Sam Babiak, Program Director / Member Services Director The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk Penguin Books September 25, 2014 Mary Karr said, “Memoir is not an act of history but an act of memory, which is innately corrupt.” This is true for all memories, but if

Becka Oliver, Executive Director   American Sherlock by Kate Winkler Dawson G.P. Putnam’s Sons February 11, 2020 Kate Winkler Dawson has been the featured author for our latest series of “WLT On the Craft of Writing” events around the state. Which means that I’ve been lucky enough to hear her talk

Michael Noll, Program Director   Bang by Daniel Peña Arte Publico Press January 30, 2018 In the intense national discussion of the novel American Dirt, one of the things that sometimes gets said is that the book would have drawn less notice–that its errors would have been less egregious–if it had been

Michael Noll, Program Director   They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid’s Poems by David Bowles Cinco Puntos Press November 27, 2018 I can remember a time when a novel-in-stories was an experimental concept, but thanks to writers like Jacqueline Woodson (National Book Award winner Brown Girl Dreaming) and Kwame Alexander (Newbury

Michael Noll, Program Director The Art of Theft by Sherry Thomas Berkley Publishing October 15, 2019 The recent film Knives Out has become a hit in large part because it contains something that has been lacking in most crime and detective stories lately: fun. All of the actors—along with the writer, director, and

  Becka Oliver, Executive Director The Spectators by Jennifer duBois The Outsider by Stephen King Know My Name by Chanel Miller  Michael Noll, Program Director   The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee by David Treuer Kansastan by Faroq Ahmed The Murderbot Diaries (series) by Martha Wells  Sam Babiak, Member Services Director   

Becka Oliver, Executive Director   Big Wonderful Thing: A History of Texas by Stephen Harrigan University of Texas Press October 1, 2019 I can remember moderating a panel discussion at the LBJ National Historical Park featuring Stephen Harrigan during which he talked about his then current project, a comprehensive history of

Michael Noll, Program Director   Coyote Songs by Gabino Iglesias Broken River Books October 31, 2018 A couple of years ago, I was talking with the famous East Texas crime novelist Joe Lansdale about genre and the way it sticks to writers. He has always avoided being pigeonholed and told me,

Becka Oliver, Executive Director   This Is My Body by Cameron Dezen Hammon Lookout Books October 27, 2019 This Is My Body is an honest and compelling memoir, an exploration of the author’s evolving faith coupled with a candid look at her marriage as she and her husband find themselves growing apart.

Michael Noll, Program Director   Ain’t Nobody Nobody by Heather Harper Ellett Polis Books September 24, 2019 As someone who grew up on a farm outside a small town, I can be awfully critical of novels set in such places. So many of them miss what I feel to be essential