The Big Texas Author Talk is a *free* lecture series devoted to showcasing Texas authors from across our big state. Each month we feature one Texas author in conversation with another—from New York Times bestsellers living in Dallas, Houston, and Austin to our rich Texas Latinx border authors living in Laredo and McAllen, not to mention from other deep pockets and corners of our culturally diverse state. Our lecture series is as entertaining as it is informative—and like Texas itself, we offer a vast array of storytellers who represent the spirit of our extremely distinct Lone Star State and continue to keep us on the literary map. In the past, we’ve featured novelists such as Kathleen Kent, Marisol Cortez, Joe Lansdale, and Antonio Ruiz-Camacho and Texas poet laureates such as Carmen Tafolla, Laurie Ann Guerrero, Jenny Brown, and Emmy Pérez.
If you’ve visited with us over the last three years, you know who we are and what we do, and we thank you for your ongoing support. We value your presence and love seeing your faces! If you’re new to the Big Texas Author Talk and are just discovering who we are and what we do, we welcome you to join us virtually on the third Wednesday of every month at 7 pm CST.
See some of our past Big Texas Author Talks (formerly The Big Texas Read) at our YouTube Channel.
Wednesday, March 20th, 2024 via Zoom @ 7PM CST
Up Next: Jason Stone and his novel, THE BEAUTY OF THE DAYS GONE BY. Moderated by Matt Walter.
ABOUT THE BEAUTY OF THE DAYS GONE BY
Based on historical events that occurred in Comancheria, the region of West Texas and New Mexico controlled by the Comanche in the 18th and 19th centuries, THE BEAUTY OF THE DAYS GONE BY is a historical survival story, interweaving the reminisces of aging plainsman Charles Goodnight in the late 1920s against the backdrop of Reconstruction Texas and the events set in motion when a Kiowa raiding party kills the wife and abducts the sons of his friend R.L. Terry.
ABOUT JASON STONE
Jason Stone grew up in West Texas and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. He lives in Austin. He is currently working on a non-fiction book about the real story behind Friday Night Lights.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
UPCOMING 2024 AUTHORS AND TITLES
March, Jason Stone, The Beauty of the Days Gone By
April, Cyrus Cassells, Is There Room for Another Horse on Your Ranch?
May, Glenn Blake, Title TBA
June, Alex Temblador
July, Ramona Reeves
Aug, Sasha West
Sep, Elizabeth McCracken
Oct, Joshua Robbins
Nov, Anel Flores
Dec, TBA
PREVIOUS AUTHORS AND TITLES
Mag Gabbert, Sex Depression Animals
Rudy Ruiz, Valley of Shadows
Carmen Tafolla, Warrior Girl
Katie Gutierrez, More Than You’ll Ever Know
Thomas H. McNeely, Pictures of the Shark
Rubén Degollado, The Family Izquierdo
Jehanne Dubrow, Taste: A Book of Small Bites
Richard Z. Santos, Trust Me
Andrew Porter, The Disappeared
Steve Adams, Remember This
Leticia Urieta, Las Criaturas
Vincent Cooper, Zarzamora
Allison Hedge Coke, Look At This Blue
Tomás Q. Morín, Let Me Count the Ways
Daniel Peña, Bang
Alexander Essbaum’s Hausfrau: A Novel
Carmen Tafolla and illustrator Regina Moya, The Last Butterfly
Laurie Ann Guerrero, I Have Eaten the Rattlesnake
Alexandra van de Kamp, Ricochet Script
Wondra Chang, Sonju
Johnnie Bernhard, Sisters of the Undertow
Barbara Ras,The Blues of Heaven
Mike Soto, A Grave is Given Supper
Deb Olin Unferth, Barn 8
Marisol Cortez, Luz At Midnight
Sergio Troncoso, A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant’s Son
Edward Vidaurre, Pandemia & Other Poems
Octavio Quintanilla, If I Go Missing
Sherry Kafka Wagner, Hannah Jackson
Nan Cuba, Body and Bread
Cliff Hudder, Pretty Enough for You
Rebekah Manley, Alexandra and the Awful, Awkward, No Fun, Truly Bad Dates A Picture Book Parody for Adults
Jenny Browne, Fellow Travelers: New and Selected Poems (TCU Poet Laureate Series)
Amanda Eyre Ward, The Jetsetters
Heather Harper Ellett, Ain’t Nobody Nobody.
Andrea Vocab Sanderson, She Lives in Music
Antonio Ruiz-Camacho: Barefoot Dogs
Wendy Barker: Gloss
Fowzia Karimi: Above Us the Milky Way
Joe R. Lansdale: Edge of Dark Water
Kendra Allen: When You Learn the Alphabet
Emmy Pérez: With The River on Our Face
Kathleen Kent: The Dime & The Burn
David Samuel Levinson: Tell Me How This Ends Well