Postscripts

Two professorial appearances coming up... on Sat, June 14, 2pm at Bookstop Central Park, UT Professor and Director of the Counseling Psychology Doctoral Training Program Ricardo Ainslie will sign copies of his latest book, The Psychology of Twinship. Don't be frightened by his professor status - the book seems intended for non-academics. Local author James Hynes, however, just might want you to be frightened. Publish and Perish: Three Terrifying Tales of Academe is his latest book and it contains three novellas all dealing with the potential horrors of an academic life. In fact, Hynes set out writing horror stories "just to amuse [him]self" and somehow, almost unbeknowst to him, his characters emerged as academics. A onetime academic, Hynes attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and did graduate work at the Iowa Writers' Workshop; incidentally, his father was a college professor. Hynes went on to teach creative writing before quitting the academic life and moving to Austin. Of particular interest to Austin readers is the third novella "Casting the Runes," in which a junior history professor named Virginia, who Hynes calls the s
 ۠etic protagonist in the book, has to defend herself from a curse placed upon her by an older professor marauding her research for his own gain. She teaches at "Longhorn State University" in "Lamar," Texas. He'll be at Book People on Thu, June 19, at 7pm reading from and signing the book.

Workers Unite(d)!

Don't forget that on Sunday, June 22, the Austin Book Workers will be holding a Book Arts Fair from 1-5pm at the Art School of the Austin Museum of Art at Laguna Gloria, 3809 W. 35th Street. The highlight will be Randolph Bertin's exhibit presenting a comprehensive look at publishing and producing a book from start to finish; last year's highlight featured a facsimile copy of a 16th-century Canterbury Tales. Bertin runs Press Intermezzo, which prints limited letterpress editions on an old letterpress, and he will teach skills as diverse as setting type, choosing paper, and securing copyright/printing permissions. More than 14 exhibitors will touch on other production topics like decorating books with gold and leather and Japanese Suminagashi paper decorating. Attendees can participate in paper marbling, paste papermaking, and binding pamphlets. What's more, book doctors will be on call and the group encourages young readers to bring their sick books to visit the Children's Book Hospital.

Not That Cowboy Way

On Sat, June 28 at 7:30pm at the Dougherty Arts Center, Texas Folklife Resources, with the help of the Texas Commission on the Arts, the Austin Arts Commission, the Austin Writers' League, and Arte Público Press presents a free two-hour program they are calling The Language of Tradition: The Cowboy Way. The evening promises the likes of Amarillo cowboy poet Buck Ramsey, Austin author Sarah Bird, the Reverend Mack Williams, storyteller Alejandro Solis, Jr., and Louise O'Connor, who comes from a Texas ranching family and documents the language and stories of cowboy life in her book Cryin' for Daylight.

Bedtime Stories

Half Price Books 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, retailing at HP 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.

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, 1997.

ONGOING: The exhibit The Life and Films of Warren Skaaren: Screenwriter shows in the seventh-floor gallery of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, UT Campus, through June 27. n

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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 to: clay@auschron.com.