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SPRING 2012

APRIL 25, 2012, WEDNESDAY, 6:30 PM TO 8:30 PM
VOCES Y MEMORIAS:
The Rolando Hinojosa & Arturo Madrid Literary Celebration
This major symposium will feature readings by Hinojosa and Madrid from their new books, a discussion between the authors about the craft of writing from a minority perspective moderated by San Antonio's inaugural poet laureate, Carmen Tafolla, who will also act as a participant, and a book signing with all three esteemed authors. Books will be for sale at the event.

Rolando Hinojosa-Smith is the Ellen Clayton Garwood Professor of English at the University of Texas-Austin. A novelist, essayist, poet, and short-story writer from the Rio Grande Valley, Dr. Hinojosa's work has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Premio Casa de las Americas and the Premio Quinto Sol Annual Prize. He is considered by many to be among the most important living Texas writers. In November 2011, Arte Publico press published a collection of Hinojosa's stories and essays, In My Own Voice: Stories and Essays, and a new edition of his novel Partners in Crime.

Arturo Madrid is the Norene R. and T. Frank Murchison Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Trinity University in San Antonio. A decorated critic and scholar, Dr. Madrid is the recipient of such honors as the President's Medal from Brooklyn College, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ford Salute to Higher Education, the Charles Frankel Prize (later renamed the National Humanities Medal) from the President of the United States of America, and many, many others. In April 2012, Trinity University Press will publish Madrid's family memoir, In the Country of Empty Crosses: The Story of a New Mexico Hispano Protestant Family.

Carmen Tafolla—recently named the first Poet Laureate of San Antonio—is one of the most anthologized of living Latina writers. She has published work for both children and adults in more than two hundred anthologies, magazines, journals, textbooks, and readers, and is the author of more than fifteen books, seven screenplays, and numerous articles and essays. Dr. Tafolla's book of poetry, Sonnets to Human Beings, received the First Prize in the Poetry Division of the UCI National Literary Competition, and in 1999, she was awarded the Art of Peace Award by the President’s Peace Commission of St. Mary’s University for “writing which contributes to peace, justice and human understanding.”

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of English, the Department of Modern Languages, the College of Education, the College of Applied Arts, the Office of Equity and Access, the Kappa Delta Chi sorority, the Omega Delta Phi fraternity, and the Wittliff Collections.
 

MAY 2, 2012, WEDNESDAY, 3:30 PM
CYRUS CASSELLS Reading | Q&A | Book Signing
The Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet and professor of English at Texas State channels life experiences—his own and those of others—into lyrical language that evokes empathy and compassion. His most recent book of poetry, The Crossed-Out Swastika, tells the stories of young people who lived through World War II in Europe. Cassells took the name of the book, to be released in late spring 2012 by Copper Canyon Press, from the story of Hans Scholl, a member of the anti-Nazi resistance movement who bravely crossed out swastikas on the walls of Munich under the cover of night. Cassells is the author of More Than Peace and Cypresses (Copper Canyon Press, 2004); Beautiful Signor (1997), which won the Lambda Literary Award; Soul Make a Path Through Shouting (1994), which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and received the William Carlos Williams Award; and The Mud Actor (1982), which was a National Poetry Series selection. Cassells is the recipient of a 1995 Pushcart Prize, the Peter I.B. Lavan Younger Poets Award, and fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has worked as a translator, film critic, actor, and teacher. Currently he is a professor of English at Texas State. Cassells' books will be for sale by the University Bookstore.
 

MAY 11, 2012, FRIDAY, 7:00 PM  |  Doors open at 6:00 PM
RICK RIORDAN Talk + Q&A

LBJ STUDENT CENTER BALLROOM
New York Times #1 best-selling author Rick Riordan is creator of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, the Kane Chronicles, the Heroes of Olympus, and the storyline and first volume of the 39 Clues. He is also the author of the multi-award-winning Tres Navarre mystery series for adults. A resident of San Antonio, Texas, Riordan was a schoolteacher for fifteen years before becoming a fulltime writer. In recognition of his distinctive achievements and his inspirational impact on readers young and old, Texas State’s Wittliff Collections will host Rick Riordan for this special event to celebrate Rick Riordan's World of Myth and Mystery, an exhibition showcasing the Wittliff's major Riordan Collection—to which the author has been generously donating since 2004.

SOLD OUT  •  SOLD OUT  •  SOLD OUT  •  SOLD OUT  •  SOLD OUT

NO TICKET SALES AT THE DOOR.

PRINTED ONLINE PURCHASE CONFIRMATIONS ONLY will be accepted as admission.