An award-winning travel writer and plans a free public reading and seminar at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Stephanie Elizondo Griest, whose globe-trotting adventures have included mingling with the Russian Mafia, polishing Chinese propaganda, and dancing with Cuban rumba queens, will speak March 12 at noon and at 7 p.m.

Both events will be in the Dudley Bailey Library.

Griest is the author of the award-winning travel memoirs: "Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana" and "Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines."

She also has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, The Believer, Texas Monthly and edited "Best Women's Travel Writing 2010."