Postscripts

My desk is more than overflowing with pieces of paper that say "For Immediate Release," which means that fall is here and there are more upcoming literary events than I can comfortably store in my brain. So I relieve the pressure by mentioning as many as I can. First, something hinted at and later confirmed: The celebrated (to put it mildly) Nathan Englander (For the Relief of Unbearable Urges) is coming to the 16th annual Austin Jewish Book Fair, held November 7-22. He'll be appearing on the 22nd; Michael Dell opens the festival on November 7th... El Paso's Cinco Puntos Press was recently inducted into the Latino Literary Hall of Fame during the third Latino Book & Family Festival in Los Angeles. The award was presented by actor Edward James Olmos, who has been a driving force behind the successful book festival, and who will be attending this year's Texas Book Festival. The press was recognized particularly for its publication earlier this year of The Story of Colors/La Historia de Los Colores (the book by Subcomandante Marcos that had its funding rescinded by the National Endowment for the Arts). Jayne Anne Phillips, author of Black Tickets, Fast Lanes, Machine Dreams, and Shelter, will read at Southwest Texas State University on September 16 at 7pm in Flowers Hall, room 341. Tim O'Brien will read on September 30, 7:30pm, in the Alkek Library Teaching Theater. Call 512/245-2163 for more info on both SWT events... Austin author Tom Zigal will read from and sign the third installment in his Kurt Muller mystery series, Pariah (which is actually the name of an "elusive former groupie" who plays an important role in the book), at Barnes & Noble Arboretum on Saturday, September 18, at 2pm and at Adventures in Crime and Space on Sunday, September 26, from 3-5pm... Texas Rangers historian Thomas Knowles will read from and sign the first volume in his Texas Rangers history series, They Rode for the Lone Star: The Saga of the Texas Rangers, at BookPeople on Saturday, September 11, at 4pm... More Texas Rangers at BookPeople when Elmer Kelton signs his latest, The Buckskin Line, on Thursday, September 16, at 7pm. Kelton has also contributed essays to Texas Cattle Barons, a coffeetable book celebrating big Texas ranches, so he'll be signing that as well... Sex columnist Dan Savage will also be at BookPeople to read from The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Get Pregnant on Monday, September 13, at 7pm. See Arts Listings for more information... There's a new Barnes & Noble -- surprise -- that is hosting poet-author-editor Dave Oliphant and his collection of Texas poetry, Roundup: An Anthology of Texas Poets From 1973 Until 1998, an anthology that Ric Williams categorized as "stunning" when he reviewed Roundup in the Chronicle in May. The new store is called Barnes & Noble Homestead for the shopping center in which it is located (14010 Hwy183). Oliphant will be at the store Friday, September 17, at 7:30pm... John Phillip Santos' poetic and haunting memoir Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation deserves the rave reviews it's receiving. Santos will speak at UT's Bass Lecture Hall on Friday, September 10 at 4pm.