You’re invited to join us for the third Austin edition of the Why There Are Words reading series! This month’s readers are Lowell Mick White, Christine Granados, Phil Lancaster, and Missy Roback (left to right, below).

Founded in 2010 by Peg Alford Pursell, Why There Are Words is an award-winning literary reading series that takes place every second Thursday in the San Francisco Bay Area, and beginning in 2017, will take place at 5 more national locations: New York City, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Portland, and Austin. Each reading event presents a range of writers, including those who have published books and those who haven’t. All writers share the criterion of excellence. The guiding idea behind the series is that good work is timeless and needs to be heard regardless of marketing or commercial concerns. If you’re interested in reading or would like more information, please contact Alison: wtawaustin@gmail.com.

Lowell Mick White is the author of four books: the novels That Demon Life and Professed, and the story collections Long Time Ago Good and The Messes We Make of Our Lives. A winner of the Dobie-Paisano Fellowship and a member of the Texas Institute of Letters, he is an Instructional Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University. 

Christine Granados was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. She has been a journalist with the El Paso Times and the Austin American-Statesman. She is a reporter at the Fredericksburg Standard-Radio Post. Her second book of fiction, Fight Like a Man and Other Stories We Tell Our Children, was published by the University of New Mexico Press, 2017.

Phil Lancaster, formerly of Bluegrass Oldies Traveling Show that toured in France in the 70’s and more recently with the Arkansas Quartet “Still on the Hill,” will play original songs on guitar, banjo and mandocello.

Missy Roback’s fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in American Fiction Volume 14, Word Riot, Little Patuxent Review, and Stymie Magazine and has been shortlisted for the American Fiction Short Story Award and the Poets & Writers California Exchange Award, among others. She is also a singer/songwriter. In 2002, Missy released her CD, Just Like Breathing, which made several year-end best-of lists including that of the Chicago Sun-Times.