Horton Foote may be gone, but the Austin Public Library Foundation is making sure he isn’t forgotten. The late playwright and screenwriter provides the theme for this year’s annual Texas Tales fundraiser, called “A Trip to Bountiful: An Appreciation of Horton Foote.”
The Sept. 12 event will include a reading by Wilborn Hampton, a New York Times theatre critic and author of the forthcoming biography, Horton Foote: America’s Storyteller; performances by the Tosca String Quartet and Balmorhea; and readings from selected Foote works by Friday Night Lights cast members. Mayor Lee Leffingwell serving as the event’s Honorary Chair. For more info, call APLF at 512-542-0076, or visit austinlibrary.org.
The new issue of American Short Fiction includes an especially long editor’s note, in which editor Stacey Swann says goodbye after three and a half years helming the locally produced lit mag. Swann, a recent runner-up for the Dobie Paisano Writing Fellowship, is stepping down in order to “return to [her] fiction with a renewed concentration”; she’ll stay in the ASF family as Contributing Edtior. Former ASF Managing Editor Jill Meyers will take over as Editor.
Finally, beloved Texas novelist Elmer Kelton passed away on Aug. 26. Kelton, a widely read author of mass-market books based on Texan history and lore (including his popular Texas Ranger series), was 83. You can read the obituary, penned by his family, here.
This article appears in August 21 • 2009.
