Two headlining authors making appearances Tuesday

Two world-reknown authors, Dr. Reza Aslan and David Oliver Relin, will be making stops in the Willamette Valley this week.

Aslan, an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions, will be speaking Tuesday, May 19, at Powell's City of Books in Portland, 1005 W Burnside, in Portland. The event and book signing begins at 7:30 p.m.

Aslan's most recent book is How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization, and the End of the War on Terror, makes the case that War on Terror is an unwinnable one because it is the wrong war to fight. A war between religions, a battle between good and evil, fails to address the underlying social and political roots of conflict and terror.

The free event is co-sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Oregon.

On Thursday, May 21, David Oliver Relin, co-author of "Three Cups of Tea," will speak at Willamette University's Smith auditorium. General admission tickets are $18, and tickets to a private reception and reserved seating cost $50.

The event is a fundraiser for the Salem-Keizer School District's Operation Backpack. Proceeds will be used to purchase "birthday bags" for homeless students. Tickets for the event are available at Daue House, Encore Furniture and MaPS Credit Unions.

For two decades, Relin has focused on reporting about social issues and their effect on children, both in the U.S., and around the world. His interviews with child soldiers (including a profile of teenager Ishmael Beah, who would later write the bestseller A Long Way Gone) have been included in Amnesty International reports. And his investigation into the way the INS abused children in its custody contributed to the reorganization of that agency.

In "Three Cups of Tea," Relin helped recount the journey that led Greg Mortenson from a failed 1993 attempt to climb Pakistan’s K2, the world’s second highest mountain, to successfully establish schools in some of the most remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan