LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: Where did you grow up, and how did it influence your writing? Did you come from a family of storytellers?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n DAVID BOWLES:<\/strong> I mainly grew up the R\u00edo Grande Valley, though my father was in the Navy, so we spent a few years in the Low Country of South Carolina. Interestingly, these formative years also mirror my family\u2019s unique blend of ethnic heritage and storytelling traditions: Southern Gothic and Mexican-American leyendas.<\/span> It\u2019s inarguable that those sensibilities drew me toward storytelling, eventually finding their way into my writing. My dad\u2019s side of the family was rife with storytellers, from my t\u00edos to my father. Chief among them, however, was my grandmother, Marie Garza. I credit her and her dark legends of la llorona, las lechuzas, la mano pachona, <\/span>etc. with inspiring my love of story \u2026 especially lush, creepy, timeless tales.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Was reading encouraged in your family\/community? What books did you remember from your childhood?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n My dad had been a big reader of pulp magazines, comics, and paperbacks since he was a kid, and my mother gave me arguably the best gift of my lifetime when I was four years old: she taught me how to read. By the time I was in school, I was well ahead of other kids. Librarians took my love of spooky legends and guided me toward adventure, fantasy, science fiction. I still remember being 7 or 8 years old and reading the Doc Savage books, the Chronicles of Narnia, and The Lord of the Rings. >>READ MORE<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n SPECIAL EVENTS THIS WEEK<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n AUSTIN Mon., Nov. 13 The Long Center, an evening with Annie Leibovitz, who will present a selection of defining works from her newly published Annie Leibovitz: Portraits 2005 \u2013 2016, 7:30PM<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n HOUSTON Mon., Nov. 13 Stude Concert Hall, Inprint\u2019s Margarett Root Brown Reading Series hosts VIET THANH NGUYEN, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Sympathizers (in conversation with William Broyles, founder of Texas Monthly), 7:30PM [sold out; live-stream at Houston Public Media]<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n HOUSTON Tues., Nov. 14 Brazos Bookstore, Joe Holley and Peter Brown discuss and sign HOMETOWN TEXAS, 7PM<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n ALSO SIGNING IN DALLAS Sat., Nov. 18 PDNB Gallery, 6PM<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n AUSTIN Wed., Nov. 15 The Long Center, Alec Baldwin and Kurt Andersen discuss their new book, You Can\u2019t Spell America Without Me, with Evan Smith of The Texas Tribune, 7:30PM<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n DALLAS Wed., Nov. 15 SMU – Fondren Library, Presentation of the 2016 Weber-Clements Prize for Best Non-Fiction Book on Southwestern America to David Wallace Adams for Three Roads to Magdalena: Coming of Age in a Southwest Borderland, 1890-1990 (followed by a lecture and book signing), 5:30PM<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n DALLAS Thurs., Nov. 16 First United Methodist Church of Dallas, Arts & Letters Live presents Dan Rather discussing What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism with Krys Boyd of KERA\u2019s “Think,” 7:30PM<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n HOUSTON Fri., Nov. 17 Brazos Bookstore, James P. McCollom discusses and signs THE LAST SHERIFF IN TEXAS, 7PM<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n ABILENE Sat., Nov. 18 Llano Estacado: The Assassination of J.W. Jarrott, a Forgotten Hero, 1PM<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n EL PASO Sat., Nov. 18 IEl Paso Public Library – Memorial Park, Tumblewords Project Workshop: “Ripping the Veil: Images, Incantations, and the Creative Writer” with Daniel Chac\u00f3n, 12:45PM<\/p>\n AUSTIN Sun., Nov. 19 BookWoman, Poetry a\u2019 Plenty: TORCH Reading Series featuring Natalie Graham, 2PM<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n A Poetry Reading with Natasha Saj\u00e9 and Cyrus Cassells, 4PM<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The Sergio Troncoso Award will be given to a first novel or short-story collection by an author from Texas or writing about Texas. The publication date of the work must be in 2017. The deadline for submission is January 2, 2018. >>READ MORE<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/description\/dottedline380.jpg\")
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nTexas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events<\/span>
Bookish Texas<\/span> event highlights 11.12.2017 <\/span>>><\/span><\/a><\/span> GO this week <\/span>Michelle Newby, Contributing Editor<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n\n
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nNews Briefs 11.12.17<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n
Troncoso endows new TIL award for fiction<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n
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<\/span><\/span>On his blog this month, El Paso author Sergio Troncoso has announced a new award for Best Work of First Fiction ($1,000).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/h1>\n
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<\/span><\/span>The present generation of Texas authors is the most diverse ever in gender, age, and ethnicity, and in subject matter as well.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n