In & Out
Texas Book Festival's gala speakers get shuffled
By Kimberley Jones, 3:23PM, Tue. Sep. 7, 2010
The Dallas Morning News broke the news last week that Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham (The Hours), a big draw for fans of literary fiction, has dropped out of the fest.
Cunningham, whose new novel By Nightfall will be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux this fall, was set to appear as a speaker at the TBF's annual First Edition Literary Gala. A scheduling conflict was cited as the reason for his departure.
He'll be replaced by conservative columnist and frequent Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! panelist P.J. O'Rourke. He'll join another NPR vet, Michele Norris, at the gala (her memoir The Grace of Silence comes out this month), as well as former First Lady Laura Bush, Texas Book Festival founder and honorary chair. The fundraising event takes place Oct. 15 at the AT&T Conference Center; the (totally free) Texas Book Festival runs Oct. 16-17.
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Texas Book Festival, Michael Cunningham, P.J. O'Rourke, Michele Norris, Laura Bush, First Edition Literary Gala
