Editor's Note
Editor’s Note:
SMILE
William Jensen
One of the best things about working at The Center for the Study of the Southwest, is just how much fun it is. Every year we sponsor speakers, symposiums, and screenings that deal with the region. This year we hosted artist and photographer Will Wilson’s Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange. The scholar Ricardo H. Lowe spoke about the displacement of African American students in Austin due to local public policy, specifically school closings. Historian Sarah Colemen presented on the broad shift of immigrants’ rights in the 1990s. Professor Audrey Goodman gave a talk on poet Joy Harjo’s musical routes. This academic year was productive, insightful, and fun.
We aim to create events that can educate and inform, but our little department is far from being stuffy or boring. We’re always having a good time. In December, we have our annual winter BBQ where we thank everyone who helped over the past year, and we eat a ton of brisket, chicken and ribs. I typically take the interns out for tacos and beer after we finish putting together the literary journals.
And then there’s just the daily zaniness that keeps us on our toes.
One time we staged a late-night, outdoor movie screening with free pizza, but we forgot about the automatic sprinklers. Everyone was chaotic and wet. But we survived. Another time we came into work and discovered a group of raccoons had made themselves at home. That happened several times, actually. Don’t worry. They were researching the Grand Canyon and preparing a lecture on Edward Abbey. Along the way there have been fumbles with audio-video equipment, ridiculous conversations around the water cooler, and our director makes everybody smile when he struts around in his signature red, velvet suit.
It’s important to remember the good times.
And it’s important to remember good books.
I’ve found that rereading certain passages of Hemingway can reignite my love for nature and the outdoors—the physical world of dogs, weather, horses. The novel After the Workshop by John McNally is the funniest book I’ve read, and I like to go back to it when I need to laugh about writers and the writing life. And if I’m angry at the Texas heat, I think chapters from Lonesome Dove and Moving On by Larry McMurtry to remind me what I truly love about the Lone Star State. Good books can brighten your day.
This issue of Texas Books in Review has plenty of books that will cheer you up. Shaula Schneik Edwards gives us her thoughts on Road Kill vol. 4, a new anthology of spooky stories all set in Texas and written by Texas writers. It’s fun to be scared, and anyone who loves Halloween and campfire tales will want to get her opinion. We also have returning critic Joseph Fox with his take on The Cornett-Whitley Gang by David Johnson. Mr. Fox has become our go-to-guy for books about cowboys and gunslingers, and I think you’ll find his review honest, balanced, and intelligent. If that is not enough for fans of Texas history, we would not dare think of starving you of reviewing the latest by Stephen Harrigan. Brett Derbes tackles Big Wonderful Thing: A History of Texas, which may be one of the most exhaustive books on the subject. Ana Freeman delves into the novel Sisters of the Undertow by Johnnie Bernard, and she dissects the narrative around siblings near the gulf. Joe Specht handles a different type of book with his thoughts on [Ghost Notes]: Pioneering Spirits of Texas Music. The former editor of Texas Books in Review, David Norman, returns to shed light on All Things Left Wild, the debut novel by James Wade. Devyn Vest reviews Out of the Embers, a Texas romance for all of you lovebirds, and Elvin Holt chimes in with the latest mystery by Attica Locke, Heaven, My Home, which continues the saga of Texas Ranger Darren Matthews.
Books have always been a way of renewal for me—be it reading a favorite passage, finding a new character I adore, or just being whisked away into something whimsical and distracting. Books can inspire, teach, and help us heal. And most of all, books can make us smile. I hope this issue of Texas Books in Review helps every single one of you smile, too.