Lone Star ReviewsMichelle Newby, NBCC,
Contributing Editor
Texas ReadsGlenn Dromgoole
>> archive
Texas artists interviewed about their work
Robert Craig Bunch, assistant librarian at the McNay Art Museum of San Antonio, has published a remarkable book that provides insights into the philosophies, imaginations, influences and insights of sixty-four Texas artists.
The Art of Found Objects: Interviews with Texas Artists (Texas A&M University Press, $50 hardcover) is presented in question-and-answer style, focusing on how the artists incorporate everyday found objects into their paintings, collages, and other artistic creations.
“Beyond the art itself,” Bunch writes, “no source is more primary to understanding art and artist than his or her words. “Amazingly enough, there exists no prior book of interviews with artists from across Texas. Since 2010 I have interviewed more than 60 of Texas’ finest artists with the intention of compiling my questions and their responses into a substantial, illustrated book.”
The volume includes more than 70 color plates. The interviews are presented alphabetically, beginning with Margaret Adie of San Marcos and concluding with Steve Wiman of Austin. Most of the artists still live and work in Texas, but a few have moved on to other locales.
These are no cookie-cutter interviews. The author obviously researched his subjects before posing the questions. A few examples:
To Paul Horn, Houston: “Why do you sleep with the TV on? How does this enter your dreams and your art?”
To Lance Letscher, Austin: “What role have quilts played in your art?”
To Kathleen Packlick, Houston: “Why have postage stamps been a recurring element in your work?”
To Ken Little, San Antonio: “How has music helped shape your art?”
Bunch posed one common question to conclude each interview: “Which artists have meant the most to you?”
Fourth book: Lubbock author Nathan Dahlstrom, writing under the pen name S. J. Dahlstrom, has produced his fourth novel featuring twelve-year-old Wilder Good, who loves the outdoors. In The Green Colt (Paul Dry Books, $8.95 paperback), Wilder’s grandfather gives him a young colt. Wilder names him Bluebonnet and begins working with him, keeping a journal about his progress, and learning the joy and the pain of loving a horse.
Dahlstrom, a protégé of Hank the Cowdog creator John Erickson, writes value-driven and action-oriented books for middle school readers encouraging them to get out and explore nature. A fifth novel, Black Rock Brothers, is coming soon. Read more about the series at wildergood.com.
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
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Bookstore briefs
Absolutely Fiction welcomes readers in Lufkin
During our Lone Star Literary Bookish Tour of Texas, we’re always pleased to discover new bookstores along the trail. On a recommendation, we stopped in at Absolutely Fiction in Lufkin, where owner Becky Jackson (above, center) gave us the nickel tour. Jackson’s store, which opened in July 2016, is the first bookstore to serve Lufkin, which lost its Waldenbooks six years ago. >>READ MORE
LONE STAR LISTENS interviews >> archive
Kay Ellington, Editor and Publisher
2.19.2017 Julie Baker Finck of the Barbara Bush Houston Literary Foundation talks about a first lady’s wish for literacy and endless opportunity
On this Presidents’ Day weekend it seems only appropriate to learn more about the literacy support of Texas’s resident presidential family—the Bushes. While First Lady Laura Bush of Dallas, herself a onetime librarian, is widely known for her work with libraries and reading, her mother-in-law, First Lady Barbara Bush, of Houston, has also lent her support to a similar cause. The president of the Barbara Bush Literacy Foundation, Julie Baker Finck, took time from her busy schedule last week to talk about their organization and the family’s involvement.
LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: I think I speak for all Americans when I say I was totally inspired by seeing President George Bush and Mrs. Bush at the Super Bowl, especially since they had both been so recently hospitalized. How are they doing now?
JULIE BAKER FINCK: President and Mrs. Bush are doing great, and continue to be grateful both for the exceptional care they received at Houston Methodist — and the many good wishes and prayers they received from their fellow Houstonians and friends around the world. Most of all, they are happy to be home and spending time with family and friends.
Tell us about the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation. How and when did it get started?
In 2013 Neil and Maria Bush formed the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation to carry forth Mrs. Bush’s legacy and focus deeply on the literacy cause in the Bush family’s hometown and the nation’s fourth largest and most diverse city. Founded on Mrs. Bush’s belief, “If you help a person to read, then their opportunities in life will be endless,” the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation is dedicated to improving the quality of life through the power of literacy and the breaking of the intergenerational cycle of low literacy in our city. >>READ MORE
Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events
Bookish Texas event highlights 2.19.2017
>> GO this week Michelle Newby, Contributing Editor
SAN ANTONIO Sun., Feb. 26The Twig Book Shop, Rick Goff reads and signs A Gorilla Ridin’ on a Half a Hot Dog, 2PM
News Briefs 2.19.17
Texas poets laureate Morton and Birkelbach embark on three-year arts project, “Words of Preservation: A Poets Laureate National Parks Tour”
Texas poets laureate Karla K. Morton and Alan Birkelbach, both award-winning writers with eleven published books, kicked off a joint three-year project titled “Words of Preservation: A Poets Laureate National Parks Tour” last year during the National Park System’s 100-year anniversary.
Texas Poets Laureate Karla K. Morton (above, left) and Alan Birkelbach will visit 50 or more of the 59 U.S. National Parks to commemorate the 100-year history of the parks. (Photos provided)
They will visit fifty or more of the U.S. National Parks during the tour, documenting their journey through poetry and photography, ultimately creating one or more books, to help celebrate the next one hundred years. Their plan is to donate a percentage of sales to the National Park Service.>>READ MORE
8th annual New Fiction Confab schedued for April 1, Austin
Dan Chaon, Patty Yumi Cottrell, Alexandra Kleeman, John Pipkin, Deb Olin Unferth and Yoojin Grace Wuertz will take part in the Austin Public Library Friends Foundation’s 8th annual New Fiction Confab, which takes place April 1, 2017.
Each year, the Confab invites a handful of early- and mid-career authors to Austin to spend a day leading writing workshops, reading their work, and engaging in conversations with the Austin literary community. >>READ MORE
Writers’ League Celebrates “Texas Independents” with kickoff event at Odessa College Mar. 2
In March 2017 the Writers’ League of Texas will partner with some of the state’s greatest Independents—in conjunction with Texas Independence Day—to host a series of free and open events throughout the month of March in communities across the state.
These panel discussions (featuring authors and experts and including time for questions and networking) will focus on the great opportunities that Texas has to offer, from independent presses, to journals, to bookstores, and beyond, while also answering writers’ burning questions about the publishing process, submitting to agents, catching the eye of an editor, and more.
“Celebrating Texas Independents: Our Great Literary State’s Independent Presses, Journals, Bookstores & More” will kick off in Odessa, Texas, moderated by WLT Executive Director Becka Oliver and four great panelists (including Will Evans, founder and president of Cinestate, and Kay Ellington, publisher of Lone Star Literary Life; the full list of panelists will be available online soon.) >>READ MORE
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2/23 Author Interview Texas Book Lover
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2/27 Review Blogging for the Love of Authors and Their Books
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3/2 Review Reading By Moonlight
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Lone Star Listens compilation available Aug. 1, 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 Fall 2017
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.
- Lone Star Listens will be available for preorder May 1 and will ship around Aug. 1.
- Examination and review copies will be available May 1 in watermarked pdf format.
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