LONE STAR LISTENS interviews   >> archive

Author interviews by Kay Ellington

2.25.2018  Robin Roe of Dallas makes the
(Y)A-list with A LIST OF CAGES

Dallas-area author Robin Roe’s novel A List of Cages (Disney/Hyperion, 2017) — her first — was named one of the Best Young Adult Books of the Year by Goodreads, Chapters Indigo, EpicReads, BookPage, Powell’s Books, The Texas Library Association, News & Observer, and Buzzfeed.

This highly praised book is her first commercial success, but we’re sure it won’t be her last. How did she turn real-life experience as a special education teacher into a compelling story of conflict and compassion? Find out more about her path in this week’s interview-via-email.

LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: Congratulations on such a strong start with your first novel, Robin. For our readers not familiar with A List of Cages, can you tell them about it?

ROBIN ROE: A List of Cages is about a boy named Adam who’s serving as an aide to the school psychologist during his senior year of high school. When she asks him to track down the troubled freshman who keeps dodging their sessions, Adam discovers that the younger boy is Julian—the foster brother he hasn’t seen in five years. Adam is ecstatic to be reunited but soon realizes Julian is keeping secrets that could cost both boys their lives.

What led you to write this book?

I’ve spent much of my life—both personally and professionally—caring for kids who’ve experienced trauma. A List of Cages rose from this.  >>READ MORE

Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events
Bookish Texas event highlights  2.25.2018>> GO this weekMichelle Newby, Contributing Editor

SPECIAL EVENTS THIS WEEK

• Humanities Texas presents Texas Storytime: A Family Reading Program, Midland, February 8-March 15
• FESTIBA 2018: Festival of International Books & Arts, Brownsville, February 26-March
• 11th Annual Johnson City Library Writers Conference, February 28
• 32nd Annual Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering, Alpine, March 2-3
• RGV Writers Conference, McAllen, March 3

BRYAN  Sun., Feb. 25  Brazos County Expo Center, Jeff and Mary O Parker, authors of Explore Texas: A Nature Travel Guide, will be appearing together for a signing and to teach a session at the Texas Bluebird Society’s annual “Bluebird Season Kickoff,” 9AM

DALLAS  Sun., Feb. 25   The Foundry Club, Writing Workshops Dallas presents: “Writing Out of the Wilderness: A Publication Seminar – Survive Rejection, Forge a Path to Publication, & Make Yourself Findable” with Blake Kimzey, 3PM

DALLAS  Mon., Feb. 26 Deep Vellum Book, a thrilling night of conversation as we celebrate the re-launch of Joe Milazzo’s Crepuscule W/ Nellie (with Robin Myrick, Brenda Randall, and David Eric Tomlinson), 7PM

DENTON  Tues., Feb. 27 UNT, Visiting Writers Series presents a reading with Ruth Ellen Kocher, award-winning author of seven books of poetry, 8PM

SAN ANTONIO  Tues., Feb. 27 Trinity University, The Stieren Arts Enrichment Series presents Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Egan, author of Manhattan Beach, 8PM

SAN ANTONIO  Tues., Feb. 27 The Twig Book Shop, Elizabeth Crook reading and signing The Which Way Tree, 5PM

ALSO SIGNING IN KERRVILLE   Sat., Mar. 3  Wolfmueller’s Books, 3 PM

HOUSTON  Wed., Feb. 28 Talento Bilingue de Houston, Celebrate 20 Years of Nuestra Palabra And The Expansion of the Showcase: The Latino Agenda Voting and the Upcoming Elections, 7PM

AUSTIN  Thurs., Mar. 1 BookPeople, MICHAEL NOLL speaking & signing The Writer’s Field Guide to the Craft of Fiction (in conversation with Bret Anthony Johnston, Director of the Michener Center for Writers), 7PM

COLLEGE STATION  Thurs., Mar. 1  Texas A&M – Cushing Memorial Library & Archives, opening of the exhibition, The Angel in the Marble: Selections from the Berger-Cloonan Collection of Decorated Papers: notable paper marbler and artist Tom Leech will deliver a keynote lecture entitled, “Your Brain on Paper: Musings from a Papermaker’s Vat,” 6:30PM (live demonstration of several methods of paper decoration, including marbling, suminagashi, and paste paper, 2:30PM)

VICTORIA  Thurs., Mar. 1   UHV, American Book Review Reading Series hosts Carlin Romano, critic-at-large for The Chronicle of Higher Education, 12PM

AUSTIN  Fri., Mar. 2  Resistencia Books, Celebrating Words & Verses of Black Women: A Café Libro Open Mic featuring Tonya Lyles, Chandra Washington, Cindy Elizabeth, and Amanda Johnston, 7:30PM

ABILENE  Sun., Mar. 4  National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature, the NCCIL welcomes Dr. Claudette S. McLinn, Coretta Scott King Book Awards Chair, 5:30PM [members only]

News Briefs 2.25.18

14th Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference to explore balance between informing and entertaining readers, July 20–22

DENTON — This summer’s Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference will explore how journalists balance writing stories that are factually credible while writing entertaining stories.  “Are You Not Entertained? Real Stories, Real People, Real Storytelling” — The 14th annual Mayborn Conferece, hosted by the University of North Texas’s Frank W. Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism, will feature keynote speakers are Diana B. Henriques, author of The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust; Lindy West, contributing essayist for the New York Times; and Christopher Goffard, feature writer for the Los Angeles Times and multiple Pulitzer Prize finalist.  >>READ MORE

10th annual Texas Teen Book Festival slated for October 6

Milestone year to bring several surprises for 2018 festival attendees

AUSTIN — The Texas Teen Book Festival is excited to announce that its 10th annual Festival will take place Sat., Oct. 6, at St. Edward’s University. Young adults and YA-genre fans can expect a fun day filled with entertaining panels and inspiring sessions led by some of 2018’s best-selling and most critically acclaimed Young Adult authors, along with interactive activities, games, book signings, and more.

The 2017 Texas Teen Book Festival welcomed more than 4,000 attendees and an all-star lineup of more than thirty celebrated YA authors, including keynote speakers Jason Reynolds and Marie Lu. The 2017 TTBF also introduced the iTent and We Need Diverse Books for a special session on professional opportunities in the book and publishing industry.

“We are ecstatic to announce that the 2018 Texas Teen Book Festival will be returning for its 10th year,” said Shawn Mauser, TTBF festival director.  >>READ MORE

6th annual Book Festival to bring more than ninety authors to San Antonio Apr. 7

SAN ANTONIO—The San Antonio Book Festival (SABF) has released its lineup of more than 90 national, regional, and local authors who will appear at the 6th annual Festival, which will take place on Saturday, April 7, 2018, from 9 am to 5 pm at the Central Library and Southwest School of Art. A detailed schedule of the Festival’s author sessions will be available at saplf.org/festival in March.

Headlining the 2018 lineup is Emmy award-winning journalist Jorge Ramos with his latest book, Stranger: The Challenge of a Latino Immigrant in the Trump Era. Ramos has been the anchorman for Univision since 1986 and was hailed as “one of the 25 most influential Hispanics in the United States” by magazine. His 2016 documentary, Hate Rising, investigates the state of hate in America.

Other top attractions in the SABF lineup include popular comedian Paula Poundstone with her book exploring happiness, The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness; Pulitzer Prize finalist Luis Alberto Urrea with his new novel, The House of Broken Angels; former San Antonio mayor Henry Cisneros with Building Equitable Cities: How to Drive Economic Mobility and Regional Growth; Attica Locke, author of Bluebird, Bluebird and former writer for the TV show Empire; National Book Award finalist Carmen Maria Machado with her debut collection of short stories, Her Body and Other Parties; former LBJ Presidential Library director Mark Updegrove with The Last Republicans: Inside the Extraordinary Relationship Between George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.

MacArthur Fellow and best-selling author Sandra Cisneros will appear with her memoir, A House of My Own: Stories from My Life.  >>READ MORE

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

Lone Star Listens compilation available spring 2018, 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 Spring 2018

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.