Why There Are Words Austin

When:
September 19, 2018 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
2018-09-19T19:00:00-05:00
2018-09-19T20:30:00-05:00
Cost:
Free

You’re invited to join us for the seventh Austin edition of the Why There Are Words reading series! This month’s readers are Jane Rosenberg LaForge, Bob Livingston, and Mary Helen Specht.

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.

Jane Rosenberg LaForge is the author of a memoir, two full-length poetry collections, and four chapbooks of poetry. Her novel, The Hawkman: A Fairy Tale of the Great War, has been named by Publisher’s Lunch/BuzzBooks as a book to watch. Her 2012 chapbook was one of two winners of the Red Ochre Press chapbook award, and her short fiction and poetry have been nominated for a storySouth Million Writers Award; the Pushcart Prize; and the Best of the Net compilation. She lives in New York with her husband and daughter.

As a member of Austin’s legendary Lost Gonzo Band, Bob Livingston toured and recorded with such musical visionaries as Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Martin Murphey, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and many more. The singer-songwriter played an integral role in helping to create the music that first earned Austin the designation of “Live Music Capital of the World.” Traveling since the 80s as a Music Ambassador for the US State Department, he has taken Texas music as far afield as India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Africa, Vietnam, and the Middle East, demonstrating again and again the unique power that music has to build bridges between peoples of the world. These tours earned him the honor of being appointed Ambassador of Goodwill by the State of Texas and Austin’s International Music Ambassador by the City of Austin. His last CD, Gypsy Alibi, released in 2011 on New Wilderness Records, won Album of the Year at the Texas Music Awards 2011, and he was inducted into Texas Music Legends Hall of Fame in 2016. While playing over 180 shows a year, he is also managing to write a memoir for Texas Tech Press, play with a multi-cultural band from Texas and India called Cowboys & Indians, and is in the final mix on a new album on Howlin’ Dog Records called Up The Flatland Stairs.

Mary Helen Specht‘s debut novel, Migratory Animals, was an Editors’ Choice by the New York Times Book Review and the Austin American-Statesmen, an IndieNext Pick, and an Apple iBook selection. Migratory Animals also won the Texas Institute of Letters Best First Fiction Award and the Writers’ League of Texas Best Book of Fiction. A previous Fulbright Scholar to Nigeria and Dobie-Paisano Fellow, she is currently Associate Professor of Creative Writing at St. Edward’s University. Texas Monthly has named her one of “Ten Writers to Watch.”

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