Postscripts
By Clay Smith, Fri., Nov. 7, 1997
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Be assured as well that Joseph Skibell puts plenty of energy into his readings, but of a different sort. A member of the first graduating class of the Texas Center for Writers, Skibell has recently published A Blessing on the Moon with Algonquin Books. Only two months after he finished writing the book, the manuscript was in Algonquin's hands. That rather amazing process worked something like this: Texas Center for Writers director Jim Magnuson displayed his enthusiasm for the work by helping Skibell find an agent in New York's Wendy Weil, who immediately decided to represent Skibell and began to put the manuscript up for auction, which in the publishing world means that an agent makes it known to publishing houses that he or she has a manuscript that the houses can make an offer on. Algonquin purposefully preempted Weil's auction of the book by making an offer that Skibell says he and his wife couldn't refuse since it was a nice offer and Algonquin clearly seemed enthused by the work. Moon has garnered excellent reviews nationwide and is one in a line of works of recent fiction that have brought attention to the quality of the Texas Center for Writers program. Skibell particularly credits the program's interdisciplinary nature for coercing him to realize that he could in fact write fiction when all along he entered the program with an intention to focus on playwriting. But he also credits James Michener's "stunning example of generosity," calling him a writer whose works will be read for "hundreds of years." Skibell will be reading Tuesday, November 11, 7:30pm, in the fourth floor auditorium of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, 21st and Guadalupe on the UT