Texas Pages

When the members of the Texas Institute of Letters gather, it's always a remarkable collection of people. I doubt they've ever gathered amid a collection as remarkable as the one tonight.

Tomorrow, the venerable institution's annual awards will be given; you'll be able to find a list of winners right here. Tonight, their reception was held at the private library of businessman Harlan Crow.

I was aware of Mr. Crow's interesting taste in statuary -- he owns a collection of fallen communist leaders that he has arranged along an tree-shaded walkway. It's known as the "Garden of Evil." (A massive head of Winston Churchill stands in a sunny space near the garden -- "On the high ground," Mr. Crow noted to me.)

And I was prepared to see some interesting historic bric-a-brac befitting a zillionaire. Dallas historian Darwin Payne wrote in the TIL newsletter that the library contains artifacts such as Eisenhower's five-star helmet, a silver tankard created by Paul Revere, the deed to George Washington's Mount Vernon estate and paintings by Gilbert Stuart, John Singleton Copley, Rembrandt Peale and more.

But that was just the beginning.

It's a big Sunday in GuideLive, if you're a Willie Nelson fan.

First, we have a review of Joe Nick Patoski's "Willie Nelson: An Epic Life." And we'll have a chapter-length excerpt on the making of his classic album, "Red Headed Stranger."

Plus, we'll also have reviews of:

"Unaccustomed Earth," by Jhumpa Lahiri -- a "clear-eyed yet loving depiction of both the joys and sorrows of feeling untethered."
"The Stone Gods," by Jeanette Winterson -- a "dynamic and brilliant work of experimental fiction."
"The Candy Bombers -- The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift and America's Finest Hour," history by Andrei Cherny.
"The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food," a tasty tale by Jennifer 8. Lee.
And one more interesting piece of fiction in "All the Sad Young Literary Men," by Keith Gessen -- which will come with an excerpt that you can read right here.

Unbridled Books says it has sold the film rights for Andrea Portes' "Hick." The buyers are producers Christian Taylor of Taylor Lane Productions and Steven Siebert of Lighthouse Entertainment.

Though she has since departed our fair city, Ms. Portes wrote this book while living in Dallas on Swiss Avenue.

You can read an archived version of our review below; an excerpt is available here.

David LaBounty, publisher of The First Line, sends word from Plano that the journal's spring issue is available.

Their Web site explains what "The First Line" is all about: "Each issue contains short stories that stem from a common first line; it also provides a forum for discussing favorite first lines in literature." (For example, their summer edition -- you can submit until May 1 -- offers the prompt, "Nick had considered himself a lucky guy, until now." )

This marks the nationally distributed journal's 10th year, which is impressive for an independent literary magazine anywhere, much less in Plano. (Which is a fine city, but Collin Creek is not exactly the Left Bank of the Seine, right? Although there is that Barnes & Noble at Creekwalk Village ... )

Anyhow, to mark the occasion, the editors have released a fresh anthology, "The Best of The First Line, Editors' Picks: 2002 - 2006." I spent some time with that anthology last weekend. It's fun reading for writers. I was constantly surprised and amused at where the contributors' imaginations took them.

Finally -- if you want to find out what kind of dedication it takes to make something like this work, read David's dispatch from the Arkansas Literary Festival.

So, I was asked to be a Reading Ambassador for the fifth graders at Barksdale Elementary in Plano and I brought along my copy of Lois Lowry's latest, The Willoughbys. Now most of the kids were well aware of the two-time Newbery Medal winner through the books of hers that are most frequently assigned: Number the Stars, a story about a Danish family that helps Jews escape during the Holocaust, and The Giver, a futuristic look at a highly programmed society in which memories, music, colors and strong emotions are forbidden (the book is now getting a terrific stage production at the Dallas Children's Theater through Sunday). But with these two books being so serious, they were surprised to be laughing along with me at The Willoughbys, a parody of all those good little orphan kid stories. The bell rang with the kids clamoring for more after I got through the chapter where the not so nice Willoughby kids abandon a baby named Ruth (rendering them 'ruthless'). So what could I do but donate my copy to their school library? I'm always amazed by Lois Lowry's versatility. After three decades of writing for young adults, she still manages to surprise and delight.

Staff writer Nancy Churnin offers this interview with Shanna Swendson, author of the "Enchanted, Inc." series. Nancy asks the question: What If They Stopped Publishing Harry Potter After Book Six?

Texas author Shanna Swendson should be riding high with the fourth book in her Enchanted, Inc. series: "Don't Hex with Texas." And she is for the most part. But she was not too thrilled when she saw her publisher advertising it as the LAST book in the series. She had planned for a five-book series from the moment she dreamed up Katie Chandler, the no nonsense and decidedly unmagical Texas girl who falls for a wizard named Owen Palmer in New York (who could pass for a grown up version of Harry Potter).
"I was not happy. There was a major flip out," she says on the phone from her home in Irving about getting the word from her publisher.

Over in the Home section today, ever-versatile Joy Tipping provides a roundup of eco-books to help you capture that Earth Day spirit.

In my love's body it is Sunday.

-M.A.M. Redmond, "In Praise of His Hands"