Kay Ellington, Editor and Publisher
7.17.2016 Lex Williford, El Paso writer and teacher, editor
Many of our readers are aspiring writers — but with the day job they can’t find the time or the way to write. In this week’s issue Lone Star Listens visits with Lex Williford, who chairs the online creative writing MFA program at the University of Texas at El Paso. Williford is a prolific short story and short form author himself, and he discusses his writing life along with his academic life that embraces this one-of-a-kind writing program.
LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: For the past decade you have lived in Texas, heading up the bilingual online MFA in creative writing program at the University of Texas at El Paso. Where did you grow up, and how did that influence your writing?
LEX WILLIFORD: First, let me clarify. Our on-campus MFA program is bilingual, but we have students who are primarily monolingual, in either English or Spanish. Our online MFA program mostly focuses on writing English, though we do have students writing in Spanish at times. I’m teaching a screenwriting class this summer session, and one of the scripts we’re reading is in Spanish—a crossover student from our on-campus program taking an online class.
I was born in El Paso, and I never expected that I might someday return. My father was stationed as a radar commander and a second lieutenant at Fort Bliss in the mid1950s, and I was born at Biggs Air Force Base when the Fort Bliss hospital was dealing with a diphtheria epidemic.
My parents moved me at six months back to Dallas, where I grew up. That place, the place of my childhood, is often the setting of my stories; in many ways that Dallas no longer exists. I remember going to the Plano drive-in when Plano was nothing but farms and cotton fields. Now I drive through the town and there’s nothing plain old about it — skyscrapers left and right for miles — as if I’ve been thrown into a time warp. >>READ MORE
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT . . .
Lone Star Literary Life celebrates 2016 Texas Readers’ Favorite Bookstores TOP TEN
Texas readers have spoken! More than 1,000 of Lone Star Literary Life’s readers have cast ballots in our statewide contest to recognize Texas’s favorite bookstores. Their selections are as diverse as the state itself, and honorees include big indies, small indies, chain stores, used bookstores, and new bookstores in every far-flung corner of the state.
From the shadows of Houston’s skyscrapers to the winds whistling down the plains, from the Piney Woods of East Texas to the beachside burbs on the coast, Texas bookshops are connecting with their communities, and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to showcase Texas’s Top Ten Favorite Bookstores. Today, we unveil the full results of your votes! >>READ MORE
Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events
Bookish Texas event highlights 7.17.2016
>> GO this week Michelle Newby, Contributing Editor
News Briefs 7.17.16
Gemini Ink debuts conference in San Antonio, July 21–24, with Siebles, Kaplan, Hernandez, Grande, Santos, and others
The 2016 Gemini Ink Writers Conference will include four days of panels, round tables, readings, and workshops at El Tropicano Hotel on the San Antonio Riverwalk from July 21-24.
The theme is the “State of the Book,” with a keynote address by Tom Payton of Trinity University Press. The featured writers are Tim Seibles, Janet Kaplan, Tim Z. Hernandez, Reyna Grande, and John Phillip Santos—who will join more than thirty acclaimed local and regional writers and scholars, including Jan Jarboe Russell, Wendy Barker, and Texas Poet Laureate Laurie Ann Guerrero. >>READ MORE
Writers’ League of Texas announces 2016 manuscript contest winners and finalists
General Fiction
Winner: Fieldings by Karen Stevenson
Finalists:
The Weight of Words Unspoken by Catherine Johnson
The Secondaries by Tobey Forney
Prayers for an Illegitimate God by Isabella Ides
The Fruits of the Two Seasons by D.F. Salvador
General Nonfiction
Winner: Artist Proof: The Case Between Hannah Wilke and Claes Oldenburg by Saundra Goldman
Finalists:
Violently If They Must by Brian MacPherson
The Spine of Our Choices by Allan Gerson
David and the Little Giants: How a Battle over Technology Became a Battle for My Soul by David Barstow
Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference takes place July 22-23, Grapevine
Gilbert King (Devil in the Grove) and Sheryl WuDunn (A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity) will give keynote speeches at the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference in Grapevine. Prices include dinner. Advance registration required; for more information visit www.themayborn.com/registration.
King: 5:30 p.m. July 22 at Austin Ranch banquet hall, 2009 Anderson Gibson Road. $60.
WuDunn: 6 p.m. July 23 at Hilton DFW Lakes Executive Conference Center’s International Ballroom, 1800 State Highway 26 East. $100. >>READ MORE
(Information and photos from organization’s press release and website)
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