Khaled Housseini's "The Kite Runner" is this year's selection for the One Book, One Community reading program presented by the Allegheny County Library Association.

Readers countywide are encouraged to read the book and then participate in library-organized discussions and other book-related events, which begin next month.

The 2003 novel encompasses life in Afghanistan before revolution, the experiences of Afghans who emigrate to the United States and the turmoil during the Taliban takeover.

A companion book, "Fish" by L.H. Matthews, will be read by middle and junior high students.

ACLA said it will announce the schedule of activities later this month.

Yunz guys writin' a book yet?

As the publisher floodgates of 2006 tumble more and more titles into the already bulging book closet, it's a good time to single out the Pennsylvania contingent of authors.

Tawni O'Dell, 41, now based in State College, Pa., has lined up a two-book, six-figure deal with Random House's Shaye Arehart imprint. The first book, "Sister Mine," is scheduled for release next spring.

An Indiana County native, O'Dell scored a breakthrough in 2000 as an "Oprah Book Club" author with her first novel, "Back Roads." Her other novel is "Coal Run," published in 2004.

Aspinwall lawyer Philip Beard joined the novelists' ranks last year with "Dear Zoe," a warm-hearted family tale. Now his publisher, Viking, will release "Lost in the Garden," the retitled version of a novel he wrote before "Zoe," but which was never published.

Also billed as "warm-hearted," the book will be in stores early in May.

Former Upper St. Clair resident Rick Newman, 40, is co-author with Don Shepperd of "Bury Us Upside Down: The Misty Pilots and the Secret Battle for the Ho Chi Minh Trail" (Presidio Press, $29.95), now in stores.

Newman is a reporter for U.S. News and World Report.

Keith Donohue's first novel, "The Stolen Child," will be published in May by Doubleday's Nan Talese imprint.

With bachelor's and master's degrees from Duquesne University, Donohue, 46, is director of communications for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission of the National Archives.

Pittsburgh writer John Michael Curlovich, under his pen name, Michael Paine, publishes a new mass market paperback novel, the thriller "The Night School," from Berkley next month. He's planning a book party next month at "A Pleasant Present" store in Squirrel Hill, with details to be announced later.

Another 'Burgh prize-winner

Poet Jack Gilbert, born in Pittsburgh 80 years ago, won this year's poetry prize from the National Book Critics Circle for his collection "Refusing Heaven" (Knopf, $25).

Although he left town at 23 never to return full time, Gilbert's work often mentions his hometown. He and poet Gerald Stern, another Pittsburgher, were companions in the old Smoky City, a tribute, if overlooked elsewhere, to this town's rich literary heritage.

Other NBCC winners:

E.L. Doctorow, fiction, for "The March"; Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, biography, for "American Prometheus"; Svetlana Alexievich, nonfiction, for "Voices From Chernobyl"; William Logan, criticism, for "The Undiscovered Country"; and Francine du Plessix Gray, autobiography, "Them." The lifetime achievement honor went to Bill Henderson, founder of Pushcart Press.

The prizes were announced Friday by the group representing professional book reviewers.