Literary Austin

[Editor's Note: I'm a member of the Austin Writergrrls. A few weeks ago, Debra Winegarten shared a post on our Yahoo! group entitled "Why I Support the Heck Out of Other Writers." I loved it, and knew I wanted it to be available on this blog. Enjoy!]

Why I Support the Heck Out of Other Writers

1. My mother, Ruthe Winegarten, the author of 18 books, winner of multiple book awards and a Fellow of the Texas State Historical Association, among other accolades told me to. She said, “Sometimes you go to an author’s book signing and there are only 5-7 people there. And maybe they only sell 1 or 2 books. We need to support other writers. It doesn’t matter if you never even read their book, you can give it to someone who will appreciate it. I’ve read a lot of good new authors that way I wouldn’t have ordinarily read.”

2. My mother taught me to support my colleagues. She was a big believer in “standing on the shoulders of those who come before us.” Whenever I went to do research with her in some library archives somewhere, she taught me to go introduce myself to the other researchers and find out what they’re working on, because they may know some obscure fact that will help you with your research. I followed her advice and found a bunch of vintage aviation photographs of Katherine Stinson buried in a photographer’s collection at the Harry Ransom Center that hadn’t seen the light of day in, you know, almost 100 years.

3. Those we help on the way up, we might see on the way down. And the corollary, they might invite you to their party when they’re at the top. Those of you who know me well know that I’m pretty much a legend in my own mind. Even though I’m a fairly passable writer, in my imagination (I should write fiction), I’m a Pulitzer Prize winning author whose books have been on the New York Times best seller’s list for 60 consecutive months and likely to win the Nobel Prize for Peace before I’m 65. I once got to go to the Texas Book Festival’s Opening Night Banquet, $300 a plate. I recently was invited to and took Cindy with me to the University of Texas at Austin’s Hamilton Book Award for the Best Book by a UT faculty or staff member because my book, “There’s Jews in Texas?” was nominated for the award.

4. I’ve been in the book promotion business since my first book came out in 1998. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve spent a lot of money. I’ve invested a lot of time. And even though I now charge $75 an hour for marketing consultation (see 14 years of my life invested, above), I often meet with budding writers and give them an hour or more of my time and let them buy me lunch instead of writing me a check. And I’ll be honest, I will do this for a woman and I’ll make a man pay me for the advice. Call me sexist, but until women earn equal pay for equal work, that’s what I do. I will, of course, make exceptions to that rule in both directions.

5. I support Bookwoman, one of the last 11 remaining independent feminist book stores left in the United States. Why? A number of reasons.

a. I have launched 3 of my 4 books at Bookwoman (so far). I am not charged a fee for having a book signing there, unlike another large independent book store in town who know charges $100 (or more) for a book signing and if your book is self-published, a $25 shelving fee.

b. Independent feminist book stores are safe places for people. Battered women, lesbian women, lonely women, happy women, women with children, feminist men. On their shelves are books you can look at to gain information on menopause research, role model biographies, how to leave your abusive partner. Our local store is a wonderful venue which supports authors, musicians, poets.

c. I met my heart partner at a book signing at Book Woman, and we’ve been together 17 years now.

d. I went to continue to have a place that’s a safe nurturing place where when I’m having a bad day, I can go hang out and look at books and cards and be reminded that there’s still hope in our world.

e. She supports me. After my Mom died and I was terribly depressed for several years, I went to work at the book store as a way to start reentering life. While there, I learned the “back end” of the book business, which is terrific knowledge for an author. How books are ordered and distributed, how long it takes a book to get from here to there, how bookstore owners make decisions about which books to carry, which publishers are friendly to which genres, how to price a book, how book store marketing and location decisions are made–priceless information.

6. When it’s book review time, a lot of my friends are even better writers than me. And maybe, just maybe, some of them will return a favor I did so long ago, I’ve already forgotten, but they haven’t, and write a terrific review for me.

In the “Recent Winners” section of the July/August issue of Poets&Writers, three Austin-area writers were mentioned as prize recipients, two for poetry and one for nonfiction. Congratulations to Flynn Berry, Christopher Middleton, and Tomás Morin for their excellent work. Read on for more details about their awards.

Flynn Berry of Austin received an Orlando Prize from A Room of Her Own Foundation for her essay, entitled “Surfing.” She received $1,000 and her essay was published in Los Angeles Review.

Poet Christopher Middleton of Austin received an Arts and Letters Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The award honors “writers of exceptional talent.” He received $7,500.

Tomás Morin of San Marcos won the 15th annual APR/Honickman First Book Prize for his poetry collection, entitled A Larger Country. He received $3,000, and his book will be published by American Poetry Review, and distributed through Copper Canyon Press via Consortium.

Earlier this month, Badgerdog Literary Publishing announced that the journal American Short Fiction is going on temporary hiatus (link opens to a PDF).

From the press release:

“As we navigate the changes in market conditions for print publications, we seek the best way forward for this unique and vital publication. In fact, we are considering other organizational changes designed to ensure that Badgerdog’s mission remains clear and focused,” said Board Chair Angela Luck. “We are proud of what Badgerdog has accomplished in the last eight years,” she said, “but every organization must take
stock at critical junctures, and Badgerdog must ensure that our organizational structure is aligned with the market and our mission. [...] Our goal is to continue to build on our success, and we are confident that more good will come from these changes as we move forward.”

American Short Fiction is a dynamic, engaging journal, a treasure on the Austin scene. Here is wishing Badgerdog well, and hoping they resume ASF publication soon.

For those who are unfamiliar, the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, established in 1982, is “a whimsical literary competition that challenges entrants to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels.” It’s a fun event, and fans look forward every year to the ridiculous, hilarious, and awful words that people can come up with. This year, four Texans either won or earned honorable mentions, including one from Austin. Scroll below to enjoy the delightfully terrible prose they’ve created. Congratulations, winners!

First, Bill Hartmann of Dallas was the runner-up in the Crime category:

“Chester and Harry, you don’t have the stomach for this, but Dick and I do,” the leggy blonde said in a throaty voice as she headed back in to finger – and hopefully nail – the brains and muscle of the strong-arm syndicate, the heel that gutted her niece.

Kevin Bruemmer, of San Antonio, earned a dishonorable mention in the same category:

The smooth hand I was caressing felt as if it belonged to a Persian monk that had been rubbing moisturizing body oils on his fellow monks all day (but not in a gay way, come on, he’s a monk for God’s sake), when in all actuality the hand belonged to a body that I had just pulled out of the Potomac for forensic investigation.

David Lippman, who lives in Austin, was the winner of the Fantasy category:

The brazen walls of the ancient city of Khoresand, situated where the mighty desert of Sind meets the endless Hyrkanean steppe, are guarded by day by the four valiant knights Sir Malin the Mighty, Sir Welkin the Wake, Sir Darien the Doughty, and Sir Yrien the Yare, all clad in armor of beaten gold, and at night the walls are guarded by Sir Arden the Ardent, Sir Fier the Fearless, Sir Cyril the Courageous, and Sir Damien the Dauntless, all clad in armor of burnished argent, but nothing much ever happens.

Karen Hamilton, from Seabrook, won the Romance category:

“I’ll never get over him,” she said to herself and the truth of that statement settled into her brain the way glitter settles on to a plastic landscape in a Christmas snow globe when she accepted the fact that she was trapped in bed between her half-ton boyfriend and the wall when he rolled over on to her nightgown and passed out, leaving her no way to climb out.