In Memoriam: Poet Jack Myers

Jack Myers, professor of English at Southern Methodist University and Texas Poet Laureate for 2003-2004, passed away on November 23. Jack won the Writers’ League’s 2001 Violet Crown Book Award for The Glowing River: New & Selected Poems. He was also the chairman of the Writer’s Garret in Dallas, which he co-founded with his wife, Thea Temple.

The Writers’ League sends our condolences to Jack’s family and the Writer’s Garret.

Here’s more on Jack:

Jack Myers

A Life Lived in the World of Words

JACK MYERS, Professor of English and creative writing at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, was the author of eighteen books of and about poetry. His most recent collections included Routine Heaven; the college textbook, The Poet’s Portable Workshop; and The Glowing River: New & Selected Poems, winner of the 2001 Violet Crown Award for “Best Literary” book in Texas. Other popular titles were OneOnOne; Blindsided (winner of the 1993 Texas Institute of Letters Award–his second TIL); and an anthology of contemporary poetry co-edited with Roger Weingarten, New American Poets. Jack’s many honors included two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts; multiple university residencies; 1st place in the National Poetry Series; and selection as the 2003-04 Poet Laureate of Texas. Jack served as the co-Vice-President for Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) from 1993-95, as well as Chairman of The Writer’s Garret, a Dallas literary center founded by his wife Thea Temple. Jack’s writing lives on, seeking to discover the extraordinary within the ordinary by fusing Eastern influences to Jungian psychology, while being grounded in an ironic humor and working class sensibility.

Jack passed away, peacefully, Monday evening in his home at 11:39 PM. The family asks that no flowers be sent, and instead, donations be made to The Writer’s Garret in accordance with Jack’s wishes, as Jack really truly was its co-founder, although he frequently gave all of the credit to others. The Garret’s many programs sprang naturally from his vigilant work, genius, generosity, talent, passion, and connections. Donations can be made by calling Grace at (214) 828-1715, sending a check to P.O. Box 140530 / Dallas, TX 75214-0530, or hitting this link.

Here’s a link to more on the Writers’ Garret Web site.

 

The Art of Interviewing

Learn Effective Interviewing Skills with Suzy Spencer

Suzy Spencer

2 – 5 p.m. Saturdays, November 7 and 21
at the Writers League Office
611 S. Congress Ave. Suite 130
$99 members / $159 non members

 

Effective interviewing is an art form essential to the success of all writers — whether you’re doing research for a novel or nonfiction book; writing newspaper, magazine, or journal articles; preparing your thesis or dissertation; creating web content; blogging; or promoting your own book.

In fact, if a writer doesn’t know what questions to ask, how to ask or answer them, as well as how to listen to glean information that no one else has, the writer could miss key opportunities to make an even better book, story, or article.

New York Times best selling author Suzy Spencer, a professional in the techniques of interviewing, will teach the course through lecture, discussion, and role-playing. This two-session class will teach writers how to prepare for an interview, how to conduct an interview, how to turn a bad interview into a good one, and how to follow-up after an interview.

The information from this class is useful for everyone, but especially if you are: a freelance writer or journalist who wants to bump up your interview skills to excel in a tight market, a blogger who wants to add original reporting to your blog, an authors who is — or who plans to be — interviewed to promote a book, or an author interviewing prospective agents and/or publishers.

Interested? Register here.

WLT at the Texas Book Festival

The Writers’ League of Texas will be at the Texas Book Festival this weekend. We will be located at booths 122 & 123 in the exhibits tent on Colorado between 12th and 13th streets.

Four Reasons Why You Should Stop by the WLT Booth:

1) Consider this an opportunity to meet and mingle with other literati-lovers in Texas. We know we’d love to meet you. Stop by and say hi!

2) This serves as a nice time for you to meet our new staff: Publicity and Programming Manager Jan Baumer, Office Manager Bethany Hegedus, and Bookkeeper Kate Meehan. We’re delighted to have these intelligent ladies working with us. Come welcome them!

3) We’re lucky to have WLT members who will be in our booth signing their books, click here to learn more about the member book signings. Come get your book signed!

4) We’ll be announcing the 2009 Book Awards winners! The ceremony will take place 3:30 Saturday in Room E.026 at the State Capital Extension. Come honor the winners and finalists!

Master Class: Character in Fiction and Nonfiction

Successful Characterization with Tracy Daugherty

Tracy Daugherty

1 – 5 p.m. Friday, October 30

at the Writers’ League office

611 S. Congress Ave., Suite 130

$99 members / $159 nonmembers

One way to think about successful characterization in either fiction or nonfiction is to say that characters work best when they match the narrative situation. That is, in the short-hand that is literary craft, everything they do illustrates their core qualities and values. Within the narrative parameters you have established, everything about the character’s nature is clear to the reader.

Instructor and  acclaimed author Tracy Daugherty will help explore strategies for creating successful characters in a narrative, whether it is fiction or nonfiction. Together the class will write and share work and ideas, and the instructor will provide published examples of characterization. The class will be in a lecture/discussion format.

Students will learn:

• a firm concept of characterization
• a sense of effective dialogue in fiction and nonfiction
• an understanding of tone, as it relates to characterization
• strategies for developing narrative situations that effectively illustrate character
• an understanding of how to build story from character, rather than the other way around

Interested? Register here.

The Writers’ League of Texas 2009 Bookish Brunch

Reservations extended until Wednesday, October 28th!

The Bookish Brunch

Honoring:

Texas Book Festival Authors

Click on their image and read the author’s bio.

Jimmy Santiago Baca

Tracy Daugherty

Diana López

John Pipkin

Also honoring the 2009 Writers’ League of Texas Book Award Winners

9 to 10:30 am, Sunday, November 1

At the home of Frances Townsend & Ted Gilman in Austin

$40 WLT members/$50 nonmembers

Proceeds benefit the Writers’ League of Texas

For more information, please visit our Bookish Brunch page.

The Craft of Writing

Kathleen Allen-Weber

Ann McCutchan

Choosing the Writing Life: Art and Practice with Kathleen Allen-Weber & Ann McCutchan

Saturday, September 12, 10a.m. – 5p.m.

Whether you are thinking about becoming a writer or living the writer’s life but desperate for a booster shot, this six-hour intensive workshop offers the ideas, tools and inspiration for turning desire into flow, and flow into finished manuscripts. Team-taught by essayist, journalist and three-book author Ann McCutchan, a professor of creative writing at the University of North Texas, and licensed therapist and writer Kathleen Allen-Weber, Ph.D., “Choosing the Writing Life” addresses the three critical components of the writer’s way: awareness, commitment, and practice.

Topics include:

• developing self-knowledge
• building technique
• seizing ripe opportunities

Don’t miss out on this workshop. To register for, click here!

Google Settlement Teleconference

The Writers’ League of Texas Presents

The Google Book Settlement:

What’s an Author to Do?

Teleconference Call with Media Attorney Steven D. Smit

4 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 2

Free to Writers’ League members / $10 for nonmembers
Register here

Steven D. Smith

If you’re an author who has received an opt-out letter regarding the Google Book Settlement, it’s hard to know what opting out or staying in actually means for you. And with the opt-out deadline of Sept. 4 approaching, authors are scrambling to make a decision.

As a service to our members and other authors, the Writers’ League of Texas is hosting a teleconference call with attorney Steven D. Smit, of Graves, Dougherty, Hearon, & Moody in Austin. Steve  has been monitoring the Google settlement and will give an overview of  the settlement and review the pros and cons of opting out.

NOTE: The conference call is limited to the first 90 registrants; you MUST register here. The dial-in number and pass code will be sent to registrants in an e-mail confirmation.

For more on the Google Settlement, see our previous post, “The Google Settlement: Opt Out or Stay In?”

The Google Settlement: Opt Out or Stay In?

We’re just as puzzled by authors as to what the Google Book Settlement really means for them and whether they should or should not opt out of the settlement. Although the Writers’ League of Texas cannot advise our members one way or another, we can provide some resources to help authors make an informed decision.

Goodbye to a Gentleman of Texas Letters

Elmer Kelton, one of Texas’ most prolific and beloved authors, passed away on Saturday. Here’s a link to the story in the San Angelo Standard-Times.

He was the author of more than 40 books, including The Time it Never Rained, The Wolf and the Buffalo, The Day the Cowboys Quit, and The Good Old Boys, which became a TV movie directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones. Kelton was named the number-one Western writer of all time by the Western Writers of America and won seven WWA Spur Awards. The Texas Book Festival honored Mr. Kelton in 2003 with the Bookend Award.

The family requests that donations be made to the giver’s favorite charity or the Tom Green County Library’s Elmer Kelton statue fund through the San Angelo Area Foundation at 2201 Sherwood Way, Suite 205, San Angelo, TX 76901-3081.

Update: Here’s a great tribute on The New Yorker’s “Book Bench” blog.

Bloggin’ the Book Tour

Could this be the future of book tours? Jeff Salamon at the Austin American-Statesman writes: “In a tweet a couple of weeks ago from the Texas Writers’ League conference, I professed befuddlement at the notion of a ‘blog talk radio show,’ and also felt befuddlement about the notion of a ‘blog book tour,’ which someone mentioned. Apparently, these are for real. Scroll down on this page to see one author’s jam-packed virtual book tour.”

That looks like like one promising list of book blogs. Even if you’re not plotting a virtual book tour, they’re worth checking out.

P.S. Thanks for the shout-out, Jeff! And be sure to bookmark Jeff’s “Litcetera” column for your weekly reading!