Author of the collections “The Small Blades Hurt” and “Big-Eyed Afraid,” Erica Dawson reads and discusses her poetry in a Literary Arts Live event at Bates College. Dawson “generates great energy by pulling at the impossible and sometimes pleasurable tangles of what is constant in us, and what is disposable in the world.” — Slate.  The free reading is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 2, at Chase Hall, Skelton Lounge, 56 Campus Ave., Lewiston. FMI: call 207-753-6963 or email [email protected]. Signing and sale will follow.