Writing Austin’s Lives
by the people of AustinWaterloo Press, 412 pp., $17.95 (paper)
You want to know what a city’s like, who you gonna ask? Some sharply tailored real estate booster with a storefront tan and a cash register where his heart should be? Some dope-smoking cholo blasting Las 3 Piratas from the speakers of his lowrider? Some scruffy, patchouli-drenched poet with accidental dreads, a rusty nose ring, and her voice hoarse from one too many open mics? Maybe some old gimme-capped cracker who eats pork rinds while watching endless reruns of Wheel of Fortune? Possibly some African-American professor of feminist theory who wears Birkenstocks and has a lifetime membership to aGLIFF? You really want to know what a city’s like, why don’t you ask all of them? Or, rather, ask the real people behind and between those stereotypes: Ask as many of the citizens, in all their diversity, as time, energy, and funding will allow. Ask those citizens to write their stories, to give their unique, indivisible perspectives about what it’s like living where they live. You think that’ll give you a good idea of the urban environment? You think that’ll provide a definite sense of place? If you do, you’re right. And there’s a new book called Writing Austin’s Lives for supportive evidence. Writing Austin’s Lives is a hefty trade paperback of more than 400 pages, with an elegant foil-embossed cover and an interior of autobiographical, city-centric stories from the variegated spectrum of Austin life. Almost 800 citizens responded to a five-month call for stories from the University of Texas Humanities Institute, responded “in crayon, on thin, yellowed sheets of typing paper, in stacks from teachers and writing groups, in envelopes covered with fancy, old stamps, and in envelopes stuffed with photographs.” All ages, all genders, all ethnicities, all social strata, all you-name-it, sent in pieces of their lives. Now 127 of those shards of the human mirror have been joined – thanks to the efforts of the Humanities Institute and the Austin History Center – to offer a multifaceted reflection of this progressive, backward, caring, indifferent, ultimately paradoxical, and ever-changing city by the river. – Wayne Alan Brenner
This article appears in December 3 • 2004.