Nick Swartsell
By Nick Swartsell:
All in the Lansdale Family
Joe Lansdale is kinda like genre fiction's Ted Williams–he's been remarkably consistent over his long career and he's way out in left field. His daughter Kasey, a country music singer-songwriter and editor, is just as creative. Read More
Jeffrey Kerr on Austin’s Tumultous Beginnings at BookPeople
It seems like just about everyone loves Austin these days, with noobie residents arriving by the thousands each year and national media crowning it (and crowning it, and crowning it again) among the hippest and most livable cities in the … Read More
UT Press Launches a Texas-Size Book Series
Last week, University of Texas Press announced its Texas Bookshelf initiative, a five-year, 16 book effort by some of the state's most esteemed writers to tell the Texas story. The centerpiece of the project will be a comprehensive, full-length history of the state written by Stephen Harrigan, the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author and faculty member at UT's Mitchner Center for Writers. Read More
The Mountain Goats Revisit West Texas
A little more than a decade ago, a wandering singer-songwriter named John Darnielle released an album under the name of his sometimes-band/sometimes-solo project, The Mountain Goats. The songs are simple compositions, featuring mostly just Darnielle’s slightly nasal voice and acoustic … Read More
The People’s Poets: Houston, San Antonio and McAllen Hire Poets Laureate
Since spring 2012, San Antonio, Houston and McAllen have created paid, public-engagement-heavy positions for city poet laureates. Read More
Elizabeth Silver Talks About Life, Death, and the Law at BookPeople
A move to a career in law sometimes means the end of the dream for aspiring writers, a time to put away toiled-over drafts for legal briefs. For Elizabeth Silver, however, the legal world was just the beginning of her life as a novelist. Read More
Kate Galbraith and Asher Price talk Texas Energy at BookPeople
Few people in Texas know more about the state's energy promises and pitfalls than Kate Galbraith and Asher Price. They recently teamed up for The Great Texas Wind Rush, a timely look at one of Texas' most unlikely energy assets. Read More
Andy Coolquitt’s “Attainable Excellence” at Houston’s Blaffer Museum
Texas artist Andy Coolquitt makes locally inspired art in the most literal sense. His works are sculptural collections of materials he finds in the streets around his East Austin home, the kinds of items most people would call trash: lighters, … Read More
Greg Abbott & Wendy Davis Tangle with Twitter Townhalls
The increasingly heated atmosphere of Texas politics finds key players, including gubernatorial hopeful Greg Abbott and HB 2 filibusterer Sen. Wendy Davis, taking to social media more intensely than ever. Read More