Garry Mauro, Texas Land Commissioner, is the recent author of Beaches,
Bureaucrats, and Big Oil, which begins thus: “I never would have dreamed
that a decision to go to a 1986 beach cleanup and risk missing a Texas
A&M-Baylor football game would ultimately make me the enemy of
international oil companies, the plastics and shipping industries, the United
States Navy brass, and lobbyists and bureaucrats throughout the land. I thought
it was just a photo opportunity.” If the rest of the book is as candid as this,
count us in for his appearance at Book People on Wednesday, July 9 at 7pm to
read and sign the book.
Muse Makes Appearance
Today, Thursday, July 3 at 7:30pm Barnes & Noble Westlake (701 S. Capitalof Texas Hwy.) cosponsors a Poetry Workshop with the Austin Writers’ League and
the Texas Commission on the Arts. The workshop is open to all; bring 10 copies
of a one-page poem. Most workshop sessions last about an hour and a half, but
could last as long as the muse imbues the participants with her celestial
light. If you can’t make this month’s workshop, it is held the first Thursday
of every month. Call 328-3155 for more information.
Agents! Awards! Agents!
Looking ahead to July 19-20, the Austin Writers’ League is holding aconference with 11 literary agents from around the nation who will be speaking
on various panels, small group roundtables, and private consultations. Eugene
Winick, president of McIntosh & Otis, Ellen Roberts, owner of Where Books
Begin in New York, and Jeff Herman, author of the Writer’s Guide to Book
Editors, Publishers, and Literary Agents, will be present, among others.
Topics include query letters and book proposals, terms of a fair contract, and
the agent’s role before and after the sale. Cost is $165 for League members and
$200 for nonmembers… The deadline for the League’s Seventh Annual Violet Crown
Awards is July 31. Three $1,000 prizes will be offered for best books in
fiction, nonfiction, and literary categories for books published between
September 1, 1996 and July 31, 1997. The awards are cosponsored by the
University Co-op; awards will be presented September 21. Authors must be League
members, but may join when the entry is submitted. For more information, call
499-8914.
Ongoing: Don Bachardy’s exhibit Confrontations, portraits of famous
literary figures like Tennessee Williams, E.M. Forster, Ana�s Nin, W.H.
Auden, and Lilian Hellman among others, is showing at the Leeds Gallery at the
Flawn Academic Center on the UT campus until August 15. Bachardy’s portraits
hedge the fine line between formal and frenetic; they are clear, elegant
insights into literary figures to which we readers rarely receive such benign,
open access.
Half Price Books announces their Summer Reading Program for children 15 and
under, held through August 31. Pick up a Bookworm form at any HPB store. The
Bookworm form consists of a disembodied worm whose missing segments you fill in
each time your child reads or is read to for 25 minutes. Completed forms may be
taken to any HPB store for discounts and chances to win air tickets from
Southwest Airlines.
Half Price Books also has published the 1997 edition of Say Goodnight to
Illiteracy, a book of bedtime stories intended to raise money for literacy
programs. This third volume of the collection, which retails at Half Price
locations for $2.98, highlights the 25th anniversary of the Dallas-based chain
with 25 stories, selected from over 1,000 entries in a contest earlier this
year.
Among the winners are two Austinites:
9-year-old Hahna Muehlberger wrote
“The Ladybug That Came to Tea” and Grand Prize Winner Lynn Brooks is the author
of “Goodnight Sleepy Jungle Animals.” Brooks and the two other Grand Prize
winners received $500 gift certificates, and Muehlberger and her fellow winners
won $50 gift certificates.
Writers wishing to submit stories for possible inclusion in next year’s
edition should look for forms at Half Price locations this fall. Stories will
be due by December 31 of this year.
Book news for “Post Scripts” must be received at least one week
before the issue date. Mail to: The Austin Chronicle, PO Box 49066,
Austin, TX 78765; fax 458-6910; or e-mail clay@auschron.com
This article appears in July 4 • 1997 and July 4 • 1997 (Cover).