LITERARY WEEKEND
The Texas Institute of Letters held their annual meeting in Dallas at the Hilton Park Cities Hotel. We missed the Friday reception that was held at the Harlan Crow private library in his estate where all the liberal writers were exposed to a conservative exhibition. We elected to miss that event and drove in Saturday so that Lou could attend the council meeting as a retiring member.
As we checked in Saturday morning Alice Specht, Hardin-Simmons University librarian grabbed me and asked if I knew a pretty little girl sitting in a chair in the lobby. I said I didn't and she informed me that her daughter, Mary Helen Specht is the current Dobie Paisano scholar in residence at TIL's Paisano ranch near Austin. While Lou was in her meeting, I spent $10 to log into the DSL line in the hotel room and check my email. I went to Judy Alter's blog and she has a link to Dallas books at: http://books.beloblog.com/ and on that blog there was the story of the reception at the Crow museum and in the article the writer quoted Mary Specht. I told her about it and she got to see the story. The sad thing is that the Dallas Morning News does not have a book page and did not print the story. That is sad.
After the council meeting Lou came to the room at 2 and rested her back on the bed for a few minutes then at 3 we went to the traditional session where new inductees read from their work. We really enjoyed that session. I got a column idea from Lynn Hoggard who sat next to me and told about getting a wrist watch stopwatch with a GPS capability that keeps track of where she is and has been. She downloads her trip in the computer and it displays a map with her trip and calculates her times and calorie use.
The new members who read started with T. Lindsay Baker, who is curator of the museum at Thurber run be Tarleton where he is on the faculty. He is a historian and has books on historical sites. He read from his book that he coauthored with an archeologist about Adobe Walls. The excerpt that he read quoted from a record of a conversation with Quanah Parker that was given in English, Comanche and sign language. He told about the Indian leaders sending 7 scouts out to inspect the Walls and their report resulting in the leader saying that they would kill white men the next day. I wanted to ask him if he had read Mike Blakely's latest book that has the fight at Adobe Walls in one chapter. It was written from the viewpoint of the Indians and the buffalo hunters inside.
The next inductee who read was Scott Blackwood, a former Paisano scholar who is from Austin. His story is from a coming novel that is set in Austin. His character was an auto thief with a legitimate Allstate Insurance business but makes his big money stealing requested cars that were sold in Mexico. In his story he was driving a stolen vehicle and in the last sentence he strikes a woman walking along the road leaving us wanting to know what happened next. He is a great writer that Lou talked to at length at the dinner that night when he sat next to her. Although from Austin his wife is from Clarendon so he knows a little about West Texas.
The next writer, Emily Fox Gordon, writes comic novels about academia. Both she and her husband come from New England but have been at Rice for 18 years. Her husband is a Psychology prof who has been a department head. The characters in her novel have a lot of herself and her husband. The excerpt that she read told about a department head having his long time truly dependable secretary being moved to the Dean's office and the new secretary a flake who decorated her area completely with fairies. She collapes into a fit of depression that requires him to counsel her in his office and is a hilarious story that resonates with all of us former academics.
Noel Parsons was introduced but declined to read from his most famous rejection letters as director of the Texas Tech Press.
The last writer who read from his work was Steve Wilson from San Marcos. He is a poet and read I think six short poems that he had written. I don't appreciate great literature and my only thoughts about his presentation was to remember when personal computers first appeared someone wrote a software program that put random phrases together in what appeared to be an academic paper that almost made sense. His poetry struck me in that fashion. I apologize to all of you poets. Now I do like Jan Seale's poetry. It makes sense.
That night Lou put on her nice looking light blue suit that she wore to Ashley's wedding. She wore a turban with a blue scarf around it and really looked good. She sat most of the reception time and took her pillow to use in her chair at the dinner. I sat next to Ron Rozelle from Lake Jackson who writes a column for the online paper THEFACTS.COM. His last column April 20 is about watching HBO about John Adams based on the novel by David McCollough. Ron told me about his problem with a New York agent not being able to market his book on Dean Smith who was a cowboy and stunt man for John Wayne. The agent said Wayne was of no interest to the public. Typical NY thinking about the west and shows why western novels and stories have disappeared from the book store shelves. Bob Cochran was next to him and is also going off the TIL council this year. Kip Stratton and Tom Dodge were also at the table but I didn't get to talk to them.
I can't give a complete listing of the TIL award winners but there were some interesting ones that I was interested in. Rick Bass, from Montana, won two awards. He couldn't come to the meeting because his daughter was running in a race in Montana. He won the O. Henry award for a story The Lives of the Browns that documented the story of a famous country music family that were best known in their time of Johnny Cash, The Beatles, etc. and are now lost to history, but still are alive and well in Arkansas. He won the best short story award for The Elephant in Tin House ( I think) that will be published as a novel called The Elephant. It is a story about an errant elephant from a circus in west texas ranch country.
The Best Newspaper Story went to Todd Benjamin for a story where he documented an Islamic illegal alien buying his way into the US.
The best book of fiction went to John McLaughlin. The best non-fiction book went to the former Ambassador to Burundi and his wife for their book about that country that is the poorest country in the world and they saw enormous tragically killing while they were there, but the people had a spirit and hospitality that overcame the horror.
The best book design award went to a book about the photos of Stanley Marcus of Neiman-Marcus fame. His daughter and granddaughter, who is a photographer, wrote the book.
The Texas Institute of Letters held their annual meeting in Dallas at the Hilton Park Cities Hotel. We missed the Friday reception that was held at the Harlan Crow private library in his estate where all the liberal writers were exposed to a conservative exhibition. We elected to miss that event and drove in Saturday so that Lou could attend the council meeting as a retiring member.
As we checked in Saturday morning Alice Specht, Hardin-Simmons University librarian grabbed me and asked if I knew a pretty little girl sitting in a chair in the lobby. I said I didn't and she informed me that her daughter, Mary Helen Specht is the current Dobie Paisano scholar in residence at TIL's Paisano ranch near Austin. While Lou was in her meeting, I spent $10 to log into the DSL line in the hotel room and check my email. I went to Judy Alter's blog and she has a link to Dallas books at: http://books.beloblog.com/ and on that blog there was the story of the reception at the Crow museum and in the article the writer quoted Mary Specht. I told her about it and she got to see the story. The sad thing is that the Dallas Morning News does not have a book page and did not print the story. That is sad.
After the council meeting Lou came to the room at 2 and rested her back on the bed for a few minutes then at 3 we went to the traditional session where new inductees read from their work. We really enjoyed that session. I got a column idea from Lynn Hoggard who sat next to me and told about getting a wrist watch stopwatch with a GPS capability that keeps track of where she is and has been. She downloads her trip in the computer and it displays a map with her trip and calculates her times and calorie use.
The new members who read started with T. Lindsay Baker, who is curator of the museum at Thurber run be Tarleton where he is on the faculty. He is a historian and has books on historical sites. He read from his book that he coauthored with an archeologist about Adobe Walls. The excerpt that he read quoted from a record of a conversation with Quanah Parker that was given in English, Comanche and sign language. He told about the Indian leaders sending 7 scouts out to inspect the Walls and their report resulting in the leader saying that they would kill white men the next day. I wanted to ask him if he had read Mike Blakely's latest book that has the fight at Adobe Walls in one chapter. It was written from the viewpoint of the Indians and the buffalo hunters inside.
The next inductee who read was Scott Blackwood, a former Paisano scholar who is from Austin. His story is from a coming novel that is set in Austin. His character was an auto thief with a legitimate Allstate Insurance business but makes his big money stealing requested cars that were sold in Mexico. In his story he was driving a stolen vehicle and in the last sentence he strikes a woman walking along the road leaving us wanting to know what happened next. He is a great writer that Lou talked to at length at the dinner that night when he sat next to her. Although from Austin his wife is from Clarendon so he knows a little about West Texas.
The next writer, Emily Fox Gordon, writes comic novels about academia. Both she and her husband come from New England but have been at Rice for 18 years. Her husband is a Psychology prof who has been a department head. The characters in her novel have a lot of herself and her husband. The excerpt that she read told about a department head having his long time truly dependable secretary being moved to the Dean's office and the new secretary a flake who decorated her area completely with fairies. She collapes into a fit of depression that requires him to counsel her in his office and is a hilarious story that resonates with all of us former academics.
Noel Parsons was introduced but declined to read from his most famous rejection letters as director of the Texas Tech Press.
The last writer who read from his work was Steve Wilson from San Marcos. He is a poet and read I think six short poems that he had written. I don't appreciate great literature and my only thoughts about his presentation was to remember when personal computers first appeared someone wrote a software program that put random phrases together in what appeared to be an academic paper that almost made sense. His poetry struck me in that fashion. I apologize to all of you poets. Now I do like Jan Seale's poetry. It makes sense.
That night Lou put on her nice looking light blue suit that she wore to Ashley's wedding. She wore a turban with a blue scarf around it and really looked good. She sat most of the reception time and took her pillow to use in her chair at the dinner. I sat next to Ron Rozelle from Lake Jackson who writes a column for the online paper THEFACTS.COM. His last column April 20 is about watching HBO about John Adams based on the novel by David McCollough. Ron told me about his problem with a New York agent not being able to market his book on Dean Smith who was a cowboy and stunt man for John Wayne. The agent said Wayne was of no interest to the public. Typical NY thinking about the west and shows why western novels and stories have disappeared from the book store shelves. Bob Cochran was next to him and is also going off the TIL council this year. Kip Stratton and Tom Dodge were also at the table but I didn't get to talk to them.
I can't give a complete listing of the TIL award winners but there were some interesting ones that I was interested in. Rick Bass, from Montana, won two awards. He couldn't come to the meeting because his daughter was running in a race in Montana. He won the O. Henry award for a story The Lives of the Browns that documented the story of a famous country music family that were best known in their time of Johnny Cash, The Beatles, etc. and are now lost to history, but still are alive and well in Arkansas. He won the best short story award for The Elephant in Tin House ( I think) that will be published as a novel called The Elephant. It is a story about an errant elephant from a circus in west texas ranch country.
The Best Newspaper Story went to Todd Benjamin for a story where he documented an Islamic illegal alien buying his way into the US.
The best book of fiction went to John McLaughlin. The best non-fiction book went to the former Ambassador to Burundi and his wife for their book about that country that is the poorest country in the world and they saw enormous tragically killing while they were there, but the people had a spirit and hospitality that overcame the horror.
The best book design award went to a book about the photos of Stanley Marcus of Neiman-Marcus fame. His daughter and granddaughter, who is a photographer, wrote the book.
The top award, the Lon Tinkle award went to David Weber, who couldn't be at the meeting because he is a visiting professor at Yale and is battling cancer.
We ended a great weekend by sleeping late, eating the breakfast buffet at the hotel that cost more than a tank of gas. We then drove to our Son's home to look at the hail damage. The metal parts all had dents as did his pickup that he couldn't get in his four car garage that has his two new cars, and two classic cars being remodeled. We then ate lunch with them at BooRays New Orleans restaurant and loved the food. I had Jambalaya and Lou had catfish that she loved and we have meals for tomorrow. We got home in time to get a little nap. Lou said that it has been a great weekend. Her back is still hurting some but she is feeling better.
posted by Dr. Rodenberger at 8:12 AM
1 Comments:
Charles, the Dallas Morning News does indeed have a book page, one of the best two or three surviving in the state. The editor, Mike Merschel, does a terrific job and was at the TIL banquet. And the results were posted on the paper's book blog--books.beblog.com. Enjoy!
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