Author interviews by Kay Ellington

10.8.2017  Ask Baba Yaga author Taisia Kitaiskaia: “Everything has to feel like a surprise”

Taisia Kitaiskaia of Austin scores two otherworldly debut titles this fall, in time for Halloween. Drawing from the traditions of Russian folklore and feminist creativity, her works are bound to cast a spell over readers. After interviewing her via email this week, we predict you’ll be entertained and enlightened, witch-ever you choose.

LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: Taisia, you lived in Russia until you were five. What inspired your family to come to the U.S.?

TAISIA KITAISKAIA: My parents are scientists, and my dad wanted to get his Ph.D. here in America. We actually moved right before the Soviet Union crumbled.

When your family moved to the U.S., where did you live and grow up, and how did your upbringing influence your writing?

We moved around a lot to follow my father’s academic posts, and I moved even more for my education. When we left Russia, we landed in southern California. It was November, and the bright colors of California were a shock after the muted winter in Siberia. I fell in love with it. The cheerful weather agreed with my personality and boosted my creativity, because I started drawing and writing a ton. I wrote and illustrated these little stapled “books” for my parents’ friends when they came over. I was shy but wanted to connect, so I’d work on a book while the guest had dinner or tea, sort of shove the finished book over to them at the end of visit, and run blushing up the stairs. Then we moved to Seattle, a climate hospitable to reading, so my reading habits blossomed there. By the time my family moved to Fairbanks, Alaska, I was already off at boarding school, studying creative writing at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan as a teen. That experience was absolutely incredible—I got an invaluable head start on developing as a writer.  >>READ MORE

Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events
Bookish Texas event highlights  10.8.2017 >> GO this week   Michelle Newby, Contributing Editor

SPECIAL EVENTS THIS WEEK

• Friends of the Dallas Public Library gala, October 12
• Texas Grand Slam Poetry Festival, Bryan/College Station, October 12-14
• Lone Star Storytelling Festival 2017, Frisco, October 13-14
• Houston Poetry Fest, October 13-15
• Indiepalooza, Houston, October 13-15
• 1st Annual Fort Worth BookFest, October 14
• Boerne Book & Arts Fest, October 14
• Indie Author Day, Dallas, October 14
• National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature 20th Anniversary Gala, Abilene, October 14
• 9th Annual El Paso Community College Literary Fiesta, October 14
• Writers in the Field, Mansfield, October 14-15

AUSTIN  Mon., Oct. 9  BookPeople, VAL BRAINS speaking & signing Hexes for the Modern Age, 7PM

ALPINE  Tues., Oct. 10 Sul Ross University – Wildenthal Memorial Library, Sarah Cortez will be reading from and discussing her latest book, Vanishing Points: Poems and Photographs of Texas Roadside Memorials, 2PM

DALLAS  Tues., Oct. 10 Highland Park United Methodist Church, Friends of the SMU Libraries present Roger D. Hodge discussing and signing Texas Blood: Seven Generations Among the Outlaws, Ranchers, Indians, Missionaries, Soldiers, and Smugglers of the Borderlands, 7PM  ALSO SIGNING IN AUSTIN Wed., Oct. 11, BookPeople, 7PM [ticketed event]    ALSO SIGNING IN HOUSTON Fri., Oct. 13, Brazos Bookstore, 7PM [ticketed event]

TAHOKA  Tues., Oct. 10 City-County Library, Tea & Tales Series: Jodi Thomas, author of A Christmas Affair, 10AM

DALLAS  Wed., Oct. 11 Interabang Books, Samantha Mabry reads and signs ALL THE WIND IN THE WORLD, 7PM

NORTH RICHLAND HILLS  Wed., Oct. 11 North Richland Hills Public Library, Behind the Book with Alice Hoffman, author of The Rules of Magic, 1PM [ticketed lunch at 12PM]  ALSO SIGNING IN PLANO Wed., Oct 11 Haggard Library, 7PM [ticketed reception at 6PM]  ALSO SIGNING IN AUSTIN Thurs., Oct. 12, BookPeople, 7PM [ticketed event]

AUSTIN  Thurs., Oct. 12   UT – Avaya Auditorium, Michener Center or Writers reading series presents poet Major Jackson, winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize and finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award, 7:30PM

BROWNSVILLE  Thurs, Oct. 12 UTRGV – Clark Gallery, 2017 riverSedge Release Reading and Reception celebrating 40 years of publication, 6PM

DENTON  Sat., Oct. 14  B&N – Golden Triangle, Local Author Krystal Granzow signing and story time: Maddy Lou and Mack at the State Fair of Texas, 1PM

IRVING  Sat., Oct. 15  Valley Ranch Library, Cowboys Never Quit: Western Author Panel with Johnny Boggs and Clay Reynolds, 2PM

SUGAR LAND  Sat., Oct. 7   Fort Bend County Libraries – University Branch, “Paper on the Press: The History of Printing” with Dr. Jerry Waite, 2PM

News Briefs 10.8.17

Odessa Council for Arts & Humanities offers drawing for two tickets to “An Evening with David Sedaris”

ODESSA — David Sedaris, award-winning author and critic, will appear at the Wagner-Noël Performing Arts Center in Midland Tues., Nov. 7, 2017, at 7 p.m.

With sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, Sedaris has become one of America’s preeminent humor writers. The great skill with which he slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness proves that Sedaris is a master of satire and one of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today. >>READ MORE AND ENTER TO WIN

Inaugural Fort Worth BookFest kicks off Sat., Oct. 14

FORT WORTH —The inaugural Fort Worth BookFest will debut on Saturday, Oct. 14, at Tarrant County College Trinity River Campus in Fort Worth. Locally, regionally and nationally known authors and publishers will appear at the free event.

A key feature of the festival will be the Children’s Square, which is a collaboration with the Fort Worth Library and the Botanical Research Institute of Texas. Mayor Betsy Price, Congressman Marc Veasey, and other celebrity readers will read aloud to the younger visitors and Bella the Begonia will read and interact with the youngest.

Author Sandra Cisneros wins TIL Lifetime Achievement Award

Internationally acclaimed author Sandra Cisneros (left) has been named winner of the Texas Institute of Letters’s prestigious Lon Tinkle Award for Lifetime Achievement. This is the highest honor given by the TIL, which was established in 1936 to recognize and celebrate the state’s literary artists. The award will be presented to Cisneros at the TIL’s annual banquet, set for April 7, 2018, in San Antonio.

“Sandra Cisneros has been a guiding force in American literature for over thirty years,” said TIL president Steve Davis. “We are overjoyed at this opportunity to recognize her in Texas, where Sandra has made so many historic and enduring contributions.” >>READ MORE

Nancy A. Nasher to Receive May Dickson Exall Award from Library Group

Author Jonathan Eig to speak at Friends of the Dallas Public Library Gala

DALLAS — Nancy A. Nasher, owner of NorthPark Center, will be honored with the May Dickson Exall Award at the Friends of the Dallas Public Library (FDPL) annual gala on Thursday, October 12.

The award, for outstanding contributions to libraries and literacy in Dallas, is named for the longtime civic leader who led the campaign to open Dallas’s first public library in 1899. >>READ MORE

Schedule posted for Lubbock Book Festival, Sat., Oct. 28

S. C. Gwynne to headline with The Perfect Pass; Hank the Cowdog author John R. Erickson keynoter for children

Lubbock enters the book festival arena this fall with the all-day Lubbock Book Festival on Saturday, Oct. 28. More than three dozen best-selling authors and regional favorites have been confirmed to read, sign books, and greet fans at the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts, a cornerstone of the Lubbock Cultural District.

Keynoters include S. C. Gwynne, author of the nonfiction bestsellers Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches (2010) and Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson (2015). Most recently, Gwynne explores how throwing passes revolutionized Texas’ most popular sport in The Perfect Pass: American Genius and the Reinvention of Football (2016)‎, including a nod to the innovations of Mike Leach, former Texas Tech University head coach.

More than 20 regional and national bestselling authors are scheduled to attend the Lubbock Book Festival, including Jodi Thomas, a member of the National Romance Writers Hall of Fame, and John R. Erickson, creator of the beloved Hank the Cowdog series for young readers.  >>READ MORE

 ——­——— A D V E R T I S E M E N T —————

Lone Star Listens compilation available fall 2017, for readers, fans, and writers everywhere

The present generation of Texas authors is the most diverse ever in gender, age, and ethnicity, and in subject matter as well.

Week in, week out, Lone Star Literary has interviewed a range of Texas-related authors with a cross-section of genre and geography. To capture this era in Texas letters, we’re pleased to bring you

Lone Star Listens:

Texas Authors on Writing and Publishing

edited by Kay Ellington and Barbara Brannon; introduction by

Clay Reynolds

Available in trade paper, library hardcover, and ebook Fall 2017

360 pages, with b/w illustrations and index

Featuring novelists, poets, memoirists, editors, and publishers, including:

Rachel  Caine • Chris  Cander • Katherine  Center • Chad S. Conine • Sarah  Cortez • Elizabeth  Crook • Nan  Cuba • Carol  Dawson • Patrick  Dearen • Jim Donovan • Mac Engel • Sanderia  Faye • Carlos Nicolás Flores • Ben Fountain • Jeff  Guinn • Stephen  Harrigan • Cliff  Hudder • Stephen Graham Jones • Kathleen Kent • Joe R. Lansdale • Melissa Lenhardt • Attica Locke • Nikki  Loftin • Thomas  McNeely • Leila  Meacham • John  Pipkin • Joyce Gibson Roach • Antonio  Ruiz-Camacho • Lisa  Sandlin • Donna  Snyder • Mary Helen Specht • Jodi  Thomas • Amanda Eyre Ward • Ann  Weisgarber • Donald Mace Williams

As a collection of insights into the writing and publishing life, the book will be useful in creative writing classes (not just in Texas alone) and other teaching settings, as well as for solo reading and study—and a great Texas reference volume.

• Examination and review copies will be available fall 2017 in watermarked pdf format.