Lone Star Lit’s Literary Tour of Texas: Burnet, San Antonio
The Texas Hill Country is a treat any time of year — but the opportunity to travel to San Antonio and the rolling, wooded country north of it in early December, when towns are a-twinkle with holiday lights, is a real treat.
Kay Ellington and Barbara Brannon were the guest presenters at the monthly Coffee Talks series at the Herman Brown Free Library in Burnet, a historic town with a good many dedicated readers and writers. (Above, library director Betsy Engelbrecht, right, with library supporters and Paragraph Ranch authors Brannon and Ellington, far right). The library welcomes visitors not only to its author presentations, but to its J. Frank Dobie Geneaology Room, its superb collection of Texana, and its main circulation room (below), with a striking portrait of Comanche chief Quanah Parker.
San Antonio is the nation’s seventh largest city, and it offers destinations for writers and book lovers commensurate with its size and rich culture. We visited only a few during our one day in the Alamo City, including the San Antonio Central Library (above), an architectural lodestone that houses world-class art — such as the Chihuly sculpture at left — as well as books and media; across the street, the Southwest College of Art, where student work is on display in the circa 1851 former Ursuline Convent Gemini Ink, the center for writers and readers that has occupied four differ San Antonio locales since 1992.
San Antonio’s enchilada-red Central Library offers stunning views of the Alamo City.
Above, from right: Barbara Brannon, Kay Ellington, Bernadette “Bernie” Smyth, Nan Cuba
The Twig Bookshop is another must-visit bookish stop. Not only did owner Claudia Maceo (at right, top right) show us around the store, but through the latest additions to the renovation of the Pearl Brewery complex, including the Hotel Emma and its own library, open to guests and for special events. The Twig will be selling books later this week when National Book Award nominee Paulette Jiles reads from her latest novel, News of the World, at the hotel.
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Writers Resist events slated for Jan. 15, 2017, in three Texas cities
Writers Resist, a literary collective born of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election that publishes creative expressions of resistance by diverse writers and artists, has prompted the grass-roots organization of events around the nation.
The idea of poet and cofounder of VIDA Erin Belieu, Writers Resist aims to create events in support of democracy across the country and internationally on January 15, 2017. Belieu, along with several other organizers, are planning with local groups to hold events using the framework “Writers Resist:___.” This will allow the local group to focus the event on a specific theme pertinent to the social justice issue(s) they would like to highlight.
According to the organization’s event guidelines, “Writers Resist is not affiliated with a political party. We wish to bypass direct political discourse in favor of an inspired focus on the future, and how we, as writers, can be a unifying force for the protection of Democracy. In order for us to heal and move forward, individually and as a nation, we believe people need something to be for in this anxious moment. The only thing we ‘resist’ is that which attacks or seeks to undermine those most basic principles of freedom and justice for all.”
The flagship Writers Resist event, co-sponsored by PEN America, is being held on January 15, 2017, in New York City. Prominent writers, including American poet laureates Robert Pinsky and Rita Dove, will gather on the steps of the New York Public Library to “re-inaugurate” their commitment to the fundamental principles of democracy.
Events in Texas to date include:
San Antonio
Sun., Jan. 15, 2017, 1:00 pm
Alamo Brewery, 415 Burnet St., San Antonio, Texas 78202
Call for info: (210) 734-9673
Houston
Sun., Jan. 15, 5:00-8:00 pm
Co-sponsors: Calypso Editions and Librotraficante
Austin
Sun., Jan. 15
BookPeople
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December “Professor’s Corner” to focus on poems by Texas poet laureate Larry D. Thomas, Dec. 14, Denton
Dr. Stephen Souris, professor of English at Texas Woman’s University, will lead a presentation and discussion of poet Larry D. Thomas’s work Wed., Dec. 14, 2016 from 7:00 to 8:30 pm at the Denton South Branch Library.
“Professor’s Corner: A Literary Discussion Group” started in 1999, to meet a public need for high quality presentations on literary topics aimed at the general public with an emphasis on discussion.
Right: Larry D. Thomas (from author’s website)
All the sessions this season will be devoted to Texas poets laureate. Texts of the poems to be discussed will be handed out at the session; poems will be selected from the volume devoted to this month’s poet in TCU Press’ Texas Poets Laureate Series.
The program is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
Dr. Stephen Souris, on the TWU faculty since 1992, has developed a course on Texas poets and is working on an anthology of teachable poems in the TCU Press’ ten-volume Texas Poets Laureate Series, along with an instructor’s guide. He is also the host for the Texas Poets Podcast project (www.TexasPoetsPodcast.com).
Future sessions (7:00 pm on the second Wed. of the respective month):
Jan. 11, 2017, Poems by Texas Poet Laureate James Hoggard
Feb. 8, Poems by Texas Poet Laureate Paul Ruffin
March 8, Poems by Texas Poet Laureate Alan Birkelbach
April 12, Poems by Texas Poet Laureate David. M. Parsons
May 10, Poems by Texas Poet Laureate Walt McDonald
June 14, Poems by Texas Poet Laureate Jan Seale
(From organization’s press release
Meinzer and Chappel team up for another Texas ranch-history coffee-table volume
State Photographer of Texas Wyman Meinzer and outdoors writer and novelist Henry Chappell, who teamed up a decade ago to produce 6666: Portrait of a Texas Ranch (Texas Tech University Press, 2006), have debuted their newest book collaboration, Horses to Ride, Cattle to Cut: The San Antonio Viejo Ranch of Texas (Badlands Design and Production, 2016). The duo signed copies at the Candlelight at the Ranch event at the National Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock Dec. 10 and have also held recent events at the George W. Bush Library and in South Texas.
Above: Photographer Wyman Meinzer (left) and author Henry Chappell (right); Sylinda Meinzer (center) at the National Ranching Heritage Center Dec. 10.
The book, published under the auspices of the East Foundation, is available at the Witte Museum bookstore and the Museum of South Texas History as well as from Meinzer’s online store.
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