Date: Saturday, November 11, 2023
Time: 3:15 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. CST
Where: Leamos Tent, 11th Street, Austin, TX
American Book Award recipient Tim Z. Hernandez and Sebastián H. Páramo invite you to meet them at the borderlands. The spiritual and personal convene in their two poetry collections, both painting portraits of a new American dream while questioning the merits of that pursuit. Hernandez will read from his new book, Some of the Light: New and Selected Poems. Tim Z. Hernandez is also author of All They Will Call You, and the forthcoming book, They Call You Back (to be published in Fall 2024 by UA Press). The Festival is free and open to the public. After the discussion there will be a book signing at 4:15 p.m. located at the Main Signing Tent.
Texas Book Festival Full Schedule of Events
About All They Will Call You:
All They Will Call You is the harrowing account of “the worst airplane disaster in California’s history,” which claimed the lives of thirty-two passengers, including twenty-eight Mexican citizens—farmworkers who were being deported by the U.S. government. Outraged that media reports omitted only the names of the Mexican passengers, American folk icon Woody Guthrie penned a poem that went on to become one of the most important protest songs of the twentieth century, “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee).” Combining years of painstaking investigative research and masterful storytelling, award-winning author Tim Z. Hernandez weaves a captivating narrative from testimony, historical records, and eyewitness accounts, reconstructing the incident and the lives behind the legendary song.
Date: Sunday, November 12, 2023
Time: 4 p.m. – 4:45 p.m., CST
Where: Capitol Extension Room E2.014, 1100 Congress Avenue, Austin, TX
Join Gilberto Rosas and Mehnaaz Momen as they converse about issues pertaining to Texas border towns and beyond. Rosas’s Unsettling details the border town crisis and long-standing issues that culminated in the tragedy of the El Paso Massacre, while Momen’s Listening to Laredo, A Border City in a Globalized Age untangles the complexities of an evolving Laredo from the perspectives of its constituents. After the discussion there will be a book signing at 5:00 p.m. located at the Main Signing Tent. The Festival is free and open to the public.
Texas Book Festival Full Schedule of Events
About Listening to Laredo:
Nestled between Texas and Tamaulipas, Laredo was once a quaint border town, nurturing cultural ties across the border, attracting occasional tourists, and serving as the home of people living there for generations. In a span of mere decades, Laredo has become the largest inland port in the United States and a major hub of global trade. Listening to Laredo is an exploration of how the dizzying forces of change have defined this locale, how they continue to be inscribed and celebrated, and how their effects on the physical landscape have shaped the identity of the city and its people.
Date: Friday, November 17, 2023
Time: 6 p.m., CDT
Where: 4022 Rio Grande Blvd NW, Albuquerque, NM
Alma García will read her debut novel, All That Rises, presented by Bookworks in Albuquerque. The event is free and open to the public. A book signing and reception will take place with books available for purchase.
About the book:
All That Rises is a story of families and conflict in El Paso, Texas. In this novel, mysteries are unraveled, odd alliances are forged, and the boundaries between lives blur in destiny-changing ways—all in a place where the physical border between two countries is as palpable as it is porous, and the legacies of history are never far away. There are no easy solutions to the issues the characters face in this story, and their various realities—as undocumented workers, Border Patrol agents, the American supervisor of a Mexican factory employing an impoverished workforce—never play out against a black-and-white moral canvas. Instead, they are complex human beings with sometimes messy lives who struggle to create a place for themselves in a part of the world like no other, even as they are forced to confront the lives they have made.
Date: Tuesday, November 14, 2023
Time: 6 p.m. – 7:45 p.m, CDT
Where: 1140 E Washington Street, Brownsville, TX
Alma García will read from her debut novel, All That Rises, at Búho Books. She will also be in conversation with Thomas Ray Garcia, author of The River Runs: Stories. The event is free and open to the public. A book signing and reception will take place with books available for purchase.
About the book:
All That Rises is a story of families and conflict in El Paso, Texas. In this novel, mysteries are unraveled, odd alliances are forged, and the boundaries between lives blur in destiny-changing ways—all in a place where the physical border between two countries is as palpable as it is porous, and the legacies of history are never far away. There are no easy solutions to the issues the characters face in this story, and their various realities—as undocumented workers, Border Patrol agents, the American supervisor of a Mexican factory employing an impoverished workforce—never play out against a black-and-white moral canvas. Instead, they are complex human beings with sometimes messy lives who struggle to create a place for themselves in a part of the world like no other, even as they are forced to confront the lives they have made.
Date: Wednesday, October 11, 2023
Time: Reception at 6:30 p.m., Presentation at 7 p.m., MST
Where: Center of Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College, Durango, CO and on Zoom
Shelby Tisdale will talk about her book, No Place for a Lady, at Fort Lewis College. Tisdale returns to Durango where she recently retired as Director of the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College. She has over forty years of combined experience in museum administration, anthropological, tribal museum and cultural resource management consulting, and university teaching. The event is free and open to the public and also will be live streamed to Zoom.
In the first half of the twentieth century, the canyons and mesas of the Southwest beckoned and the burgeoning field of archaeology thrived. Among those who heeded the call, Marjorie Ferguson Lambert became one of only a handful of women who not only stayed and left their imprint on the study of southwestern archaeology and anthropology but flourished. Tisdale will take us on a thought-provoking journey into how Lambert created a successful and satisfying professional career and personal life in a place she loved (the American Southwest) while doing what she loved.
About the book:
In No Place for a Lady, we gain insight into a time when there were few women establishing full-time careers in anthropology, archaeology, or museums. Through Lambert’s life story we gain new insight into the intricacies and politics involved in the development of archaeology and museums in New Mexico and the greater Southwest. We also learn about the obstacles that young women had to maneuver around in the early years of the development of southwestern archaeology as a profession.
Date: Friday, November 10, 2023
Time: 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., CST
Where: Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center Latino Bookstore, 1300 Guadalupe St, San Antonio, TX
Alma García will discuss her debut novel, All That Rises, as part of the Texas Author Series at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio. The event is free and open to the public. A book signing and reception will take place with books available for purchase.
About the book:
All That Rises is a story of families and conflict in El Paso, Texas. In this novel, mysteries are unraveled, odd alliances are forged, and the boundaries between lives blur in destiny-changing ways—all in a place where the physical border between two countries is as palpable as it is porous, and the legacies of history are never far away. There are no easy solutions to the issues the characters face in this story, and their various realities—as undocumented workers, Border Patrol agents, the American supervisor of a Mexican factory employing an impoverished workforce—never play out against a black-and-white moral canvas. Instead, they are complex human beings with sometimes messy lives who struggle to create a place for themselves in a part of the world like no other, even as they are forced to confront the lives they have made.
Date: Friday, October 27, 2023
Time: 6:45 p.m. PDT
Where: Mi Casa, 7945 Gilman Street, Redmond, WA
Alma García will discuss her debut novel, All That Rises, presented by the Redmond Association of Spokenword. The event is free and open to the public. A book signing and reception will take place with books available for purchase. Centro Cultural Mexicano in Redmond will host this Alma García event.
About the book:
All That Rises is a story of families and conflict in El Paso, Texas. In this novel, mysteries are unraveled, odd alliances are forged, and the boundaries between lives blur in destiny-changing ways—all in a place where the physical border between two countries is as palpable as it is porous, and the legacies of history are never far away. There are no easy solutions to the issues the characters face in this story, and their various realities—as undocumented workers, Border Patrol agents, the American supervisor of a Mexican factory employing an impoverished workforce—never play out against a black-and-white moral canvas. Instead, they are complex human beings with sometimes messy lives who struggle to create a place for themselves in a part of the world like no other, even as they are forced to confront the lives they have made.
Date: Wednesday, October 25, 2023
Time: 6 – 7:30 p.m.
Where: Western National Parks Association (WNPA) Store, 12880 N Vistoso Village Dr., Oro Valley, Arizona
Join In the Arms of Saguaros author William “Larry” Bird for a celebration of all things saguaro! Two images from the book are below. He will tell tales of saguaros and show many more amazing images he has collected over time. He is a curator emeritus of the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
About the book:
In the Arms of the Saguaros shows how, from the botanical explorers of the nineteenth century to the tourism boosters in our own time, saguaros and their images have fulfilled attention-getting needs and expectations. Through text and lavish images, this work explores the saguaro’s growth into a western icon from the early days of the American railroad to the years bracketing World War II, when Sun Belt boosterism hit its zenith and proponents of tourism succeed in moving the saguaro to the center of the promotional frame.
This book explores how the growth of tourism brought the saguaro to ever-larger audiences through the proliferation of western-themed imagery on the American roadside. The history of the saguaro’s popular and highly imaginative range points to the current moment in which the saguaro touches us as a global icon in art, fashion, and entertainment.
Date: Tuesday, October 17, 2023
Time: 6 p.m.
Where: Collected Works Bookstore, 202 Galisteo St, Santa Fe, NM, and via zoom
Shelby Tisdale will present her book, No Place for a Lady, at Collected Works in Santa Fe. Shelby will be in conversation with award-winning author Lesley Poling-Kempes, author of The Harvey Girls: Women Who Opened the West and Ladies of the Canyon.
The event is free and open to the public. This will be an in-store event and will be live streamed to Zoom, register here for Zoom.
In the first half of the twentieth century, the canyons and mesas of the Southwest beckoned and the burgeoning field of archaeology thrived. Among those who heeded the call, Marjorie Ferguson Lambert became one of only a handful of women who not only stayed and left their imprint on the study of southwestern archaeology and anthropology but flourished. Tisdale will take us on a thought-provoking journey into how Lambert created a successful and satisfying professional career and personal life in a place she loved (the American Southwest) while doing what she loved.
About the book:
In No Place for a Lady, we gain insight into a time when there were few women establishing full-time careers in anthropology, archaeology, or museums. Through Lambert’s life story we gain new insight into the intricacies and politics involved in the development of archaeology and museums in New Mexico and the greater Southwest. We also learn about the obstacles that young women had to maneuver around in the early years of the development of southwestern archaeology as a profession.
When: Tuesday, September 12
Time: 6 p.m., EDT
Where: The Dubois Center at UNC Charlotte Center City, 320 E. 9th Street, Charlotte, NC
UNC Charlotte College of Liberal Arts & Sciences hosts a reception and talk by Eric Hoenes del Pinal, author of Guarded by Two Jaguars: A Catholic Parish Divided by Language and Faith. Fragmenting churches and ‘switching’ of religious alliances is a phenomenon that is not only timeless, but one that is increasing here in the U.S. and in communities abroad. The University of North Carolina at Charlotte Associate Professor Hoenes del Pinal illustrates the cultural factors that may contribute, by focusing on a Catholic parish in Cobán, Guatemala. The event is free and open to the public, but please register to attend. The reception starts at 6 p.m., with the talk beginning at 7 p.m.
About the book:
In Guarded by Two Jaguars, Eric Hoenes del Pinal tells the story of this dramatic split and in so doing addresses the role that language and gesture have played in the construction of religious identity. Drawing on a range of methods from linguistic and cultural anthropology, the author examines how the introduction of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement in the parish produced a series of debates between parishioners that illustrate the fundamentally polyvocal nature of Catholic Christianity. This work examines how intergroup differences are produced through dialogue, contestation, and critique. It shows how people’s religious affiliations are articulated not in isolation but through interaction with each other.
The University of Arizona Press
