Writers’ League of Texas 2017 Book Awards announced
The Writers’ League of Texas has announced their 2017 Texas Book Award winners, finalists, and Discovery Prize winners. Each category includes a winner and several finalists and a Discovery Prize.
Fiction
Winner: Spoils by Brian Van Reet
Finalists:
Disasters in the First World by Olivia Clare
Hollow by Owen Egerton
White Fur by Jardine Libaire
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
Wait Till You See Me Dance by Deb Olin Unferth
Discovery Prize Winner: Fight Like A Man and Other Stories We Tell Our Children by Christine Granados
Nonfiction
Winner: The Road to Jonestown by Jeff Guinn
Finalists:
Spineless by Juli Berwald
American Wolf by Nate Blakeslee
The Boy Who Loved Too Much by Jennifer Latson
No Apparent Distress by Rachel Pearson, MD
Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud by Anne Helen Petersen
Discovery Prize Winner: House Built on Ashes by José Antonio Rodríguez
Poetry
Winner: When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities by Chen Chen
Finalists:
American Purgatory by Rebecca Gayle Howell
For Want of Water by Sasha Pimentel
Madness by Sam Sax
Wolfe and Other Poems by Donald Mace Williams
Discovery Prize Winner: The Language We Cry In by Delicia Daniels
Middle Grade/Young Adult
Winner: The Love Letters of Abelard and Lily by Laura Creedle
Finalists:
by Cora Carmack
Wait for Me by Caroline Leech
Fault Lines in the Constitution by Cynthia Levinson and Sanford Levinson
All The Wind in the World by Samantha Mabry
Discovery Prize Winner: Broken Circle by J.L. Powers and M.A. Powers
Picture Book
Winner: Dazzle Ships by Chris Barton
Finalists:
Whobert Whover, Owl Detective by Jason Gallaher
The Cloud Artist by Sherri Maret
The Survivor Tree by Gaye Sanders
Another Way to Climb a Tree by Liz Garton Scanlon
Strong As Sandow by Don Tate
Discovery Prize Winner: Dream Big by Kat Kronenberg
(Information from organization’s press release)
Fort Worth BookFest features Latinx authors and books, spoken word events in second year
FORT WORTH — The Fort Worth BookFest’s stated goal is “to raise awareness of the transformative power of literacy.” In its sophomore year, the BookFest will expand its offerings in an effort to embrace differences and celebrate diversity.
One of the new features for the 2018event announced this week is “Nuestros Cuentos/Our Stories & Lucha Libro.” An author panel with Juan Perez, Ofelia Faz-Garza, Virginia Alanis, Sylvana Avila Alonzo, and Maribel Rubio, moderated by Richard J. Gonzales (Raza Rising: Chicanos in North Texas), will explore the Latinx experience. The panel will spotlight culturally contemporary Latinx authors and poets, descendants of the Indigenous Peoples of the pre-Columbus Americas. Authors will read from their published works and participate in a Q&A with the audience. For younger readers there will be Lucha Libro, an initiative to encourage kids to read more. Created especially for Fort Worth BookFest, these luchadores (wrestlers) fight for literacy.
The Differences & Diversity Spoken Word Competition will debut this year at the BookFest. Spoken word is “a mix of poetic words with a pinch of hip hop” that may also incorporate performance art such as theater and dance. The combination alchemizes into the tremendously popular competitive art form known as the poetry slam, which originated in Chicago. Internationally renowned spoken-word artist, author, actor, and activist Michael Guinn will facilitate the competition, which begins with a creative-writing workshop. Guinn’s special guest will be Christopher Michael, author of Persona Non Grata and Nuclear Orange, and publisher/owner of 310 Brown Street, founded to help performance poets transition into the literary arts. An open mic with MC by Tarif will present selected workshop participants during a thirty-minute performance.
The second annual Fort Worth BookFest will take place October 20, 2018, at Tarrant County College’s Trinity River campus. For more information, visit www.fortworthbookfest.com.
(Compiled from FWBF newsletter and website)
Odessa Arts receives Big Read grant for coming year
Arts organization one of 79 organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Big Read grant; will read and aelebrate Station 11 from September 11 to November 25
ODESSA — Odessa Arts is a recipient of a grant of $15,000 to host the NEA Big Read in Odessa, Texas, during the coming year. A national initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, the NEA Big Read broadens our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book. Odessa Arts is one of 79 nonprofit organizations to receive an NEA Big Read grant to host a community reading program between September 2018 and June 2019.
The NEA Big Read in Odessa Arts will focus on Station 11 by Emily St. John Mandel. Activities will take place September 11 to November 25, 2018.
“Becoming a NEA Big Read city has been a dream of mine since we started One Book Odessa in 2011,” says Randy Ham, executive director of Odessa Arts. “Being able to use literature to create a cultural tour is a wonderful opportunity to showcase the arts in our community and to attract cultural tourists to the Permian Basin.”
“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support opportunities for communities across the nation, both small and large, to take part in the NEA Big Read,” said NEA acting chairman Mary Anne Carter. “This program encourages people to not only discuss a book together, but be introduced to new perspectives, discuss the issues at the forefront of our own lives, and connect with one another at events.”
The NEA Big Read showcases a diverse range of contemporary titles that reflect many different voices and perspectives, aiming to inspire conversation and discovery.
Arts & Letters Live announces fall 2018 lineup
DALLAS — In its 27th season, Arts & Letters Live has announced tits fall 2018 author lineup. As always, the list is an impressive lineup of award winners and best sellers, including Sarah Bird (Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen, September 20), Doris Kearns Goodwin (Leadership in Turbulent Times, September 26), Andre Dubus III (Gone So Long, October 7), and Jesmyn Ward (Sing, Unburied, Sing, November 1).
Arts & Letters Live is a literary and performing arts series produced by the Dallas Museum of Art that features award-winning authors and performers of regional, national, and international acclaim. The series is recognized for its creative multidisciplinary programming — combining literature with visual arts, music, and film — and for commissioning new work inspired by works of art in the museum’s collection and special exhibitions.
Widely acknowledged as a major contribution to Dallas’s cultural life, Arts & Letters Live has been a sellout at the Dallas Museum of Art since its inception in 1992. Audiences estimated at over 200,000 have attended more than 500 series programs. Arts & Letters Live has showcased over 300 regional, national, and international writers.
Texas Bound® features readings by Texas actors of short fiction by Texas writers. Well-known actors participating in Texas Bound have included Tommy Lee Jones, Kathy Bates, Larry Hagman, Marcia Gay Harden, Barry Corbin, and Doris Roberts.
Unless otherwise specified, Arts & Letters Live events are held in Horchow Auditorium at the Dallas Museum of Art, 1717 North Harwood Street. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Monday, August 13, at 10 a.m., and will be available online or buy calling (214) 922-1818. Anyone interested in becoming a Season Supporter should call (214) 922-1280.
For more information and the entire author lineup, visit www.dma.org/ALL.
(Information from DMA website)
4th Annual Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop set for Oct. 13-14
Now in its fourth year, the Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop annual event will feature writing coaches, agents, and publishers from around the country, October 13-14, 2018.
The two-day workshop event will be held in Midland, at the Marie Hall Academic Building at Midland College.
The workshop will feature ten speakers, including Margie Lawson, Christie Craig, Manning Wolfe, David Farland, Reavis Z. Wortham, Kristen Marten, Stephen Graham Jones, Donna M. Johnson, B. Alan Bourgeois and Arlene Gale.
Twenty-one workshop topics will be covered, including deep editing techniques, character building, writing a thriller, how to launch your writing career quickly and marketing, renegade style.
The Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and is organized by the Permian Basin Bookies in collaboration Midland College.
For more information, visit www.permianbasinwritersworkshop.org
(Information from organization’s press release)
Texas Sports Hall of Fame to hold second annual Book Festival August 11
WACO — The Texas Sports Hall of Fads, the museum the Texas Tennis Museum and Hall of Fame and Texas High School Football Hall of Fame.
(Information from organization’s press release)
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