Jennifer Egan on Saturday, October 16
Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad is one of the most magnetic literary fiction achievements released in 2010. Unlike other postmodern works that beguile with structural twists and turns, Egan effortlessly immerses you in the lives of characters you’re instantly invested in, like Bennie Salazar, a music executive tormented by shameful events from his past and his kleptomaniacal assistant, Sasha. Egan takes you leaping through the lives of a myriad of characters you root for, sigh and commiserate with, and remain curious about long after the spotlight shifts away from them. Egan deftly demonstrates how the simple passing of a decade can fell a person’s identity and remix them into a person they never imagined they’d become. We’ll release the Festival schedule on Tuesday, September 14th but Egan will be in conversation with writer Amanda Eyre Ward on Saturday, October 16th and participating in a Teleportal Readings event that same night.
|
In Memoriam: William H. Goetzmann
We’re sorry to report that historian William H. Goetzmann died on September 7. Goetzmann won both the Pulitzer and Parkman prizes in 1967 for Exploration and Empire, his study of the 19th century scientific exploration of the American West. His iconic book The West of the Imagination, co-authored with son William N. Goetzmann, was reissued last year, when he also published Beyond the Revolution: A History of American Thought from Paine to Pragmatism. Goetzmann held the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Professorship in History and American Studies at the University of Texas until his retirement in 2005 and he also received the Festival’s Bookend Award, given to Texas writers for outstanding literary achievement. A memorial mass will be held Sunday September 12, 2010 at 2pm at St. Austin's Catholic Church, 2026 Guadalupe Street in Austin.
|
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on Sunday, Oct. 17
"Buildings fall down, pensions aren't paid, politicians are murdered, riots are in the air ... and yet I love Nigeria," writes Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, whose first short story collection, The Thing Around Your Neck, explores both her exasperation with and her love of her native country. Adichie will be in conversation with Austin writer Mary Helen Specht on Sunday, October 17th; we’ll release the Festival schedule soon. The stories in the collection fluidly highlight the surface tension between African and Western cultures as felt through a host of affecting, resilient, often female characters. Adichie is also the author of Purple Hibiscus, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and Half of a Yellow Sun, which won the Orange Broadband Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
|
