Lone Star ReviewsMichelle Newby, NBCC,
Contributing Editor
Texas ReadsGlenn Dromgoole
>> archive
Texas artists feature river themes in paintings
A noted Texas conservationist and a leading Texas art historian and collector have teamed up with twenty contemporary Texas artists to produce an extraordinary book, Of Texas Rivers & Texas Art (Texas A&M University Press, $35 hardcover).
It’s early in the year, but I have to figure that this stunningly beautiful volume will be one of the finest Texas books produced this year. Authors Andrew Sansom and William E. Reaves contribute thoughtful introductory essays. Sansom, executive director of the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University, writes about “Rivers and People.” Reaves, co-owner of Reaves/Foltz Fine Art in Houston and author of Texas Art and a Wildcatter’s Dream, delves into “Tracing the River as Muse in the Lone Star Landscape.”
Then the artists take over, featuring fifty-four full-color pages of their work. Each painting gets a full page, with a few spread over two pages. The featured artists, in alphabetical order and by place of residence, are: Randy Bacon (Abilene), Mary Baxter (Marfa), David Caton (Utopia), Margie Crisp (Elgin), Keith Davis (Austin), Fidencio Duran (Austin), Jon Flaming (Richardson), Charles Ford (Houston, deceased), Pat Gabriel (Fort Worth), Hunter George (Houston). Also featured are Billy Hassell (Fort Worth), Lee Jamison (Huntsville), Robb Kendrick (Austin), Laura Lewis (Mason), William Montgomery (Elgin), Noe Perez (Corpus Christi), Jeri Salter (Round Rock), Erik Sprohge (Houston), Debbie Stevens (Cypress), and William Young (Palestine).
At the end of the book, each artist is profiled in two or three pages, including his or her career highlights and featured exhibitions. Their paintings will be on display at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts through April 9 and then at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin June 5–Aug. 13 and the Witte Museum in San Antonio Sept. 2–Nov. 27. This book will brighten anyone’s library or coffee table. And at $35, it’s a real bargain.
San Marcos Springs: Underwater photographer and filmmaker Ron Coley has published a gorgeous oversized collection of photographs, paintings and essays on The Fountains of Saint Mark: The Amazing San Marcos Springs (Ron Coley Books, $60 hardcover).
Noted Texas author Stephen Harrigan, in a foreword, writes, “For four decades Ron has been a guardian, advocate and chronicler of the San Marcos Springs. In this book—the work of a lifetime —he has collected everything he’s learned and everything he’s seen about a place that is the shimmering, gleaming idea of what a body of water ought to be.”
Formerly a tourist attraction known as Aquarena Springs, San Marcos Springs transitioned into an environmental education complex under Coley’s direction. Spring Lake now is the home of the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment. Coley opens each of the eight chapters in the book with a brief essay, followed by a painting by Janet Skaggs Hardin based on Coley’s photography, and then the underwater photographs themselves. You can read more about the book—and order it—at RonColeyBooks.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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TOP BOOKISH DESTINATIONS 2017
From the spur of Texas’s boot-heel to the tip of the toe, we’ve traveled the state in search of some delectable destinations for book lovers. Check out all ten on the map this week!
>>READ MORE
LONE STAR LISTENS interviews >> archive
Kay Ellington, Editor and Publisher
3.12.2017 Roadside reading: Austin photojournalist Ryann Ford on capturing America’s vanishing rest-stop icons
This week, we hope lots of Lone Star Lit’s readershave the chance to hit the road and travel to some of Texas’s top bookish destinations. The state’s many classic rest areas and roadside parks enrich any journey by car—and Austin-based photographer Ryann Ford has just the book to help you appreciate them.
LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: Ryann, you were born and raised in California, yet relocated to Austin. What brought you to the Lone Star State?
RYANN FORD: After I graduated from Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California, a couple of friends from photography school moved to Austin and were always telling me what a fun city it was and encouraged me to make the move. Being new to the industry and trying to compete with so many other professional photographers in Los Angeles was really challenging, so moving to a new, very affordable town (back then!) with not much competition sounded like a fun adventure. It was a great move, indeed, I love it here.
I think anyone who travels a lot or who has grown up in Texas has zipped past what we used to call “roadside parks”—now, they call them “rest areas”—and had them capture our imagination. Many travelers we’d like to stop have a picnic at the more scenic or offbeat ones, but rarely do we take the time. The beauty of your book is that you did. What was your inspiration for the series of photos?
Not long after I got to Texas in 2007, I started to accept photography assignments, some of which took me all over Texas. >>READ MORE
Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events
Bookish Texas event highlights 3.12.2017
>> GO this week Michelle Newby, Contributing Editor
SAN ANTONIO Sun., Mar. 19 The Twig Book Shop, Lucy A. Warner reads and signs Zap! Boom! Pow! Superheroes of Music, 11AMMary Fillmore reads and signs An Address in Amsterdam, 5PM
News Briefs 3.12.17
Writers’ League Celebrates “Texas Independents” statewide throughout March 2017; next stop, March 16, BookPeople (Austin)
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. >>READ MORE
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CONTINUING ON TOUR: FICTION
FOY: ON THE ROAD TO LOST by Gordon Atkinson Visit with Gordon through March 15
3/12 Author Interview 2 Missus Gonzo
3/13 Review Book Chase
3/14 Video Guest Post 5 Texas Book Lover
3/15 Review Reading By Moonlight
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Lone Star Literary Archives
• Lone Star Listens Interviews
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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