WHAT TEXANS ARE READING

LONE STAR LISTENS interviews   >> archive

11.4.2018  Wide-ranging writer Sofia Grant tackles Texas history in latest historical novel, THE DAISY CHILDREN

Sofia Grant, a.k.a. Sophie Littlefield, had written more than two dozen books in many genres including YA, apocalyptic fiction, thriller, domestic suspense and women’s fiction. But when she became interested in writing historical fiction, she decided a name change made sense since she would be writing for a new audience who might not be interested in her other books. Her latest book The Daisy Children is based on the 1937 New London, Texas, school explosion. She talked with Lone Star Lit via email about the novel and what brought her to this story.

LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: Where were you born and raised, Sofia, and how would you describe your early life?

SOFIA GRANT: I was born in a small town in New Hampshire, but soon after my dad took a job teaching history at the University of Missouri, and the whole family moved to the Midwest. We were a household of readers; on any given day most of us could be found with our noses in books. My brother and sister and I were also roamers, and we were lucky to live at the edge of town with access to a forest and country lanes and abandoned houses — all great fodder for a developing story-maker.

When did you first think about becoming a writer?

I was around five years old and on our weekly trip to the library, I had been allowed to check out a children’s book with chapters. This was an amazing revelation — that one might be allowed to tell a story as long as one could imagine it.

So tell us about your novel The Daisy Children.

The Daisy Children follows four generations of women in a single family from an unthinkable tragedy through the present, and traces how decisions made decades ago affect those who come after. In 1937 an explosion at an East Texas school killed hundreds of children, and Caroline loses her only child. >>READ MORE

Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events
Bookish Texas event highlights  11.4.2018>> GO this weekMichelle Newby, Contributing Editor

SPECIAL EVENTS THIS WEEK

• Ann and Stephen Kaufman Jewish Book & Arts Festival, Houston, November 3-13
• Annual Celebration of Reading in Dallas/Ft Worth, Dallas, November 6
• International Literature Festival, Houston, November 6-8
• Dallas Institute presents 2018 Hiett Prize in the Humanities Award Luncheon, Dallas, November 7
• WITS Gala | The Illuminated Forest, Houston, November 7
• Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation presents Jungle Book Gala, Houston, November 9
• A Forum Celebrating 200 Years of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Fort Worth, November 9
• Readers & ‘ritas Weekend Getaway, Allen, November 9-11
• 62nd Annual Poetry Society of Texas Awards Banquet, Dallas, November 10
• Border Regional Library Association Fall Conference, El Paso, November 10
• JStokes Writing Ministries: How to Prepare to Write for Christian Publication, DeSoto, Novem er 10
• South Texas Book Festival, McAllen, November 10

ONGOING EVENTS

• Literary Frontiers: Historical Fiction & the Creative Imagination, San Marcos, August 1-December 14
• “Dawoud Bey: Forty Years in Harlem” photography exhibition (from the book Dawoud Bey: Seeing Deeply), Austin, August 29-December 8
• Finding Sophie Blackall Exhibition, Abilene, October 11-February 1
• Texas Writers (a Humanities Texas exhibition), Livingston, November 1-30

DALLAS  Mon., Nov. 5 Interabang, Mark Lamster discussing and signing THE MAN IN THE GLASS HOUSE, 7PM

HOUSTON  Mon., Nov. 5  Murder By the Book, James Anderson will sign and discuss the paperback release of Lullaby Road, 6:30PM

DALLAS  Tues., Nov. 6  The Wild Detectives, Amy Gentry discusses and signs her new book Tori Amos’ Boys for Pele (33 1/3) with local author Sarah Hepola, 7:30PM
ALSO READING IN HOUSTON  Wed., Nov. 7  Brazos Bookstore, 7PM

AUSTIN  Wed., Nov. 7   Bullock Museum, High Noon Talks: Chuck Bailey discussing Picturing Texas Politics, 12PM

SAN ANTONIO  Wed.., Nov. 7  El Tropicano Hotel, Hugh Fitzsimons discussing and signing A Rock between Two Rivers: Fracturing a Texas Family Ranch, 11AM; The Twig Book Shop, 5:30PM

ALPINE Thurs., Nov. 8 Front Street Books, Double author signing – Marcia Daudistel & Bill Wright, 6PM

AUSTIN  Thurs., Nov. 8Austin Community College, veterans, their family and friends, and other interested civilians are cordially invited to participate in the upcoming Veterans’ Voices reading and discussion series (a project of Humanities Texas), 4PM

DALLAS  Thurs., Nov. 8Half Price Books Mothership, Meet former Dallas Cowboys beat writer and Dallas Morning News sportswriting staffer Marjorie Herrera Lewis discussing and signing her debut historical novel, When the Men Were Gone, 7PM

DALLAS  Thurs., Nov. 8The Wild Detectives, Mark Lamster will be in conversation with Tom Huang about his biography of Modernist architect Phillip Johnson, The Man in the Glass House, 7:30PM

HOUSTON  Thurs., Nov. 8Katy Budget Books, Bestselling author Mike Lupica signs his latest middle-grade sports novel, No Slam Dunk, 6:30PM

DALLAS  Fri., Nov. 9The Wild Detectives, Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times bestselling author Ben Montgomery discussing and signing The Man Who Walked Backward: An American Dreamer’s Search for Meaning in the Great Depression, 7:30PM

HOUSTON  Fri., Nov. 9The Printing Museum, Artist Talk and Reception with Wandering Book Artists Donna & Peter Thomas, 6:30PM

AUSTIN  Sun., Nov. 10Paramount Theatre, Moontower Comedy presents LeVar Burton Reads, 7PM

News Briefs 11.4.18

McAllen Library hosts 5th South Texas Book Festival November 10

McALLEN — The South Texas Book Festival, formerly the McAllen Book Festival, is designed expressly for children and teens. It will be held at the McAllen Main Library and is a free event open to the public featuring a diverse group of national, regional, and local authors. The authors will participate in readings, panel discussions, and book signings.

The festival will also feature fun outdoor activities, such as bouncy castles, a slide, and a kiddie train. There will be gaming and virtual reality for teens, hands-on activities for children and teens, and a free book giveaway. Book sales will be provided by The Storybook Garden, an independent bookstore in Weslaco.

Twenty-two authors and illustrators are participating, including Laurie Halse Anderson, Matt de la Peña, Erika L. Sanchez, Don Tate, Isabel Quintero, Saadia Faruqi, Xavier Garza, David Bowles, Danie Chacon, and Cody Wagner.  >>READ MORE

Annual Ann and Stephen Kaufman Jewish Book & Arts Festival runs November 3–13 in Houston

HOUSTON — From the inner workings of the TV industry to a staged reading of a Yiddish play, the 2018 Ann and Stephen Kaufman Jewish Book & Arts Festival, at the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center, brings book lovers a variety of literary greats and their stories.

The 46th annual festival kicks off Saturday, Nov. 3, at 8 p.m. with Nell Scovell, writer, producer and director, talking about her memoir, Just the Funny Parts … and a Few Hard Truths about Sneaking into the Hollywood Boys’ Club. Scovell is known for her work on “The Simpsons,” “Late Night with David Letterman,” “NCIS” and “The Muppets.” Scovell created and was executive producer on “Sabrina the Teenage Witch.” The second woman to write for Letterman, Scovell in 2009 publicly called out the lack of gender diversity in late-night TV. Her memoir follows an earlier collaboration on the bestselling book Lean In with author and executive Sheryl Sandberg, who wrote the foreword.

>>READ MORE

$50,000 Kirkus Prize winners announced in Austin

AUSTIN – Novelist Ling Ma, essayist Rebecca Solnit, and writer Derrick Barnes (along with illustrator Gordon C. James) have won the fifth annual 2018 Kirkus Prizes, which were announced Thursday evening, October 25, at a celebration at Austin’s Central Library. Each prize carries a cash award of $50,000.

Ma won the fiction prize for Severance, a pre- and post-apocalyptic debut novel. “Refashioning post-apocalyptic tropes with exquisite craft, Ling Ma offers a portrait of our times — especially our fears,” the judges — said author Sandra Cisneros; editor, writer and Kirkus critic Jessica Jernigan; and bookstore owner Angela Maria Spring in a written statement. Severance is both a cutting critique of late-stage capitalism and the intensely affecting story of a young woman finding her place in her world. … It is a perfect novel for this moment, and an astonishing debut.” >>READ MORE

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

Lone Star Listens compilation available fall 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 Summer 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.