{"id":1004,"date":"2018-12-31T15:12:32","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T15:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1004"},"modified":"2018-12-31T15:12:32","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T15:12:32","slug":"7-16-17-news-briefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1004","title":{"rendered":"7.16.17 News Briefs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/span><\/span>West Texas Book Festival scheduled for Sept. 21\u201323 in Abilene<\/h1>\n

17th year for event, presented by Friends of the Library<\/h1>\n

ABILENE\u2014The 17th annual West Texas Book Festival,<\/span> presented by Friends of the Abilene Public Library, will celebrate reading and writing with three full days of activities, Sept. 21\u201323, 2017.<\/p>\n

Fourteen authors will be featured in presentations, panels, and workshops free to the public on Friday and Saturday.<\/p>\n

Two ticketed events will kick off the seventeenth annual book festival on Thursday, Sept. 21. The Boots & Books Culinary Luncheon<\/span> at 11:30 a.m. Thursday will be held in the Hunter Welcome Center. Fort Worth author Jeff Guinn<\/span> will be presented the A. C. Greene Award,<\/span> given every year to a distinguished Texas author, and the meal will be prepared from recipes in The Big Country Cookbook<\/span> by featured cookbook author Tiffany Harelik<\/span> (rhymes with garlic). Tickets are $35 each or $280 for a table of eight, and seating is limited. To inquire about reservations, contact Karen Turner at (325) 673-4307.<\/p>\n

Thursday night\u2019s Texas Cookbook Gala<\/span> at the Abilene Country Club is a major fund-raiser for the Friends. The event, pairing Harelik\u2019s cookbook recipes with Texas wines, is sold out.<\/p>\n

Friday and Saturday\u2019s programs will be at the Abilene Public Library downtown, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday. Also, two authors will be visiting six Abilene elementary schools throughout the day Friday as part of the festival\u2019s Authors in Schools initiative.<\/p>\n

Authors speaking on Friday at the library include Jeff Guinn<\/span> and James Ward Lee<\/span> from Fort Worth; Al Pickett<\/span> from Abilene; S.C. Gwynne<\/span> from Austin; and Lisa Wingate<\/span> from Howe, Texas. Wingate will conclude the day with a free workshop at 2 p.m. on \u201cWriting Your Family Stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s presenters are Chris Barton <\/span>and Jennifer Ziegler,<\/span> Austin; Preston Lewis,<\/span> San Angelo; Stew Magnuson,<\/span> Virginia; Diane Kelly,<\/span> Burleson; and Penny Klostermann, Steven Moore, Joe Specht,<\/span> and musician Greg Young,<\/span> all from Abilene.<\/p>\n

The Ricki Brown Abilene Librarian of the Year Award <\/span>will be presented at a boxed-lunch program at the National Center for Children\u2019s Illustrated Literature at 11:45 Saturday. To conclude the festival, novelist Diane Kelly<\/span> will conduct a workshop at 1 p.m. at the library on 20 Tips for Better Writing.<\/p>\n

Abilene authors who have had a book published in the past year will be honored at a festival \u201cpreview\u201d event, the Abilene Author Showcase,<\/span> at 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 17, at the South Branch Library in the Mall of Abilene. It is also free to the public. More information is available online at www.abilenetx.com\/apl\/friends<\/span>.<\/p>\n

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Archer City Story Center offers two workshops in July<\/h1>\n

ARCHER CITY \u2014 ARCHER CITY \u2014 The Archer City Story Center is offering the workshop<\/span> \u201cLiterary Nonfiction Workshop\u201d Sun., July 23 through Sun., July 30.<\/p>\n

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The Archer City Story Center is a program of the Royal Theater, a non-profit theater group operating in Archer City since 1993 with its first production, Tumbleweeds.<\/span> The Royal Theater, a small-town silver screen, was the inspiration for Larry McMurtry’s<\/span> 1966 novel The Last Picture Show,<\/span> which was adapted into the Oscar-winning 1971 film starring Cybill Shepherd<\/span> and Jeff Bridges.<\/span> A fire gutted the theater in 1965 and the building stood in ruins for decades before being rebuilt by the Archer Community Foundation in 2000. The new theater sits adjacent to the original space, which now houses outdoor amphitheater programs.<\/p>\n

In its new life, the 230-seat theater quickly became a leader in North Texas and beyond as a listening and live performance venue as well as a gathering spot for the arts. For generations, the Royal Theater has been more than the symbol of an iconic book and movie. It has been the soul of the town, a place for the community to gather with, as McMurtry once said, “something to do.”<\/p>\n

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The Royal Theater and the restored 1928 Spur Hotel anchor the Archer City Story campus. Small-town, walkable Archer City is visited year-round by book and movie enthusiasts. Many of them come to visit Booked Up, the legendary used book store filled with titles curated by owner Larry McMurtry. Although McMurtry famously pared down his collection a few years back, Booked Up is still open and selling titles. Travelers also come for the collections of history found in the Archer County Museum.<\/p>\n

In 2016 the Archer City Story Center began holding workshops.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiterary Nonfiction Workshop\u201d with writer-in-residence Kim Cross<\/span> is a week-long workshop is designed to provide professional journalists and writers the opportunity to learn and practice the craft of long-form literary nonfiction.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span>Participating writers (no more than 12) stay at the Spur Hotel. Each day begins with an interactive discussion about a specific element of the craft (for example, dialogue), guided by the writer in residence. Writers are then dispatched into the town of Archer City to practice that element (in this example, by recording and writing a short scene involving dialogue). By suppertime, the group reconvenes to read and workshop their assignment and discuss what they learned in the process. The writer in residence and at least one mentor are available throughout the day to field questions.<\/p>\n

To be eligible for a professional spot in this workshop, applicants must be 21 or older and possess a strong command of the fundamentals of writing. Ideally, they have at least five years of professional experience in journalism, publishing, or creative writing. Reporting experience is recommended, but not required. Graduate students in journalism or creative writing will be considered based on writing samples and recommendations.<\/p>\n

Participants for \u201cLiterary Nonfiction Workshop\u201d are selected by nomination. For more information, contact Kim Cross at kimhcross@yahoo.com<\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

(Information from organization\u2019s website and media sources; images from organization’s Facebook page)<\/p>\n

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Submit to the 2017 PEN Southwest Book Awards<\/h1>\n

PEN Texas invites all writers in the Southwestern states <\/span>to participate in the 2017 contest for excellence in writing in the categories of Poetry, Fiction, Creative Non-fiction, and Literary Translation. The winner in each category will receive a $500 prize, co-sponsored by PEN Center USA and PEN Texas.<\/p>\n

The contest is open to full (regular) members of PEN Center USA and PEN America living in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. It is also open to Associate Members of PEN Texas. Entries must be books published between May 15, 2015 and August 1, 2017. Self-published books are eligible. Translations must be into English.<\/p>\n

Entries must be received no later than September 1, 2017.<\/p>\n