412, the Creative Nonfiction Literary Festival, begins today with a week of readings and programs including an appearance Thursday by Michael Ondaatje, the Canadian poet and author of the novels "The English Patient" and "Anil's Ghost."

He's appearing in Pitt's Contemporary Writers Series in a program endowed by the late William Block Sr., longtime publisher of the Post-Gazette.

Here's the schedule:

Today: Fiction writer Sharon Dilworth, professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University, and memoir writer Geoffrey Kurtland, pulmonologist at Children's Hospital, 7:30 p.m., Barnes & Noble, Squirrel Hill.

Tomorrow: Poet and essayist Floyd Skloot, 7:30 p.m., Barnes & Noble, South Hills Village.

Wednesday: Floyd Skloot, daughter Rebecca Skloot, a freelance science writer, and short-story writer David Prete, 7:30 p.m., Barnes & Noble, Waterfront.

Novelist Kathleen George and novelist, essayist and memoir-writer Hilary Masters, 7:30 p.m., Barnes & Noble, Waterworks.

Caketrain, a Western Pennsylvania literary journal, sponsors readings by Elizabeth Skurnick, winner of its chapbook competition, and Jim Daniels, poet, writer and screenwriter on the CMU faculty, 8 p.m., The Quiet Storm, 5430 Penn Ave., Garfield.

Thursday: Ondaatje, 8:30 p.m., Lawrence Hall, University of Pittsburgh campus.

Friday: Screening of "In Cold Blood" followed by a panel discussion, Carnegie Museum of Art Theater, Oakland, noon.

Literary magazine editors panel: Representatives from Creative Nonfiction Journal, McSweeney's and Tin House, 3-4:30 p.m., Museum of Art Theater.

Reading by Natalie Goldberg, author of "Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Author Within," 7 p.m., Carnegie Library Lecture Hall, Oakland.

Saturday (Panel discussions and workshops will be held in the Frick Fine Arts Building, Oakland):

Publishing panel: Book publishers and literary agents discuss how to get published. 9 a.m.

Freelance writing panel: Jeanne Marie Laskas and Rebecca Skloot discuss the trade. 10:30 a.m.

Discussion on writing with Goldberg and Creative Nonfiction's Lee Gutkind, noon.

Representatives from the New Yorker, Tin House and McSweeney's discuss how to break into the magazine field. 2 p.m.

Poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction panel with poet Toi Derricotte of Pitt, Mary Karr and Goldberg, moderated by Rhodes. 3:30 p.m.

Reading by poet and memoir writer Karr, whose autobiographies are "Cherry" and "The Liars' Club": "Truth and Lies in Poetry and Memoir," 6 p.m., Carnegie Library Lecture Hall.