Remember back in September when Thomas Friedman visited the U of M campus? And you missed it because it happened on a Friday at 5 p.m. and you totally forgot about it?

Me too, and my forehead still hurts from how many times I smacked it.

Luckily, there’s a slew of authors coming to our campus soon – and not one of their visits will conflict with your end-of-the-week napping routine. And forget the large, impersonal Ted Mann that Friedman came to. All of these author visits will take place at  the Coffman bookstore, where you’ll be able to interact with the authors, rub elbows… Hold up, do I smell a schmooze opp?

Here’s a small selection of the authors coming. For a few more, hit up the bookstore’s website.

Alan Bjerga Nov. 7, 4 p.m.

Bjerga grew up on 80 acres of Minnesotan farmland. As an intro to his book, “Endless Appetites,” the farm boy pits his experience against those of farmers in Nicaragua, Thailand and Kenya before jumping into an exploration of the international food crisis and crop markets.

Peter Smith Nov. 8, 4 p.m.

MPR contributor Smith wrote a book about awkward times with an appropriately bulked-up title: “A Cavalcade of Lesser Horrors.” The contents of the book aren’t as fancy shmancy, as Smith reflects on those wince-worthy moments in a simple and straight-forward style.

Jeff Hertzberg Nov. 16, 4 p.m.

Next time you’re tempted to make the call to D-Moe’s for an artisan pizza, remember that you could take that 45 minute wait to crack open “Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day,” written by U of M prof Hertzberg.

Larry Watson Dec. 12, 2 p.m.

It’s truly shocking that the title “American Boy” hadn’t been used until Watson snapped it up for his coming-of-age story, which is about (duh) an American Boy – specifically, a rural Minnesotan boy.