Two UT grad students, one, Tara Fatemi, an M.A. candidate in poetry, and the other, Maribel Sosa of the Texas Center for Writers program, have come together to plan a series they're calling the Backyard Fiction and Poetry Series. While grad students in creative disciplines are constantly reading and writing and critiquing one another's work, these two students wanted to hear their fellow students read in a public setting more often. They plan on holding the readings every couple of months; with all of the grad students in creative disciplines at UT, every couple of months seems not often enough, but Fatemi and Sosa plead "overworked" as they're so busy with their own work and planning events like this requires much preparation. Eight readers including Robert Lee and Marlys West will appear on Friday October 3, 7pm, in the backyard of the J. Frank Dobie House,
aka the home of the Texas Center for Writers, 702 East 26th. They urge you to bring blankets or pillows to make yourself comfortable supporting this creative crop. Call 457-9427 or 708-9908 for more information. In other Texas Center for Writers news, their 1997-98 visiting faculty include a Texas native, Emily Tracy, who has written for TV and feature films for the past 16 years at Tri-Star, Orion, and Lorimar. She'll be teaching two classes this fall, "The Best and the Worst: Learning Craft at the Movies," and "Theory and Principles of Dramatic Writing," a screenwriting workshop. Denis Johnson is the author of five books of poetry and five novels including
Angels and
Already Dead: A California Gothic. In the spring he will teach a seminar entitled "Elements of Fiction," as well as an advanced fiction writing workshop. Welcome to them both.
Mixed Notes
The Austin Writers' League still has tickets left to their fundraising Big Hair Follies event at Esther's Follies October 22 starring Liz Carpenter and the Esther's Follies gang with other stars of big hair society to be announced. Tickets are going fast, though; if interested call 499-8914 for ticket information...
The Austin Book Workers will hold a meeting free and open to the public on Thursday, October 9 with a reception at 6:30pm and meeting at 7pm. Cathy Atwood, a conservator for the Local Records program of the State of Missouri, will be speaking about design issues in Japanese books and the history of that aesthetic. The event is to be held at All Saint's Episcopal Church, 209 West 27th...
On Friday, October 3 at noon, ethnobotanist Terence McKenna, author of Food of the Gods, will be appearing on John Aielli's Eklektikos, KUT 90.5 FM.
Ongoing: Half Price Books is taking entries until December 31 for their fourth Bedtime Story Contest; accepted stories will be published in Say Goodnight to Illiteracy, to be published in spring 1998. Stories should be no longer than 300 words and previously unpublished. Say Goodnight will be a children's book, but writers of all ages are encouraged to submit. Pick up entry forms at any Half Price Books location. Proceeds from the sale of Say Goodnight will benefit literacy and education projects.
Book news for "Postscripts"
must be received at least one week prior to issue date. Mail to: The Austin Chronicle
, PO Box 49066, Austin, TX, 78765; fax 458-6910; or e-mail [email protected]
