Credit: www.michaelcunninghamwriter.com

The Dallas Morning News broke the news last week that Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham (The Hours), a big draw for fans of literary fiction, has dropped out of the fest.

Cunningham, whose new novel By Nightfall will be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux this fall, was set to appear as a speaker at the TBF’s annual First Edition Literary Gala. A scheduling conflict was cited as the reason for his departure.

He’ll be replaced by conservative columnist and frequent Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! panelist P.J. O’Rourke. He’ll join another NPR vet, Michele Norris, at the gala (her memoir The Grace of Silence comes out this month), as well as former First Lady Laura Bush, Texas Book Festival founder and honorary chair.

The fundraising event takes place Oct. 15 at the AT&T Conference Center; the (totally free) Texas Book Festival runs Oct. 16-17.

This article appears in September 3 • 2010.

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A graduate of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, Kimberley has written about film, books, and pop culture for The Austin Chronicle since 2000. She was named Editor of the Chronicle in 2016; she previously served as the paper’s Managing Editor, Screens Editor, Books Editor, and proofreader. Her work has been awarded by the Association of Alternative Newsmedia for excellence in arts criticism, team reporting, and special section (Best of Austin). The Austin Alliance for Women...