Texas Observers at the Texas Book Festival
October 28th, 2008 by Anne Terrill
Just in time for a pre-election reading binge, The Texas Book Festival returns to Austin November 1 and 2 with hundreds of authors and journalists (not to mention teachers and librarians) descending on the capitol building for literary hobnobbery and writerly good times. The sheer scope of the offerings can be intimidating, and you can’t see (or hear) everything, so you’ll need a game plan to maximize your time. May we suggest an Observer-centric approach? Try our admittedly biased schedule of writers in the Observer’s extended family, supplemented with writers we’ve recently written about. They’ve all got interesting things to say, and we recommend them highly.
There’ll be politics aplenty in the Capitol building’s House Chamber Saturday at the “Memo to the President-Elect” session. The Observer’s new editor, Bob Moser, most recently of The Nation magazine, will introduce himself to Austin and talk about his new book, Blue Dixie: Awakening the South’s Democratic Majority (excerpted in the Oct. 31 Observer here), while Reihan Salam and Ross Douthat, of The Atlantic, will discuss their new book, Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream. Saturday 3:00-4:00 p.m., House Chamber.
Long-time Observer contributing writer Robert Bryce appears on a panel titled “Bubblin’ Crude: The Life and Times of Oil.” You can find the Observer’s excerpt of his recent book, Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of “Energy Independence,” here. Saturday 1:30-2:30 p.m., House Chamber.
Observer columnist and former editor Jim Hightower will discuss his new book on real live mavericks, Swim Against the Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow. Saturday 11:00-11:45 a.m., Capitol Extension E2.014.
Economist and Observer contributing writer James K. Galbraith will talk about his new book, The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too. Check out the Observer’s excerpt of the book here. Sunday 12:30-1:15 p.m., Capitol Extension E2.014.
Former Observer editor Geoff Rips will participate in the panel “Evoking a Sense of Place” with writers Sara Roahen, Carmen Tafolla, and Tom Piazza. Rips’ debut novel, The Truth, won the 2006 Association of Writers and Writing Programs prize. Check out some of his work for the Observer here. Saturday 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Capitol Extension E2.016.
Regular Observer book reviewer James E. McWilliams will discuss the history of American insects and efforts to exterminate them—the subject of his recent book American Pests: The Losing War on Insects from Colonial Times to DDT, in the “Cultural Collisions” panel. Read McWilliams’ Observer writing on the politics of food here and here. Saturday 2:00-3:00 p.m., Capitol Extension E2.106.
Gary Keith, an Observer contributor, will discuss his biography of Bob Eckhardt during the panel, “Texas Political Giants: Bullock, Briscoe, Eckhardt.” Keith’s book, Eckhardt: There Once Was a Congressman from Texas, is reviewed in the Observer here. Saturday 12:30-1:30 p.m., Senate Chamber.
Lou Dubose, former Observer editor and co-author with Molly Ivins of Bill of Wrongs: The Executive Branch’s Assault on America’s Fundamental Rights, introduces Jeremy Scahill, who will discuss his Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. Sunday 12:30-1:15 p.m., Capitol Extension E2.026.
After years of writing about Willie Nelson and his music in magazines far and wide, Joe Nick Patoski recently published the definitive biography, Willie Nelson: An Epic Life, Patoski, a regular Observer contributor, has written on the Austin music scene here and Texas culture here. Sunday 1:30-2:15 p.m., Capitol Extension E2.026.
The Texas Book Festival is also chock-full of authors who have been the subject of Observer reviews. Here’s a sampling.
Gary Hartman’s The History of Texas Music is reviewed here by Michael Hoinski. Saturday 2:00-3:00 p.m., Music Tent.
The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart, by Bill Bishop and Robert Cushing, is reviewed here by Char Miller. Saturday 12:00-1:00 p.m., House Chamber.
Philip Gourevitch collaborated with Errol Morris on the book, Standard Operating Procedure, which accompanies the movie of the same name. Gourevitch will appear twice on Saturday: 12:00-12:45 p.m. in Capitol Extension 2.012, and 8:00-9:30 p.m. at the Continental Club. In the first event, Gourevitch will discuss his work as a journalist, while in the second he’ll converse with novelist and The Wire writer Richard Price. Observer contributor Edward Nawotka wrote about Standard Operating Procedure and other war-on-terror narratives here, and he will moderate the panel “Reading the Classics for Pleasure” on Saturday, 11:00-11:45 a.m., Capitol Extension 2.012.
Bud Shrake’s Land of the Permanent Wave: An Edwin “Bud” Shrake Reader is reviewed here by Stayton Bonner. Shrake has previously been recognized by the festival for lifetime achievement with a Bookend Award. Saturday 12:00-12:45 p.m., Capitol Extension 2.014.
C.E. Hunt’s Big Thicket People: Larry Jene Fisher’s Photographs of the Last Southern Frontier is reviewed here by Stayton Bonner. Saturday 2:00-2:45 p.m., Capitol Extension 2.010.
See the entire schedule of events here.
