Curated Texan
Can were ever be more well-read? You bet. And that pursue of literary leanings happens at the San Antonio Book Festival on April 15th, according to our resident bibliophile Lance Avery Morgan. Here are some noteworthy events to see and for more info, go to SABookFEstival.org.
POVERTY, BY AMERICA with MATTHEW DESMOND
The Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling author Matthew Desmond discusses his latest book. Poverty, By America is a blending of history, research, and firsthand reporting that makes a new and bracing argument about why poverty persists in the United States: because the rest of us benefit from it.
Author: Matthew Desmond
Moderator: Robert Rivard
Location: Russell Hill Rogers Tent – Central Library Plaza
Time: 11:15 AM – 12:15 PM
MYTHS, MEMORY, and MEMOIR with KIESE LAYMON and DEBORAH D.E.E.P. MOUTON
2022 MacArthur Fellow Kiese Laymon (Heavy: An American Memoir) and the first Black Houston Poet Laureate Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton (Black Chameleon: Memory, Womanhood, and Myth) take center stage at the San Antonio Book Festival to discuss their genre-defying memoirs.
Authors: Kiese Laymon and Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton
Moderator: Lisa Lucas
Location: Russell Hill Rogers Tent – Central Library Plaza
Time: 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM
I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR REBECCA MAKKAI
Part true-crime page turner and part campus coming-of-age, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award Finalist Rebecca Makkai’s instant New York Times bestseller I Have Some Questions for You takes the mainstage at the San Antonio Book Festival.
Author: Rebecca Makkai
Moderator: Katy Flato
Location: Russell Hill Rogers Tent – Central Library Plaza
Time: 3:45 PM – 4:30 PM
OBSESSED WITH TEXAS
Join the Writers’ League of Texas for a conversation with Lakiesha Carr (An Autobiography of Skin), Bobby Finger (The Old Place), and Kimberly Garza (The Last Karankawas) about their debut novels that uniquely draw on the complexities of the Lone Star State.
Authors: Lakiesha Carr, Bobby Finger and Kimberly Garza
Moderator: Sam Babiak
Location: Texas Monthly Tent – Augusta Street
Time: 10 AM – 11 AM
HOPE AND PERIL IN AMERICAN MEDICINE
Where does one go without health insurance? When turned away by hospitals, clinics, and doctors? In The People’s Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine, Dr. Ricardo Nuila—an advocate for people over payments—follows the lives of five uninsured Texans as their struggle for survival leads to a hospital where insurance comes second to genuine care.
Author: Dr. Ricardo Nuila
Moderator: Kiran Kaur Bains
Location: Hawn Holt Family Auditorium – Central Library, First Floor (this session will also be streaming on C Span / Book-TV)
Time: 2:30 PM – 3:15 PM
FAMILY CURSES with V. CASTRO and RUBÉN DEGOLLADO
In Rubén Degollado’s The Family Izquierdo, three generations of a Mexican American family are bound together by love… and a series of unfortunate incidents. When one family member digs up a strange object in the backyard of the family home, the Izquierdos take it as proof that a jealous neighbor has cursed them. In V. Castro’s The Haunting of Alejandra, a demon stalks the women of Alejandra’s family for centuries, and Alejandra must find a way to process the trauma of her past and the pain she inherited from her foremothers. Join these two outstanding Texas authors to hear about writing family curses and generational family stories.
Authors: V. Castro and Rubén Degollado
Moderator: Richard Santos
Location: Latino Collection Resource Center – Central Library, First Floor
Time: 10 AM – 11 AM
ROMANCE RETELLINGS
Ah, love… has anyone ever captured it like Shakespeare? His classic tales of romance have seen retellings over the years. Two recent romance novelists, Chloe Liese (Two Wrongs Make a Right) and Priscilla Oliveras (Kiss Me, Catalina) put their own twists on the Bard’s canon. Get ready to swoon!
Authors: Chloe Liese and Priscilla Oliveras
Moderator: Cynthia Freeman Gibbs
Location: Festival Room – Central Library, Third Floor
Time: 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM
WOMEN’S SPORTS AT TRINITY UNIVERSITY
Former college athlete and sports writer Betsy Gerhardt Pasley fills in the gaps of half a century of women’s intercollegiate sports in From the Sidelines to the Headlines: The Legacy of Women’s Sports at Trinity University. Other panelists joining her for this session include San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who is a Trinity University alumnus and a former sports writer for the Trinitonian; and Betsy Geyer, who coached the women’s basketball team to the National Championship in 2003 and is a member of the Trinity University and San Antonio Sports Halls of Fame.
Author: Betsy Gerhardt Pasley
Guest Panelist: Mayor Ron Nirenberg
Moderator: Mary Ullmann Japhet
Location: Rogers Hall – UTSA Southwest Campus
Time: 10 AM – 11 AM
DRAGONS AND MAGICAL CREATURES
An action-packed adventure about the dragon apocalypse. A world where kids learn to transform into magical creatures to protect the natural world. In their new middle grade novels, Mari Mancusi (New Dragon City) and Christina Soontornvat (The Guardian Test: Legends of Lotus Island #1) talk about magical creatures, world-building, and how kids can use their power to change the world!
Authors: Mari Mancusi and Christina Soontornvat
Moderator: Xavier Garza with a special introduction by students from the Young Women’s Leadership Academy
Location: Coates Chapel – UTSA Southwest Campus
Time: 10 AM – 11 AM
TIME OF OUR LIVES with ROBBIE COUCH and ADAM SILVERA
#1 New York Times bestselling author Adam Silvera returns to the universe of They Both Die at the End: the Death-Cast Company can tell you how much time you have left in your life. In The First to Die at the End, two strangers spend a life-changing day together. Robbie Couch puts a spin on time-loop narratives in his new YA novel If I See You Again Tomorrow to ask how do you build a future with someone if you can never reach tomorrow. Join these YA powerhouses to learn more about their new books!
Author: Robbie Couch and Adam Silvera
Moderator: Esperanza Garza-Danweber with a special introduction by students from the Young Women’s Leadership Academy
Location: Coates Chapel – UTSA Southwest CampusTime: 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM
