been collecting comics since he was young, and throughout his life he's accumulated more than 30,000 — about a third of which are signed.

A woman from a local book club recently accosted me about Richard Ford's novel, "Canada." She'd read my review, but was perplexed by its lack of kinetic action.

When he was researching his book, "Detroit City Is the Place to Be: The Afterlife of an American Metropolis," Rolling Stone contributing editor Mark Binelli wanted to see a different side of Detroit than the one portrayed in popular media — a side even some of us "locals" have only seen by expressway on our way to see the Tigers, the Lions or a show at the Fox Theatre. To accomplish this, he spent a year in the city, exploring the streets by bicycle.

Lovers of great literature will have their hands — or at least their bedside tables — full if they want to stay up with the remarkable number of distinguished authors who will be visiting Lansing in the next few weeks.

April is National Poetry Month, and, like the flowers it often celebrates, poetry is about to spring forth all around town. Michigan State University's Residential College in the Arts and Humanities' Center for Poetry has several activities planned for the month, including three poetry readings, a poetic chalking of a section of the Lansing River Trail and Poetry in Motion, which is hitching a ride on local CATA buses for the second year in a row.

Wednesday, Jan. 25 — Michigan State University associate dean and writing professor Edward Watts wants to make the Midwest less of a flyover zone when it comes to literature. Watts, who has long been teaching the works of Midwest writers, is the driving force behind a series of three events featuring Michigan writers who delve into political socio-economic issues.

Thursday, May 31 — John Smoltz’s professional baseball career is a highlight reel in itself, but he still calls hitting an eighth-inning walk-off home run to win the Lansing area Diamond Classic in 1985 one of his greatest moments in baseball. One of his worst moments occurred just a couple of weeks earlier, when his Waverly High School team was knocked out of the state finals by Okemos in a rain-shortened game he thought his team had won.

Thriller writer Karen Dionne, who will keynote the 26th annual "A Rally of Writers," has had three novels published, including the environmental thrillers "Boiling Point" and "Freezing Point." The Detroit native is noted for her meticulous research, including a visit to an active volcano in Chaiten, Chile, for "Boiling Point."

More than half a million readers can't be wrong. That's the number of e-books sold by Holt thriller writer Rick Murcer.

Detroit author and journalist Charlie LeDuff doesn't need a white suit, acid or a rich boy's swagger to prove that he belongs among the greats of New (now old) Journalism. His new book not only gives him a seat at that table, but he gets to pick the entrée — and he certainly looks the part.