Postscripts

Another week, another benefit in Austin that seems to effortlessly yoke a good time with a good cause: The Kick-Off Gala for Texas Writers Month at GSD&M (828 W. Sixth), Tuesday, May 4, 7-10pm, is free and open to the public, but the broadside pictured above will be for sale ($50), with all proceeds benefiting the Texas Writers Project. The Texas Writers Project is the 501(c)3 that administers and distributes Texas Writers Month funds. The only funds, in fact, that the Texas Writers Project distributes are money for printing and distributing a new, free 60-page publication called Texas Writer that will be out in May and the Texas Writers Month poster, which this year features Larry McMurtry. Confused about the difference between the poster and the broadside?

The Texas Writers Month poster is one of those rare inanimate objects that possesses (by the time May rolls around) a life and personality of its own. If it could talk, it would have much to say. Discussion of who the posterfigure will be occurs, formally and informally, months and months in advance of May. Finding the money to fund the poster is an effort; lining up sponsors isn't easy; and getting everyone to agree on all artistic elements isn't like writing a book, a solitary effort, but more like making a film. Local graphic designer Marc English devised this year's poster pro bono, and it is beautiful and complex and evocative. To briefly answer the question I posed above -- the Texas Writers Month poster is sent out for free to schools, libraries, bookstores, literary organizations, and museums statewide. The broadside is printed to raise funds for the printing and distribution of next year's poster. The broadside (300 were produced this year) features a passage from McMurtry's collection of essays about Texas, In a Narrow Grave, selected by UT professor Don Graham and Mark Busby, the director of the Center for the Study of the Southwest at Southwest Texas State University, that says in part, "Not long after I entered the pastures of the empty page I realized that the place where all my stories start is the heart faced suddenly with the loss of its country, its customary and legendary range." In addition to being available at the gala, posters and broadsides can be ordered by calling the regional office of Barnes & Noble, 328-5526, and can be viewed at http://www.texasmonthly.com/ by clicking on the Texas Writers Month link.