Lone Star ReviewsMichelle Newby, NBCC,

Contributing Editor

BIOGRAPHY / MUSIC

Tamara Saviano

Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark

Texas A&M University Press

Hardcover, 978-1-62349-454-4, 406 pages, $29.95; October 2016

Reviewed by Rod Davis

In the pantheon of Texas musicians, in particular the singer-songwriters, perhaps none is more revered—truly—than Guy Clark. His death last May from assorted illnesses exacerbated by the hard life of his career choice could be considered a bookend to the progressive, maverick era in Austin and Nashville that he helped ignite in the late ’60s/early ’70s. Those days, that spirit, are now all but impossible to locate without an eye-roll or vague mumble.

Thus the welcome arrival of a fascinating and detailed recounting of that time by music industry insider and Clark friend Tamara Saviano. Sadly, Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark also is a reminder of a recurrent theme in too many musicians’ lives. To properly tell Clark’s story, each chapter inescapably bears witness to the growing toll of physical and emotional depredations wreaked by smoking, alcohol, and drugs. All were contributing factors in the demise and deaths of Guy (2016), his much-admired wife, the artist and songwriter Susanna Talley Clark (2012), whose wit and insight include awareness of the macho white male-dominant cliques in which they traveled, and their best friend through thick and thin, legendary songwriter Townes Van Zandt (1997). >>READ MORE

Texas ReadsGlenn Dromgoole

>> archive

Texas book topics: humor, football, women

You Might Be from Texas if by Nick Anderson (MacIntyre Purcell Publishing, $19.95 paperback) is a collection of color cartoons poking fun at our Texas eccentricities. Anderson, editorial cartoonist for the Houston Chronicle, has some pretty good zingers. You might be from Texas if:

“You can’t remember your wife’s birthday or your anniversary… but you remember the Alamo.”

“You aren’t surprised to see a roadside store that carries movie rental, bait and ammunition.”

“You know that all history teachers in Texas have the same name: Coach.”

“Your directions include ‘down yonder.’ ”

Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, a fourth-generation Texan from Houston, wrote the foreword.

Texas football: This fall I’ve already written about several new books on Texas football, but here are two more that are noteworthy:

Journalist Mac Engel and photographer Ron Jenkins teamed up to produce a colorful, well-written, impressive coffee-table book covering four Texas football games in four days. In words and pictures, Pigskin Rapture: Four Days in the Life of Texas Football (Lone Star Books, $26 hardcover) puts readers in the middle of the action for these four games in October 2015: Indianapolis Colts at Houston Texans on Thursday, Midland Lee at Odessa Permian on Friday, Oklahoma vs. Texas on Saturday, and New England Patriots at Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. Quite a weekend of Texas football!

Best-selling author S. C. Gwynne, best known for his award-winning Empire of the Summer Moon, turns his attention to football coach Hal Mumme and his revolutionary impact on the game in The Perfect Pass: American Genius and the Reinvention of Football (Scribner, $27 hardcover). Gwynne tells how Mumme led the way in changing football from primarily a running game to a passing game. Mumme, who has had a controversial, roller-coaster career in college football, now coaches at Division III Belhaven in Mississippi. Gwynne calls Mumme “one of a handful of authentic offensive geniuses in the history of American football.”

Texas women: The Art of the Woman: The Life and Work of Elizabet Ney by Emily Fourmy Cutrer (Texas A&M University Press, $24.95 paperback) tells about the noted and controversial sculptor who immigrated to Texas in 1871. Her work included sculptures of Texas founding fathers Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin.

Texas Tech University Press has published Finding Dorothy Scott: Letters of a WASP Pilot by Sarah Byrn Rickman ($24.95 hardcover). Scott was one of the thirty-eight homeland women pilots to die while serving their country during World War II. She was based at Dallas Love Field for much of her duty and was twenty-three when she died in a midair crash in California. Her letters are archived at Texas Woman’s University.

Women in Civil War Texas: Diversity and Dissidence in the Trans-Mississippi is a collection of eleven historical and biographical essays by noted scholars on various aspects of women’s lives during the Civil War. The book was edited by Deborah M. Liles and Angela Boswell and published by the University of North Texas ($29.95 hardcover).

Glenn Dromgoole’s latest book is West Texas StoriesContact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.

>> Check out his previous Texas Reads columns in Lone Star Literary Life

LONE STAR LISTENS interviews >> archive

Kay Ellington, Editor and Publisher

11.13.2016 El Paso author Benjamin Alire Sáenz on books, beginnings, and the border

Benjamin Alire Sáenz, the winner of this year’s Texas Writer Award at the 2016 Texas Book Festival, is no stranger to literary honors. He was the first Latino to win the PEN/Faulkner award in 2013 for Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club. But the path has not been uncomplicated for the novelist/poet who came out as gay in the late 2000s at age fifty-four. As we watched his panel on poetry at the Texas Book Festival, we were struck by his insistence on continually looking forward, including talking about two new titles launching in early 2017. After the festival, he took time to be interviewed by email for Lone Star Literary Life.

Ben, I understand that you were raised on a small farm near Mesilla, New Mexico, the fourth of seven children. How would you describe those days?

Growing up on that small farm really shaped me as a human being. They were some of the most important formative years of my life. “Never forget where you come from.” I so get that. The small family farm and the memory of it that I carry inside me, has always been the ground zero of how I define myself.

To say we were poor is something of an understatement. We had no indoor plumbing, an outhouse, two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a porch. There was a lot of drama. My father was a serious alcoholic who would sometimes disappear into a stupor (and all of my uncles on both sides of the family were alcoholics as well). My mother worried and worked and worked and worked. She also loved and loved and loved. But there were also many beautiful things in that world. There were grandmothers who adored me and whom I adored in return. Yes, we lived in very crowded conditions. Yes, there was no personal space, no privacy. Yes, there was nothing I could truly call my own. But I belonged to this strange and incredibly resilient family. >>READ MORE

Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events

Bookish Texas event highlights 11.13.2016
>> GO this week Michelle Newby, Contributing Editor

FESTIVALS AND SPECIAL EVENTS IN TEXAS THIS WEEK: Houston, DallasMISSOURI CITY Mon., Nov. 14 Vino & Vinyl, Performance Series presents poet and actor Luis Galindo, 7PMAUSTIN Tues., Nov. 15 Austin Convention Center, Texas Convention for Women: Amie Sikes and Jolies Sikes discuss and sign Junk Gypsy: Designing a Life at the Crossroads of Wonder & Wander, 11:30AMDENTON Tues., Nov. 15, University of North Texas, Creative Writing Visiting Writers Series presents a reading and signing with Dagoberto Gilb, 8PMHOUSTON Tues., Nov. 15, Christ Church Cathedral (Episcopal), Pulitzer Prize winning poet Sharon Olds in conversation with author Chris Cander, 7:30PM [TICKET REQUIRED]DALLAS Wed., Nov. 16, Belo Mansion, Bob Woodward discusses the 2016 election with Talmage Boston, author of Cross-Examining History: A Lawyer Gets Answers From the Experts About Our Presidents, 12PMHOUSTON Wed., Nov. 16 University of Houston, Poetry & Prose presents UH Creative Writing Program Professors Chitra Divakaruni & Peter Turchi, 5:30PMHUNTSVILLE Thurs., Nov. 17, Sam Houston State, readings from the works of George Drew and the late Dr. Paul Ruffin celebrate their contributions to poetry and literature, 4:30PMELGIN Sat., Nov. 19, Elgin Public Library, Writers’ League of Texas’s Texas Writes series featuring Debra Winegarten and Greg Garrett, 1PM

News Briefs 11.13.16

History of Texas Highway Department, memoir by Waylon Jennings’s son, and much more close out 2016 Texas Book Festival

Despite off-and-on rain showers, thousands of bookfans lined up for panels in and around the capitol building on Sunday — many arriving early to clinch prime seats. Sessions with novelists like Robert Olen Butler, YA idols, musicians, children’s authors and illustrators, poets, and more drew standing-room only audiences. (The 11:00 a.m. panel, above, on the hundred-year history of the Texas Highway Department, attracted roadgeeks, history buffs, and Department of Transportation staffers alike.)

In a post-Festival email to followers, TBF organizers wrote, “Whether you are a reader, an author, a moderator, an exhibitor, or a volunteer, or any combination of the above, we couldn’t make this happen with you. Thank you, and we’ll see you at the 2017 Festival!” The Festival invites friends to revisit favorite sessions, authors, and moments of the 2016 Festival through TBF’s Facebook photo album. In the meantime, here are a few of our own pix to enjoy!

Above, from left: Radio host Dallas Wayne (left) talked with Terry Jennings about Waylon: Tales of My Outlaw Dad;Texas Monthly’sLauren Smith Ford (left) moderated a session with photographer Ryann Ford on her multi-year adventures chronicling the vanishing American highway rest stop (and yes, that’s Bevo in the projected photo, far right); Miles and Miles of Texas,featuring authors Carol Dawson (center) and Roger Polson (left) with TxDOT director James Bass (right).Photos by Barbara Brannon/Lone Star Literary Life, except where otherwise noted.

>>CLICK HERE TO VIEW MORE TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL 2016 MOMENTS

Texas Library Association announces 2017–1018 Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List

AUSTIN – Children’s authors Jon Scieszka and Steven Weinberg joined students from the central Texas area in announcing the 2017–2018 Texas Bluebonnet Award (TBA) Master List on November 5 at the 2016 Texas Book Festival. The TBA Master List is considered one of the most prestigious children’s literature lists in the country. Every year, over 100,000 children in grades 3 through 6 vote on their favorite book from a list of twenty titles curated by librarians around the state who serve on the TBA Committee.

Students, teachers, librarians, and booksellers statewide eagerly await the yearly release of a new master list. >>READ MORE

Bookstore comings and goings, fall 2016

Across the state and nation this season, book and music fans in many mid-sized cities are mourning the closure of the Hastings Entertainment and Music chain. All 126 stores were shuttered by October 31, 2016—with thirty-two of those in Texas cities from Abilene to Victoria, Borger to Waco. “The closure of Hastings means the end of a retailer that was, at one point, handling roughly $100 million in book sales,” reported Publishers Weekly on July 21. The team of Hilco Merchant Resources and Gordon Brothers won the bid for the company’s assets.

Farewell to Ruby Lane

Earlier this fall, longtime indie favorite Ruby Lane Books of Post closed up shop. Proprietor and author Rosa Latimer plans to remain in Post, concentrating on her own writing projects. (Bookstore cat Ruby, for those who are concerned, is doing fine in retirement as well.)

We’re always sad to see any of our favorite bricks-and-mortar bookstores close. But Texas readers needn’t despair: the Lone Star State still boasts more than 300 chain and independent stores (check out Lone Star Lit’s directory here).

Fleur Fine Books, Port Neches, to feature Joe R. Lansdale Sat., Nov. 19

And this month also brings welcome word of a grand opening event for another newcomer on the scene. Fleur Fine Books will celebrate its launch on Sat., Nov. 19, in Port Neches, with a special author signing event featuring Joe R. Lansdale (below), author of more than forty novels as well as numerous short stories. >>READ MORE

Lone Star Lit editor’s favorite bookish destinations featured in Texas Highways November issue

Follow LSLL editor and publisher Kay Ellington’s literary journey across Texas, with images by Texas Highways photographers: read the article at texashighways.com/travel/item/8316-texas-bookish-destinations. And then email us at info@LoneStarLiterary.com to tell us about your best picks and hidden treasures!