Chinatown dive and jive outpost Hanks Cafe becomes a literary enclave on Wednesday for a book party. The event celebrates the publication of Pat Matsueda's poetry collection "Stray" (El León Literary Arts, $15) and "Truth Be Told: New and Collected Premortems" (Hip Pocket Press, $20) by Thomas Farber.

Matsueda, the managing editor of "Manoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing," says "Stray" is "like an autobiography in poetry. It tells the story of my childhood as the daughter of a Japanese woman and a Japanese-American soldier and recounts various local experiences as an adult."

"Truth Be Told" gathers Farber's witty short-short stories (or what he calls epigrams) and essays. A senior lecturer in English at the University of California-Berkeley, Farber was also a Visiting Distinguished Writer at the University of Hawai'i in 1990, and collaborated with Big Island photographer Wayne Levin on the book "Other Oceans."

As founder of El Leon Literary Arts, Farber is also Matsueda's publisher. The two will be on hand at Hanks Cafe (1038 Nu'uanu Ave.) 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday. The public is welcome.