Join us for a reading with William West, Lily Lewis, and Ruby Montalvo.

William West grew up in Texas, attended UT and graduated from the University of Houston. West has lived in other places such as Santa Barbara, Traverse City, Maui, and Chicago, but he returned to Texas to enjoy his home State and to write. He always held a deep interest in human behavior which found a place in his debut novel, Evolution of a Young Man in Love.  West currently lives in Austin with his wife and their two dogs.

Nothing is normal in Austin. A fast-paced debut, William West’s Evolution of a Young Man in Love elicits sentiments of uncertainty and rebirth. As high school English teacher Joseph Hawking works through the death of his lover in the face of a new one, we begin to uncover the story’s true nature. For a first novel, West has a knack for characterization, weaving complicated strands of soft-hearted care and intellectual determination through Joseph that holds steady throughout a truly terrifying serial killer plot line and the delicate web that is a new relationship. With help from long-time friend David, a cantankerous live-how-you-want side-kick, we are transported into a deep hole of investigation and self-discovery through realized superhero meets noiresque narrative. —Rebecca Baumann 

Lily Lewis is a warrior against ignorance and injustice both in the classroom and in the community. Three extraordinary children and four luminescent grandchildren inspire her to be a better human. The deep blue sea remains her place of power and wonder. She is a survivor, living one day at a time, with her soul partner and two cats, Sophie and Sylvester. Her novel, The Last Mermaid Princess, is a semi-autobiographical account of an unusual set of circumstances and events that will resonate with all people because we all struggle with the same things in different ways. The protagonist, Lily Chaidee, was never at home with herself, her family, or her geography as a rare Asian hybrid growing up in the Texas Panhandle during the 1960’s. Amarillo was an inhospitable place for an ethnically diverse family, and to make matters worse, there were numerous difficulties from mental instability to addictions to sexual predation to racism and objectification and other dysfunctional elements that marked Lily’s childhood and changed the trajectory of her life. Lily will inevitably evoke mixed emotions. You will love her, empathize with her, and champion her while feeling disappointed, angry, and absolutely disgusted by her inability to keep herself on a positive path. It’s a wild ride from Thailand to Texas—one you will not soon forget.

Ruby Montalvo was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. She graduated with a degree in English from The University of Texas at Austin and has had many jobs over the years—proofreader, graphic artist, customer service representative, executive complaints clerk, corporate trainer, corporate content writer, English teacher, ESL teacher, elementary school librarian, and blogger, but what she always wanted to do was write a novel. And when she was in her mid-50’s that’s exactly what she did. In May 2018 Ruby published her first novel, A Song for Jessica, just before her 56th birthday. On her website Ruby blogs about starting a new career later in life and strives to encourage others, just as others encouraged her, to believe it’s never too late to do what you’ve always wanted to do. Ruby is proof that it’s never too late to follow your dreams. She run/walks a solid twelve-minute mile and lives in San Antonio, Texas with her husband and two dogs.