{"id":1233,"date":"2018-12-31T16:20:10","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T16:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1233"},"modified":"2018-12-31T16:20:10","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T16:20:10","slug":"lone-star-book-reviewsby-michelle-newby-nbcccontributing-editor-130","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1233","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star Book ReviewsBy Michelle Newby, NBCCContributing Editor"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span>Michelle Newby<\/span> is a reviewer for Kirkus Reviews<\/span> and Foreword Reviews, <\/span>writer, blogger at TexasBookLover.com, member of the Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop advisory committee, and a moderator for the Texas Book Festival. Her reviews appear in Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, Concho River Review, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Atticus Review, The Rumpus, PANK Magazine,<\/span> and The Collagist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lone Star Book Reviews
of Texas books appear weekly
at LoneStarLiterary.com<\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n

LITERARY ANTHOLOGY<\/p>\n

Bryce Milligan<\/span>, editor<\/p>\n

Literary San Antonio<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Texas Christian University Press<\/p>\n

Hardcover, 978-0-8756-5687-8, 456 pgs., $34.95<\/p>\n

February 27, 2018<\/p>\n

Feliz cumplea\u00f1os a<\/span> San Antonio, \u201cciudad-reina de la frontera.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Literary San Antonio<\/span> is a handsome, oversized edition, the cover graced by an image of the \u201cenchilada-red\u201d fa\u00e7ade of the central San Antonio Public Library. The latest in Texas Christian University Press\u2019s Literary Cities series, Literary San Antonio<\/span> is edited by Bryce Milligan,<\/span> the publisher, editor, and book designer at Wings Press since 1995. Milligan, a resident of San Antonio since 1977, is also a poet, folk singer, and luthier, among too many callings to count. Unafraid to rouse a few rabbles, Milligan is a wonder of artistic vitality and a blessing to San Antonio. Married to librarian and author Mary Guerrero Milligan,<\/span> he dedicates Literary San Antonio<\/span> to her, \u201cuna verdadera hija de este pueblo,\u201d<\/span> and credits her for his love of cultura.<\/span><\/p>\n

Literary San Antonio<\/span> is divided into five parts: Historical Writing, Journalism and Political Essays, Poetry, Drama, and Fiction. The pieces, chosen to represent the \u201cmultiethnic, multilingual, cosmopolitan culture of the city that drew writers and artists,\u201d are diverse in subject and genre, and rich in place. Featured writers include poets Carmen Tafolla<\/span> (\u201cThis river here \/ is full of me and mine\u201d), Jim LaVilla-Havelin,<\/span> Amalia Ortiz,<\/span> and Robert Bonazzi;<\/span> journalists Frederick Law Olmsted,<\/span> who in the nineteenth century compared San Antonio favorably to New Orleans for \u201cpicturesque interest \u2026 and antiquated foreignness,\u201d and Jan Jarboe Russell,<\/span> who wrote in the twenty-first, \u201cBesieged by critics on all sides, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas have once again vowed to fight to the death.\u201d Novelists include thriller writer Jay Brandon,<\/span> historical fiction writer Stephen Harrigan,<\/span> everyone\u2019s favorite children\u2019s fantasy author Rick Riordan,<\/span> and the queen of everything Sandra Cisneros.<\/span><\/p>\n

Milligan possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of his subject and a sharp wit. His introduction is a feast of literary history. He begins at the beginning with songs in indigenous Coahuiltecan languages, for the area has been occupied for approximately 15,000 years. Milligan covers the first successful newspapers in San Antonio in the 1850s, to La Prensa,<\/span> which was published for fifty years, begun in 1913, on up to B\u00e1rbara Renaud Gonz\u00e1lez<\/span> in the 1990s, the first Chicana columnist in Texas. Other notables include Oscar Wilde,<\/span> who stayed at the Menger Hotel during a lecture tour in 1882 (\u201cmen in Texas cannot survive more than an hour between beers\u201d); Stephen Crane,<\/span> who sang the city\u2019s praises in 1894; and O. Henry,<\/span> who experienced numerous misadventures in San Antonio \u2014 and set six short stories there. Graham Greene<\/span> hit town in 1939, describing San Antonio as \u201chalf Mexican and half Will Rogers,\u201d and Ambrose Bierce<\/span> passed through before disappearing into thin (revolutionary Mexican) air.<\/p>\n

San Antonio holds an honored place in the births of political and civil rights movements, and the passages relating the ties between the Mexican Revolution and the flourishing of Latino literature in San Antonio are fascinating. Many writers and journalists fled Mexico for exile in San Antonio. Francisco Madero\u2019s<\/span> Plan de San Luis Potos\u00ed,<\/span> which urged armed rebellion, \u201cliterally [calling] the Mexican Revolution into being,\u201d was written and published in San Antonio. Pioneers of the Chicano literary movement in the 1960s believed San Antonio to be \u201cel Coraz\u00f3n de Aztlan.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Literary San Antonio<\/span> offers many gems, an invaluable anthology and addition to Texas letters. I can\u2019t imagine a better way to celebrate San Antonio\u2019s tricentennial year.<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michelle Newby is a reviewer for Kirkus Reviews and Foreword Reviews, writer, blogger at TexasBookLover.com, member of the Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop advisory committee, and a moderator for the Texas Book Festival. Her reviews appear in Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, Concho River Review, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Atticus Review, The Rumpus, PANK Magazine, and The Collagist. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1233\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}