Mary Bryan Stafford has been a member of WLT for about nine years. She lives just outside Liberty Hill in the Hill Country.
Scribe: In what genre(s) do you write?
Mary Bryan Stafford: Coming of age, historical, poetry.
Scribe: What authors would you like to have coffee or a beer with and which beverage?
MBS: A glass of chardonnay with Elizabeth Crook, Stephen Harrigan and David Wroblewski.
Scribe: If you were stranded on a deserted island, what book would you want to have with you to keep you sane?
MBS: Elizabeth Crook’s Promised Lands and David Wroblewski’s The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.
Scribe: What have you learned from your association with the Writers’ League?
MBS: I learned how an association of authors can boost your ego and keep you humble at the same time. It’s so good to know others who have been through the same labors of love.
Scribe: Where do you see your writing taking you (or you taking it) in the future?
MBS: I continue to write coming of age in the historical vein (particularly about Texas) and hope to be more widely read as the writing goes on.
Scribe: Is there anything else about you that you would like to share with the world? An opportunity for blatant self-promotion!
MBS: Mary Bryan Stafford, seventh generation Texan and Daughter of the Republic of Texas, now makes her home in the Texas Hill Country outside Austin with her husband, Michael. She is an avid horsewoman and enjoys a partnership with her horses, Lucky Ferrari and Brioso. After years of teaching English and Spanish in Texas schools, she has spent the last decade writing. She began with poetry, then moved to short stories before turning her energy toward her first novel, A Wasp in the Fig Tree.
An excerpt of her novel, “Blowout,” was published in What Wildness Is This: Women Write About the Southwest, an anthology published by UT Press which won the 2008 Willa Award for Creative Nonfiction. Her memoir, Epiphany, is published in The Noble Generation III. She has been a regular contributor to Hill Country Magazine and Faces and Places Magazine. Her poetry has been published multiple times in The Texas Poetry Calendar.
More about A Wasp in the Fig Tree:
Books have been written on George Parr and his antics ad infinitum, but A Wasp in the Fig Tree opens with the heart of the family––the good brother, Atlee. As the author, I have the unique background of seeing and experiencing the dynamics of the times of the Parrs as a member of the family. Others have tried and never really gotten to the heart of the story. It was merely sensationalized.
You can find out more by visiting Mary’s website.
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