Knowing the ending of Stephen Harrigan‘s novel The Gates of the Alamo (Knopf, 592 pp., $25) hasn’t deterred readers from buying it: At last check, the widely praised novel had reached No.128 in Amazon’s sales rank and had already gone into a second printing before the publication date (March 6), which may seem impossible, but that’s what people mean by the word “buzz.” On Monday, March 6, at 6pm, Harrigan will give a benefit for the San Antonio Public Library Foundation at the Central Library Auditorium (600 Soledad). Suggested donation is $5 at that event. He will be at Barnes & Noble Arboretum on Tuesday, March 7, at 7:30pm to read from and sign the book. There will also be a cake in the shape of the Alamo at the Barnes & Noble reading, but I checked and it will not be a red blood velvet cake, as rumored…. Poetic wunderkind Marshall Stewart Ball, age 13 and author of the bestselling collection Kiss of God, will be at a fundraiser for the Austin International Poetry Festival on Sunday, March 5, from 3-6pm at 9211 Knoll Crest Loop in Northwest Austin. Minimum donation for the fundraiser is $5. Kiss of God is subtitled Wisdom From a Silent Child because Ball, who has an entire host of physical disabilities, has been unable to speak or walk since birth. He points to an alphabet board to form his words. By age nine, tests revealed that he could read at a 12th-grade level; Kiss of God was published when he was 11 (his family had been compiling his poems for several years). The Austin International Poetry Festival will bring more than 225 poets to Austin April 13-16. For more information call 835-5942 or check out the AIPF Web site, http://www.hyperweb.com/aipf… John Romano, executive producer of NBC’s Third Watch, executive story editor of Hill Street Blues,and screenwriter of The Third Miracle, is coming to town under the auspices of UT’s Michener Center for Writers on Thursday, March 9, at 7:30pm in the HRC’s fourth floor auditorium; open and free to the public… Profs in the news: Congratulations to SWT creative writing professor Kathleen Peirce, who just won the Poetry Society of America’s William Carlos Williams Award for The Oval Hour, published last year by University of Iowa Press. The Williams Carlos Williams Award is bestowed annually to a book of poetry published by a small press, nonprofit, or university press (which means that lots of works of poetry published each year are eligible). That makes two professors in the MFA program at SWT who have won the prestigious prize: Cyrus Cassells also won in 1995 for Soul Make a Path Through Shouting. Last Friday, Peirce was named a finalist in the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry for The Oval Hour; winners will be announced on April 29. Look for What Nietzsche Really Said (Schocken Books, 288 pp., $23) by UT philosophy professors Kathleen Higgins and Robert Solomon in bookstores… The First Tuesday Freelancers Group meets Tuesday, March 7, from 11:30am-1pm at the Yarborough Library (2200 Hancock). Topic of discussion is the pros and cons of pro-bono work. Call 454-4285 for more information.
This article appears in March 3 • 2000.