ON THURSDAY, MARCH 18, novelists Amanda Stern and Daniel Nestor ...

Bowery Poetry Club pulls out all the stops on Sunday, March 21, when Rick Moody, Rebecca Goldstein, Bradford Morrow and Darcey Steinke pile in from 5 to 7 p.m. to celebrate the first issue of Black Clock, a new lit journal.

There's gonna be some poetry and prose on Monday, March 22 at St. Mark's Church. Poet Jerome Sala and novelist Darcey Steinke read from their work at 8; $8, $7 if you're a student or senior, or $5 if you're a member.

Former Poet Laureate Billy Collins is introducing three younger poets (George Bilgere, Michael Donaghy and Rachel Wetzsteon) at the 92nd St. Y. Behold them on Monday at 8:15 p.m. for $16.

Also on Monday, in an event somehow tied up with McSweeney's, Sarah Manguso, Tina Brown Celona and David Biespiel read their stuff at the seminally cozy 11th Street Bar for free.

Tuesday, March 23 is a big night, with book-clutching hordes fanning out over the city. Gabe Hudson, author of Dear Mr. President, reads along with novelist Jim Shepard at Barnes & Noble Astor Place at 7:30 p.m. Or you can check out the always- entertaining Mickey Z., author of the upcoming A Gigantic Mistake: Articles and Essays for Your Intellectual Self-Defense at 7 at KGB Bar. He'll read with Barnet Schechter, who wrote the excellent The Battle for New York: The City at the Heart of the American Revolution. No charge.

Tuesday also brings the kids to Pianos at 8, for the first installment of the new "Ritalin Reading" series, where readers have four minutes each to bring the funny. Hosted by Lindsay Robertson, this month's readers are Jami Attenberg, Whitney Pastorek, Maura Johnston, Josh Abraham, Sarah Lewitinn, Will Leitch and Andrew Hearst.

One more on Tuesday: At 6:30 at the South Court Auditorium at the Main Branch of the NY Public Library, Pulitizer Prize winners Samuel Dillon and Julia Preston talk about their book Opening Mexico: The Making of a Democracy. Freedom ain't free, though?$10 for you, $7 for donors.

?Paul McLeary

Halcyon, 227 Smith St. (betw. Butler & Douglass Sts.), 718-260-9299; Pianos, 158 Ludlow St. (betw. Stanton & Rivington Sts.), 212-505-3733; 11th Street Bar, 510 E. 11th St. (betw. Aves. A & B), 212-982-3929; Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery (betw. Houston & Bleecker Sts.), 212-614-0505; 92nd St. Y, at Lexington Ave, 212 415-5500; Barnes & Noble, 4 Astor Pl. (betw. B'way & Lafayette St.), 212-420-1322; KGB Bar, 85 E. 4th St. (betw. 2nd & 3rd Aves.), 212-505-3360.