When I turned 30, I drank too much and worked my angst out on a piñata. I suspect the Writers' League of Texas will handle its own passage into a third decade with significant more decorum and/or grace.

Dozens and dozens if not hundreds of poets flocking to this river city from all over the world this weekend, to partake of and offer verse liberated or otherwise. And why here in particular? Our Litera listings man about town, Ric Williams, finds out in this interview with AIPF director Ashley F. Kim:

Military wives and Vietnam vets steer the Mayor's Book Club's dual selections.

The Writers' League of Texas celebrates its 2010 awards with a shindig next week at BookPeople.

And they're celebrating it right now.

Yup, writing a novel is hard. But what if you had a community of thousands egging you on?

Sometimes I find myself missing my old hometown even though I still live here.

Like a grown-up version of the old Choose Your Own Adventure series, Marc Majcher's 24 pieces of sharp narrative lead you through role-playing situations that range from the quotidian and contentious - "Three Old Men" - to the goofily fantastic - "The Sign of the Great Old Elder God from Beyond" – to the universally poignant - "The Leaves Will Bury."

The man turned George Bush’s face into a pirate flag and created a condom ad with copulating rabbits. Designed to grab eyeballs and braincells, these are the sort of gambits (for clients like Moët & Chandon, The New York Times, and MTV) that have won James Victore the acclaim of the international design crowd and everyone tired of the same-old same-old.