It’s a busy week in the Austin Book World – authors, artists, musicians are all gathering to share their unique stories with us. Austin has a range of events set up all throughout the city, and with fall slowly making its way to Texas, what better way to enjoy the pleasant temperatures than by exploring the State Capital grounds this weekend for the Texas Book Festival. If you’re tired of the festival season after the all too hectic ACL weekends, there are smaller events going on as well that are sure to be just as fun and interesting! Here’s a list of what’s going on this week in the Austin Book Community.
Lit City:
What’s Happening in the Austin Book World Oct. 15 – 21
Friday, Oct. 16 at BookPeople, author and artist Mary Laura Philpot will be speaking about and signing her new book Penguins with People Problems. Her book focuses on penguins that go through the same every day problems that we all face – they’re brutally honest (except when they’re lying), comically insecure, and totally relatable. Make sure to join this bound to be fun Penguin Party!
Join us this weekend Oct. 17-18 for the 20th Texas Book Festival! Every year, authors from around the world gather in the heart of Texas to celebrate and share literature with readers and writers alike. This year, the festival will be held from 10 AM – 5 PM on Saturday and 11 AM – 5 PM on Sunday at the State Capital and surrounding grounds. The event is free and open to the public so make sure to take this chance to discover some amazing authors!
Also on Saturday at 11:30 AM, BookPeople will teaming up with Paramount Theater as they present a special Storytime. This event will be highlighting their upcoming production Room on a Broom, a story about a witch losing her hat and wand and her journey to find it. Perfect for kids, and especially fitting for Halloween.
On Tuesday, Oct. 20 at 7 PM, Grammy award winning musician Elvis Costello will be gracing the stage at BookPeople to converse with Evan Smith about Costello’s new book, Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink. Tickets for this once in a lifetime event are available for purchase when you buy Costello’s pre-signed book in-store and online through BookPeople.
Also on Tuesday, Malvern Books will be hosting a reading with poets Reginald Gibbons and Michael Anania at 7PM. Gibbons has published nine books of poetry and translated poetry in the past. His newest book is How Poems Think (University of Chicago Press), a book for poets and readers of poetry which Rosanna Warren calls “a hymn of praise to the spell-casting powers of patterned language.” Michael Anania is a poet, essayist, and fiction writer. His published work includes twelve collections of poetry. His poetry is widely anthologized and has been translated into Italian, German, French, Spanish and Czech.
Wednesday, Oct. 21 at 7 PM, poet and author Matt Bell will be speaking and signing his, Scrapper. The book is a devastating reimagining of one of America’s greatest cities, its beautiful architecture, its lost houses, shuttered factories, boxing gyms, and storefront churches.
Also on Wednesday, Malvern Books at 7 PM will be presenting Patrick Ryan Frank‘s book launch for his latest collection of poetry, The Opposite of People. Patrick Ryan Frank’s previous poetry collection won the 2010 intro Prize from Four Way Books.
Upcoming Events and Classes at The Writing Barn
Are you thinking about submitting to the 24th annual Austin Chronicle Short Story contest? What would happen if there was a class where you could work on your existing short story or compose something new, get feedback on your piece, fine tune your craft, experience community – all with the goal of working toward publication. Like a gymnast’s routine, crafting a short story requires a great opening, vivid details, escalating tension, a perfectly choreographed climax, and nailing the ending. In this six-week class, Lindsey Lane and Shelli Cornelison will help writers craft and polish a 2500-word piece ready to submit to the Austin Chronicle. The first class is on October 27, 2015 so sign up now to get those stories ready for Fall.
Meditation and writing are two practices that compliment each other beautifully. Meditation is an act of deep listening, and writing is taking notes on what you hear. But what if all you hear is senseless chatter, nagging doubts, and critical voices? Keep listening! There’s a quiet beyond the noise. It’s in this quiet that stories are born. It’s the source of our innate wisdom and creativity. The Writing Barn is offering a Meditation for Writers: A Four Week Class with Paige Britt that will focus on learning how to “write from the quiet.” This class is offered starting November 1, 2015 and runs for four sessions.