8/7/2019 n18 Acc Book Festale

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he violence around us Science explains it all Politics

You don’t need facts to findthe truth

Good stories that happen to betrue

Music and film? Yes!

C.J. ChiversSunday Oct. 17, 4:15 p.m. e Sanctuary at First UnitedMethodist Church

T e AK-47, the gun o choiceor terrorists and revolutionariesthe world over, is the subjecto C.J. Chivers new book, T eGun. T e book is part history,

part good journalism and all great storytellingby Chivers. Chivers is a senior writer and ormerMoscow bureau chie or T e New York imesand a requent contributor to Esquire.

e Drug Wars: Dispatches fromthe BorderSunday, Oct. 17, 1:30 p.m.C-SPAN/Book TV Tent

For a conversation aboutthe drug wars in Mexico that issure to be more intelligent andknowledgeable than any being had

by politicians in Washington or Austin, check outthe panel hosting writers Ed Vulliamy, CharlesBowden, and Malcolm Beith. All three havewritten in-depth accounts about drug violence inMexico. Bowden spent extended amounts o timeJuárez, one o the most deadly cities in the world,or his book Murder City: Ciudad Juárez and theGlobal Economy’s New Killing Fields.

Laura BushSaturday, Oct. 16, 10:00 a.m.Paramount eatre

Laura Bush memoir, Spoken

from the Heart , gives readers aglimpse o what it was like to gorom Midland, X to Washingtonand back. T e memoir has received

a lot o attention and her talk at the Festival, whichshe ounded and is an honorary chair, will probably be well attended.

K RSy, O. 17, 1:15 ..T Sy F UM C

Another memoir by someonerom ormer-President George W.Bush’s inner circle, this one by KarlRove. Rove sets out to set the recordstraight and take swipes at Democrats while he’s atit in Courage and Consequence.

Obama: Year OneSunday, Oct. 17, 12:15 p.m.C-SPAN/Book TV Tent

T ree writers, three booksabout President Obama’s rst yearin of ce. T ere is a lot o attentionon the Democrats and questionsabout what has happened to the

energy and promise Obama brought with him a erthe election in 2008. T e panel is moderated by Evan Smith, editor-in-chie o the exas ribune.And while this panel might not have answers orthe Democrats’ woes, the insights on the presidentand the inner workings o the White House aresure to be interesting.

Bk L: Hzg MMySy, O. 16, 10:00 ..C-SPAN/Bk V

Good storytelling can rescue any subject, even science and medicine,rom the list o heavy subjects nobody wants to read about. Rebecca Skloot

recently wrote, T e Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,that even while being good, hard journalism stillallows readers to see the world o research medicinewith all its aws, triumphs and interesting characters.T e book and the panel are well worth checking out.

Cradle of Gold: e Story of a Real-Life IndianaJones and the Search for MachuPicchuSunday, Oct. 17, 11:00 a.m.C E R E2.010

One man’s adventure and realizationo a dream is another country’s the o cultural heritage. American explorer

and Yale historian Hiram Binghamreached Machu Pichu in Peru in 1911and this real-lie Indiana Jones was able to bring back a treasure trove o skulls, bones and artiacts. WriterChristopher Heaney’s book, Cradle of Gold: T e Storyof Hiram Bingham, A Real-Life Indiana Jones and theSearch for Machu Picchu, tells the story o Bingham’sswashbuckling adventures and o the ongoing disputebetween Yale University and Peru over who owns theIncan artiacts he brought back.

Literature on the Lam: FamousFugitives

Sunday, Oct. 17, 11:00 a.m.C-SPAN/Book TV TentNot all high octane books that’ll

keep you up all night have to be poorly written airport bookstore novels.Writers James Swanson, Hampton

Sides, Jonathan Eig and Malcolm Beith have eachwritten a book with topics worthy o a pulp novel:Mexican drug lords, Al Capone, the plot to assassinateMartin Luther King Jr. and the misguided search orLincoln’s killer. But what sets these writers and theirbooks apart is their attention to good reporting andhistorical accuracy. T eir books are exciting to readand the act that it is all true makes it that much better.

Texas Monthly and Texas Book Festivalpresent e Art of FactSaturday, Oct. 16, 2:00 p.m.

C E R E2.028Great storytelling is great storytelling,

but when the story happens to betrue, the e ect on readers is all themore powerul. Jake Silverstein, exasMonthly editor and author o Nothing Happened and T en It Did which mixes ction and non- ction, leadsa panel discussion on the art o actual writing. Joininghim are authors Max Watman, Hank Stuever, DavidGrann who have written about moonshine, Christmasand stranger-than-lie mysteries respectively.

ShinyribsSaturday, Oct. 16, 1:00 p.m.

Music TentT ere’s more to do at the

exas Book Festival than go topanels. T is is Austin o course.So i you need a break romthe all the literary talk, head to the music tent.Kevin Russel l, also known as the lead singer o T eGourds, writes some beautiul songs. Song lyricsas poetry? Depends. But what isn’t up or debate ishow much un you’ll have listening to Shinyribs.

e Best of GodSaturday, Oct. 16, 7:30 p.m.Alamo Dra house South Lamar(1120 S. Lamar)

Local writer Owen Egerton wonan Austin Chronicle Best o 2010local writer/poet award. Who hasever heard o a writer winning a

“best o award?” Well maybe it’s because he doessomething like co-hosting an irreverent eventwhere clips o over-the-top televangelists and theircohorts will be screened or the audience’s delight.

Big Stories, Small TownsSunday, Oct. 17, 12:30 p.m.Capitol Auditorium Room E1.004

Great myths can o en produce

the greatest truths. While thereseems to be an emphasis on non- ction works at this year’s book estival, there is still plenty o great

discussions about the golden standard o book writing, the novel. Rick Bass will be talking abouthis latest book Nashville Chrome about ame andhow it was won and lost by the rst emale country stars. He’ll be joined by Jake Silverstein, AntonyaNelson and Philipp Meyer who have novels thatexplore desperation, death, in delity, the loss o the American dream. All the subjects that make anovel worth reading.

T Wy W W: Nw N Byg Sy, O. 16, 10:00 ..C E R E2.012.

exas is a changing place andit o en takes a novelist and not ahistorian to show us who we wereand where we come rom. exas isan urban state now we are told but themyth that holds exas together is notone o high rise condos or miles o urbansprawl. ACC Proessor Mary Helen Spechtleads a panel on a exas that, evenor natives, is a place we travel toonly in the con nes o a book.

Texas Book Festival Guide e Texas Book Festival is an annual event held at the State Capitol that showases author readings and presentations, panel discussions, book signings and musical entertainment.Below are a just a few of the events Editor-in-Chief Christopher A. Smith recommends.

Christopher A. SmithEditor-in-Chief 

Best of the Texas

Book FestivalEvents Accent Editor-in-Chie Christopher A. Smith plans toattend at the estival

Texas Book Festival

October 16 — 17 • State Capitol

Spotlight on ACC

Prof. Mary Specht

Mary Specht remembers enjoying writing asa child but it wasn’t until she was in college thatshe thought o doing it as a proession. Spechtis now a writer and a creative writing proessorat ACC. It was in college and later in graduateschool that she ound a community o writersthat encouraged her to pursue writing as acareer. Writing and reading are o en solitary pursuits but Specht said that has again ound acommunity at the exas Book Festival.

“I you are not part o a book club or takinglit classes, you reading is in a vacuum,” said Specht, “but the at the book estivalyou get to not only see the writers and hear them talk but you also ask questions,talk to other people who love to read and see what new books are coming out.”

T e exas Book Festival is theperect time or all book worms,writers, wannabe writers, and literatito put down the books or a whileand head to the capital to hang outwith other bookish types and listento writers who have actually madeit big. But at this years book estivalthere are hundreds o writers and events andpanels all day Oct. 16 and 17. So with so much going where will I be? I’mde nitely going to be at C.J. Chivers. Chivers is an amazing literary journalistand the work he’s done or Esquire is awe inspiring. Saturday morning most

people will probably be at Laura Bush’s panel at the Paramount T eatre. I’mskipping that and instead going to the C-SPAN tent to catch Rebecca Skloot inthe Humanizing Medical Mysteries panel. While listening to Laura Bush talk about her bucolic upbringing in west exas will draw all the cameras and thewho’s who o olks here in Austin, I’d rather listen to a Skloot talk about howshe turned a complicated medical research story into a great book. I’m really excited about e Drug Wars panel on Sunday. T e writers on this panel hadthe guts to go Juarez and other deadly places in Mexico to get the acts and thestories or their books. alk about going to hell and back. T e book estivaldoesn’t have to be just about books. I’m taking a break on Saturday to catchShinyribs in the music tent.

Christopher A. Smith • Editor in Chief 

Big Stories, SmallTowns

Sunday, Oct. 17,12:30 p.m.

Capitol AuditoriumRoom E1.004

e Norton Anthology of Latino Literature

with editor IlanStavans and moderated

by Cristina GarciaSunday, Oct. 17,

3:15 - 4 p.m.T e Sanctuary at First 

United Methodist Church1201 Lavaca, enter from

Lavaca St.

American ShortFiction and Texas Book 

Festival present e Shortand the Sublimewith Doug Dorst,

David Means, andAndrew Porter

Sunday, Oct. 17,2:30 - 3:30 p.m.

Capitol Extension roomE2.016 

Specht Reccomends

Karissa Rodriguez • Photo/Web Editor