Merry Heart Tea Room on the Granbury Square (order from the menu)

Featuring Dr. Mallory Young, Tarleton State University, co-editor of the nationally recognized
Chic Lit: The New Woman's Fiction

The wildly popular phenomenon of chick lit, beginning in the mid-90s with Bridget Jones's Diary, can be seen as part of  a larger chick cultural trend, including chick flicks, TV programming, magazines, and blogs. Chick lit, along with chick culture, raises issues about the media's heightened awareness of and address to women, the goods and evils of consumerism, and the conflict (or continuity) between feminism and postfeminism. 

Mallory Young is a professor of English and French at Tarleton State University.  After co-editing a book of essays, Chick Lit: The New Woman's Fiction (Routledge 2005), she and her co-editor, Suzanne Ferriss, found themselves the de facto experts on chick culture.  Their article "A Generational Divide over Chick Lit" appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education, and an article on chick language is forthcoming in Junctures, an international journal. They are currently working on a second volume, Chick Flicks: Contemporary Women at the Movies.

EVENING SESSION
Wednesday, September 6
 Music
7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Concert Hall

 

The Music of Bryce Milligan and Participants from the Songwriters' Workshop
Born in Dallas, Texas, Bryce Milligan has lived in San Antonio since 1977. Among other things, he has been a folksinger/songwriter, a maker of guitars, drums and dulcimers, a carpenter, a rare book bibliographer and appraiser, a college English and creative writing instructor, a poet-in-the-schools, director of the country's only 4-year high school creative writing program,. an arts administrator, a book and magazine editor, a book designer, and a publisher. As a writer, he has been a newspaper columnist, a freelance journalist, a scholar, a novelist, a poet, a playwright. Tonight, we'll hear his music.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7
MORNING SESSIONS
Session I: 9:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. 

1. Readings

 Rock House

•  Alan Berecka. DelMar College, Corpus, Christi. Reading a selection of his poetry which has been described as that of a “time-weary child or wise-assed mystic” (Phil Poulter). His work has appeared in the American Literary Review, Windhover and New Texas. The Trilobite Press recently published his first chapbook Each Man has One Life.

•  L. D. Clark. Smithville. Professor Emeritus of the University of Arizona. Reading and discussion of his recently completed book, Pilgrim’s Progress Redux and Other Stories. Author of twelve books, the latest of which is the novella Bittersweet Christmas, the winner of various awards including the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award.

•  J. Paul Holcomb. Double Oak.  Reading selections from his poetry book that won the 2004 Edwin M. Eakin Memorial Book Publication Award, Looking for Love in the Telecom Corridor, his chapbook, Love, or Something Like It, plus new poems.

 

2. Panel Discussion: Brown Bag Poets

    Carriage House

• Mary Lou Cimarrolli
• Linda Banks
• Irene Field Carmichael
• Wendy Dimmette
• Faye Leeper
• Pat Randolph
• Marilyn Stacy

 

3. Panel Discussion: Sponsoring and Editing Literary Magazines

 Concert Hall

• Altheria Gaston Clark.Tarrant County College—South. Editor and sponsor of the student publication Script, the South Campus student literary and arts journal. It contains poems, short stories, personal essays, academic essays, photographs and paintings of our students.  Presently, the English Department faculty is solely responsible for the publication of Script, but future plans include encouraging student involvement in selecting of pieces, editing, and designing the journal.

• Laura Payne Butler, Sul Ross State University. Sponsor of Sage, the student-run journal of literature and art at Sul Ross. It has proven an award-winning journal, consistently placing and winning awards at state-wide contests such as TIPA. Editor of New Texas, an annual journal of Texas literature and culture. It features fiction, poetry and nonfiction by and about Texans. In its thirteenth year of publication, New Texas seeks to elaborate upon what it means to "live Texas" through its literary arts.

• Jerry Craven. West Texas A&M University.  Founding Editor of Amarillo Bay, former editor of the New Texas Series.

• Moumin Quazi, Tarleton State University, edits CCTE Studies and is the editor of the South Asian Literary Association Newsletter.  For five years, he served as the Faculty Advisor for the student-produced journal at the University of the Incarnate Word, Quirk.  He also currently co-edits the San Antonio College Multiculturalism Journal, Voices.

   

    
  

Thursday, September 7

Session II: 10:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

 

1. Readings
    Rock House

•  Karen Gerhardt Fort.  Edinburg.  (Short Story appears in 2006 Langdon Review). Reading from her short stories set in the Blackland Prairies. Born and raised in Waco, Karen Gerhardt Fort is the author of books and articles on Texas history. Now living far from home, she has written a collection of short stories set in the Blackland Prairie. This story is loosely based on events that occurred to Karen's mother long before meeting her father." Reading from Able to..., recently released fiction anthology, a collection of stories about people who can do extraordinary things.
  

• Winston Derden and Jan Carrington. Readings from Able to . . . , edited by Neil Ellis Orts, a recently released fiction anthology, a collection of stories about people who can do extraordinary things. 
  

  2. Mini-Workshop: Interactive Inspiration  
      Carriage House

• Anne McCrady (featured author in the 2006-2007 Langdon Review)

 

3. Presentation and Discussion:  Organizations for Writers

 Concert Hall

• John Pipkin. Austin. The Writers’ League of Texas. (featured author in the 2006-2007 Langdon Review). The League celebrates its 25th Anniversary this year, and Dr. Pipkin will discuss the role of the League as it promotes writers in Texas.

 

4. Photography:

    The Gordon House (main house)

•  Stephen Marshall, Hands. (Photography on exhibit in the Gordon House and featured in 2006-2007 Langdon Review.)

 

Thursday, September 7

Lunch on your own
11:45 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

AFTERNOON SESSIONS
Thursday, September 7

Session IV: 1:00 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.

 1.  Readings and discussion of works appearing in the Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas, Volume 3, 2006-2007

• Carol Cullar. Reading from her essay “Country Folk.”
  

•  J. R. LeMaster. Baylor University.  Reading from "Journeys around China"
  

•  Jerry Craven. Reading from an excerpt of his novel The Big Thicket
  

 

2. Readings:

    Carriage House

• Laura Payne Butler. Sul Ross University. Reading a short story.Reading a short story, entitled "Growing Old in the Maize." It appeared in the 2005 issue of CrossRoads: A Southern Culture Annual.
  

• Moumin Quazi.  Tarleton State University.  Reading his poem "The Waist Land" (with apologies to T. S. Eliot), a Prufrockian lament about the distancing effects of a middle-aged man's growing belly.

• Joe R. Christopher. Professor Emeritus at Tarleton State University.  Reading some verses about the Trojan War and its aftermath.  He has published over ninety poems in various  media.

2. Readings and Presentations: 

     Concert Hall

• Robert Anderson.  Tarleton State University.  Presentation of Coup de Torchon (French for “Clean Slate”), a French movie that was adapted from the pulp novel Pop. 1280 by Jim Thompson.  The movie was adapted from a book set in 1916 in Mississippi, where the action was transferred to Colonial Africa in 1938.  French stars Philippe Noiret and Isabelle Huppert were featured in this movie filmed in 1981 and directed by Bertrand Tavernier.  In this dark comedy, the sheriff of a small town murders his enemies and frames other people in the town.
  

Thursday, September 7

Session IV: 2:30 p.m. – 3:45p.m.

 

1. Readings

 Studio

• Betty Wiesepape. University of Texas-Dallas. Reading three short shorts and talking a bit about the form, its general characteristics, and why short shorts have become popular in recent years. She teaches short story and creative nonfiction writing as well as Southern and Southwestern literature.  She has published one book, many short stories and essays, and one of her stories was performed at an event at the last Texas Book Festival co-sponsored by Arts & Letters Live. 

•  Jeffrey DeLotto. Texas Wesleyan University. Presenting Texas dramatic monologues of heroes, children, and serial killers.

•  Linda Carroll. Texas Wesleyan University.  Reading her short story “The Euclidean Plane and Homer Hays." Reading a humorous fictional piece about how a wink influenced a boy's philosophy of life.

 
2. Presentation: Blogs and New Approaches to Writing

    Concert Hall

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3. Readings and Presentations: Humor

    Rock House

• Arch Mayfield, Wayland Baptist University. As Mister Dooley says, “Trust everyone, but cut the cards,” an interactive presentation about humor in America.

• Winston Derden. Houston. Commercial journalist turned fiction writer. He has edited four magazines and written a number of award-winning features, profiles, and a video scripts. Readings from “One Eye Smiling,” an upcoming chapbook of humorous short stories, and from the novel, The Price of Charity, an academic comedy currently seeking a likeminded agent.
  

• Cassy Key. Baylor University. Reading from "ticked-off-but-still-laughing" Texas Chick Lit poems. Eclectic: journalist/magazine writer, workforce education developer, PR specialist, fundraiser. Poetry published in Whetstone and other literary magazines.

 

Thursday, September 7

4: 30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

 

PUBLICATION RECEPTION

Langdon Center Lawn

 

Celebrating the publication of The Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas, Volume 3

Sponsored by Tarleton State University and Tarleton State University Foundation, Inc.

 

6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Dinner on your own

EVENING SESSION 

Thursday, September 7

7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

 

Featured Poets: 2006-2007 Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas

• Charles Inge
• Sybil Estess
• Donald Mace Williams
• Patrick Wright
• Sherry Craven

DAY THREE, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8
 MORNING SESSIONS

SESSION I:  9:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.

1. Readings 

Rock House

• Lyman Grant. Austin Community College. (Article appears in 2006-2007 Langdon Review). Reading poems about being a father and teacher with a little bit of religion thrown in. His poems have been published in Concho River Review, Sulphur River Review, Texas Observer, Cortland Review, Windhover, and other journals.

• Frances Neidhardt. Sherman, Texas.  Reading from the "Katie poems," a sequence shadowing the consciousness of a keen and imaginative stroke victim, a vocal musician confined at forty to life in bed and a wheelchair.

•  Richard Tuerk. Texas A&M-Commerce, semi-retired professor of literature and languages. Reading a short piece that resembles creative non-fiction entitled "The Short Happy Life of Richard T.”

 

2. Presentation and Discussion:  Texas Theatres
   Carriage House

• Stacey Hasbrook and Joan Upton Hall.  Both teachers and freelance editors, discuss and read from their co-authored book, Grand Old Texas Theaters That Won't Quit: Granbury Opera House, and Others.

3. Presentation and Discussion, Panel Discussion and Presentation by Creative Writing Students at Texas State University
  Concert Hall

• Stephen Wilson, Coordinator
• Meagan Evans (poetry)
• Abby Nance (fiction)
• Nick Courtright (poetry)
• David Hadbawnik (poetry)

Friday, September 8

SESSION II: 10:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

1. Presentation and Reading  

 Rock House

•  Joan Upton Hall. Modern Takes on the Classics: 'The Real Thing' for New Generations.  Joan Upton Hall (novelist/nonfiction writer/freelance editor) entices students and adults to check out classic spin-offs (Arthurian & more).

•  Brian Moreland. Dallas. Reading from his supernatural thriller, Shadows in the Mist, coming out in September.Set during World War II, this fast-paced novel portrays a battle between light and darkness, as an American platoon enters the foggy woods of Germany and discovers that Occult-obsessed Nazis have unleashed a Pandora’s box of holy terror. A blend of horror and nail-biting suspense, reviewers have called Brian Moreland’s novel "Band of Brothers meets DaVinci Code meets F. Paul Wilson’s The Keep."

2. Panel Discussion: Writers of Faith,  An informal discussion about writers who, in their writings, present the challenges of faith in a secular world.

    Carriage House

• Moderator: Chris Willerton, Abilene Christian University ( feature writer in 2006 Langdon Review.) Chris Willerton has taught English at Abilene Christian University more than thirty years.

•  Audell Shelburne, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and editor of Windhover

•  Sarah Watson, East Texas Baptist University and coordinator of the ETBU Writers’ Workshop

 

3. Presentation and Reading

 Concert Hall

 

• T. Lindsay Baker, Ph.D. W.K. Gordon Endowed Chair, Tarleton State University. Reading from an edited volume of Civil War remembrances of the memoir of Joseph M. Bailey, who in addition to other military service operated in 1863-64 as a Confederate guerrilla in Union-occupied northwestern Arkansas. Most recent writers on Arkansas during the Civil War compare and contrast the situation of the United States Army there with its experiences fighting the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. This situation is not unlike that currently in Iraq, with the Confederate insurgents in Arkansas using ambush, hit-and-run attacks, and acts of personal violence to awe surviving opponents.

• Yvette Blair. Washington, D. C. (featured writer in the 2006-2007 Langdon Review) Reading from her novel about the mysterious murder of a black child in Mexia, Texas, in the 1950s. 
  

4. Presentation and Readings: It's All About Me: From Memory to Memoir
   Carriage House

•  June Zaner, Nance Travis-Talley, and others. After her fiftieth High School Reunion, June Zaner began to reconnect by writing memoirs of her youth in the East End after seeing the girls from childhood now as women who had changed in so many ways. One common thread:  they were all East Enders. Topics ranged from WWII Rationing, WWII Soldiers and Service, Growing up in the East Side, (just like the song... "Mamma was a waitress off Wayside Drive"), Memories of Flowers, Prom Night.  

Friday, September 8

11:45 a.m. – 2:15 p.m.

 

PICNIC WITH THE POET LAUREATES OF TEXAS
Hosted by Dominique and Charles Inge at Brazos House Gardens (across the street from the Gordon House)
Pre-order box lunch at the registration desk: $10.00

Featuring: James Hoggard

Cleatus Rattan

Jack Myers

AFTERNOON SESSIONS 

Friday, September 8

SESSION III: 2:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.

 

1. Readings

 Studio

• LaVerne Harrell Clark. Smithville. Reading from a novel-in-progress. Author of eight books of fiction and non-fiction all of which are illustrated with her photography, is the founding director of the University of Arizona Poetry Center and its long-time photographer. Among the nineteen awards for her writings and photography are the 1998 first novel award from the Western Writers of America and the University of Chicago Folklore Prize.

• Budd Powell Mahan, the 16th and 19th President of the Poetry Society of Texas.   He also served as 26th President of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. His poetry has appeared in From Hide and Horn, Poetry Dallas,Behold Texas, Texas Poetry Calendar” and A Galaxy of Verse. He won the 2005 Eakin Manuscript Competition in November 2005 with his book, Falling to Earth.  His manuscript Harvest was the 2006 winner of the Stevens Manuscript Competition. 

•  Tracy Rummel. Houston. Short Fiction. Tracy has spent nearly thirteen years in the creative fields of advertising, marketing and public relations. Her current agency The Brandsoup Agency, she began in 2001. Today she will be sharing a few pieces of her work that mark the beginning of her new career–embracing her passion for writing and story-telling for others.

2. Presentation and Discussion: The Art of the Personal Essay

Concert Hall

•  Paul Ruffin. Sam Houston State University. Reading from Segovia Chronicles, his new book of essays 
  

•  Brady Peterson. University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. Reading a series of short personal essays on the movies, books, rock and roll, and sitting at a drive in restaurant in a '62 Chevy Bellaire, eating hamburgers and fries, and knowing that the center of the universe is right where you are. 

•  Steve Weathers, Abilene Christian University.  Reading from his creative nonfiction essays.

3. Readings

 Rock House

• Dave Parsons. Montgomery College.  Reading from his forthcoming collections, Color of Mourning and Austin Relativity. Parsons teaches Creative Writing at Montgomery College & Inprint, Inc. His book Editing Sky was the winner of the Texas Review Poetry Prize and Finalist for the Violet Crown Book Award.

• Beth Neely Clauser. Texas Wesleyan University. Poetry. Poems from her set Brasil de Novo," poetry inspired from five years living in Brazil and poems on the theme of water from another set "Wild Ocean Crossing."

• Rhonda Rose-Cowlishaw.  Tarleton State University.  Reading portions from her book of original poems, Reviving Ophelia, Letters to Hamlet. She views poetry as a form of personal exorcism, and she writes mostly in free verse.

                                                                

4. Presentation and Readings: Where We're Taking Modern Poetry

 Carriage House

• Chuck Taylor and Creative Writing Students, Texas A&M University
  

            A presentation and reading by graduate and undergraduate creative writing students. They read a couple of poems as examples of where they each think they
            are taking modern poetry. Each poet will address the issue of "tradition and the individual talent" by briefly saying what he or she got from the past, and what             they are doing that is new in poetry.

 
Friday, September 8 

SESSION IV: 4:00 p.m. – 5:15 p.m.

 

1. Mini-Workshop:  A follow-up on the Short Personal Essay

 Studio

•  Paul Ruffin, Sam Houston State University. Discussing the rise in popularity of the familiar essay in recent years and where ideas come from and how to develop them in essays.

 

2. Readings and Presentation: From Adam to Rachel's Well, From Eros to Redemption: Unique Reflections on the Male—Female Relationship

    Rock House

• Violet O'Valle, chair, "Climbing Leah's Ladder: Woman as Way Station"

• Tony Zurlo, "From Garden Lit to T-Lit: A History of Male Lies, Sex, and Domination."

• James Hoggard, Eros in Relationships

 

3. Presentation: The Preservation of Black Gospel Music

 Concert Hall

•  Robert Darden. Baylor University. (featured writer in 2006-2007 Langdon Review). Robert Darden, an associate professor of journalism at Baylor University, will talk about the power and purpose of black gospel music and Baylor's ambitious new Black Gospel Music Restoration Project, which is undertaking to "save" all classic gospel recordings from 1945-70. Darden is the author of more than two dozen books, including People Get Ready: A New History of Black Gospel Music (Continuum). 

•  Michael H. Price. Fort Worth. Associate editor of the Business Press in Fort Worth and the author of such books as Daynce of the Peckerwoods: The Badlands of Texas Music (Music Mentor Books of Great Britain; 2006), the show-business biography Mantan the Funnyman: The Life & Times of Mantan Moreland (Midnight Marquee Press; 2006), Spawn of Skull Island: The Making of King Kong (with George E. Turner; Luminary Press, 2002) and the Forgotten Horrors series of film-genre encyclopedias (Midnight Marquee; 1999-2006). Price’s sidelines as a working musician and cultural historian include a prominent role in the discovery and preservation of the Tyler, Texas, Black Film Archive at Southern Methodist University; and a lengthy membership in the East Texas string-band ensemble known as Salt Lick, with an extensive output of phonograph records and compact-disk albums.

   

4. Poetry Seminar: The Pegasus Code Revealed
     Carriage House
    Poetry Society of Texas,
    A poetry seminar to help improve your chances for publication and contests. Attendees will be eligible for prizes during the program.

• Naomi Stroud Simms
• Rebecca Barcarcel
• Michael Baldwin

Friday, September 8

5:15 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

Dinner on Your Own

EVENING SESSION, Friday, September 8

Movie Screening and Discussion
Hosted by WFAA-TV Film Critic Gary Cogill

7:30 p.m. Driftwood Theatre, 1201 Waters Edge Drive, Granbury, 817-573-3745

(tickets $6.50 at the door)

 

Featuring Co-Director and Producer Michael Cain

TV Junkie, 2006 Sundance Award Winner

Tagline: Making Real Life Isn't Easy; Plot Outline: A man tries to discover his purpose in life after searching through 3,000 hours of video and over 5,000 photos.

DAY FOUR, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9

9:30a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

The George F. Nixon, Jr. Pink Jazz Brunch

Langdon Center Lawn

 Featuring Guest Speaker: Kathy Patrick, Owner of Beauty and the Book, the only beauty shop/book store in Texas, and maybe the whole United Stated. Website: http://beautyandthebook.com/ 

Wear pink to the brunch, bring your business cards, and you’ll be eligible to receive a special prize courtesy of Kathy Patrick.