This year’s Hugo Literary Series launches with the theme “Under the Influence,” which immediately puts you in mind of booze—the writer’s greatest friend, and worst enemy, since long before Hemingway emptied his first bottle. Tonight, however, journalist-turned-novelist Jess Walter (The Financial Lives of the Poets) travels over from Spokane to consider the non-alcoholic beliefs, passions, misunderstandings, and delusions that inspire our actions—for better and worse. He’ll read new work on the assigned topic, joined by poet Ed Skoog and novelist Nancy Rawles, locals well familiar with the Hugo House stage. The Board of Education, an offshoot of Central Services, supplies tonight’s music. BRIAN MILLER

Fri., Oct. 15, 7 p.m., 2010