Postscripts

$60,000 - that's the amount organizers of the Jan Reid Rescue Fund have raised in an amazingly short timespan to benefit Reid and his wife Dorothy Browne while Reid recovers from bullet wounds suffered in Mexico City last month. Much of that money was raised last Saturday night at a Four Seasons benefit that Browne attended but Reid could only attend electronically, as organizers had digital cameras present that relayed the evening to Reid's room at the Texas Institute for Rehabilitation and Research in Houston.

All but one of the authors - Ann Richards, John Graves, Darrell Royal, Molly Ivins, Kinky Friedman, and Larry L. King - produced readings punctuated by raucous laughter every minute or so. John Graves let the rhythm of his words speak for themselves, really. His reading was reminiscent of something Kenneth Tynan wrote about Edith Evans in 1956: "How she looks runs second to how she sounds: it is in the ear of memory that she chiefly lingers.... She once said that her greatest fault was that when she got a beautiful word into her mouth she could not bear to let go of it; it is a fault which, to our infinite pleasure, seems past curing." Graves has a measured, almost faint reading voice that makes the listener lean in just a bit to hear adequately. His reading coupled with the other humorously self-deprecating authors made for an "evening of readings" that easily bypassed the plodding, laborious overtones associated with that phrase. If you'd like to financially help out Reid and Browne the Rescue Fund is accepting donations of any amount at c/o Phyllis Cartwright, PO Box 13151, Austin, TX, 78711-3151.

Entries & Events

Today, Thursday, May 14, 6-8pm, Loren D. Estleman, primarily known to mystery fans as the author of the Detroit-based Amos Walker series, will sign his latest, Witchfinder, at Adventures in Crime & Space... and on Sunday, May 17, 1pm, Mysteries & More (11139 N. I-35) hosts Sue Grafton, who will read from her new book N Is for Noose...

Congress Avenue Booksellers (716 Congress) will hold several lunchtime author readings in the near future: On Thursday, May 21, 11:30am-1pm, Marion Winik will read from The Lunch-Box Chronicles. A light lunch will be served... Red Salmon Arts (aka Red Salmon Press) holds its annual fundraising event on Memorial Day from 4-8pm in the parking lot of Resistencia Bookstore (2210-B South First St.). It's called a "Puro Pore" event featuring Conjunto Aztlan and the Texana Dames with Tomás Ramirez. Red Salmon Arts is "a publication/collective literary venue dedicated to the retrieval of a people's literary heritage and the development of emerging young artists and readers." For more information, call 416-8885...

If you'd like to enter the seventh annual Chronicle Short Story Contest, your entry needs to be postmarked by May 18. It needs to be 2,000 words or less and unpublished. Entrants should submit one copy of the manuscript and a cover sheet bearing the name, address, and phone number of the author and the title of the work. Entries will not be returned...

Or you could also enter UT Press' second annual John Graves Essay Contest. Three winners and 10 finalists will be announced at the 1998 Texas Book Festival. Send a 2,500-word nonfiction essay and a $15 entry fee to: Graves Contest, University of Texas Press, PO Box 7819, Austin, TX 78713 before May 30. The contest is open to all who draw literary inspiration from the people and places of Texas, and aims to foster the talent of Texas writers.