The Wittliff Collections at Texas State University will host a celebratory afternoon Long live the rivers of Texas! Adventures, misadventures and glimpses of nirvana along our stepped waterwaysthe new Texas literary anthology in the Southwestern Writers Collection book series on Sunday, May 8 at 3 p.m.
Twenty-six contributors to the volume will speak with guests and sign books in the Wittliff Collections, located on the seventh floor of the Alkek Library.
Long live the rivers of Texas! marks the first time the state’s most important literary voices have come together on behalf of a specific environmental topic. Both the Meadows Center and the Wittliff Collections have published award-winning books in their respective book series. The Meadows Center has published over 30 titles in its “River Books Series”, while The Wittliff has published over 30 titles in its “Literary Series”.
Scheduled attendees include: Editors Steve Davis and Sam Pfiester, Cover Artist Clemente Guzman and Map Artist Molly O’Halloran as well as Feature Writers Carmen Tafolla, Joe Nick Patoski, Andrew Sansom, Stephen Harrigan, Bill Minutaglio , Norma Elia Cantú, SC Gwynne, Carol Flake Chapman, Wes Ferguson, Joe Holley, Michael Barnes, Beatriz Terrazas, William Jack Sibley, Mark Busby, Clayton Maxwell, Michael Berryhill, Margie Crisp, Chip Dameron, Robert Flynn, Andrew Geyer, Jeff Davis and Daniel Oppenheimer.
Long live the rivers of Texas! represents a unique partnership between The Wittliff and The Meadows Center, who have come together to publish this book as part of both series. From the desert canyons of the Río Grande to the swampy Big Thicket, from the crystal-clear streams of Hill Country to the treacherous quicksands of the Red River, Long live the rivers of Texas! features many classic writings as well as new essays written especially for this volume. Literary non-fiction is complemented by works of poetry.
Contemporary accounts are interspersed with selected historical nuggets: dispatches from Spanish explorers, John James Audubon’s first glimpse of Buffalo Bayou, and a 19th-century view of the “unsurpassed” beauty of the Comal River in New Braunfels.
Long live the rivers of Texas! is also the subject of an ongoing exhibition at The Wittliff Collections, which runs until May 31. The exhibition features 58 of the writers who contributed to the book, displaying historical artifacts from river voyages as well as manuscripts, magazines, quotes and pages from Long live the rivers of Texas! Several writers have contributed video readings, which loop through the exhibition space.
Long live the rivers of Texas! is published by Texas A&M University Press.
For more information, visit www.thewittliffcollections.txstate.edu/events.html.
