Special — Mark Pryor and the Texas Book Festival, Day 1
Mark Pryor 01:50
Mark Pryor is the author of ten novels, including The Hollow Man, which introduced everyone’s favorite misanthrope*, Dominic. His latest, The Book Artist, a Hugo Marston novel, launches February 2019. He has also published the true-crime book As She Lay Sleeping. A native of Hertfordshire, England, he is an assistant district attorney in Austin, Texas, where he lives with his wife and three children.
Laura Elvebak 12:03
Born in North Dakota, but raised in Los Angeles and San Francisco, Laura draws from her nomad kind of existence in various cities to craft her mysteries with a touch of noir. Laura’s writing career follows a winding career path through oil and gas companies, law firms, a stint as a go-go dancer in the sixties.
Amber Elby 18:45
Amber Elby was born in Grand Ledge, Michigan but spent much of her childhood in the United Kingdom. She began writing when she was three years old and created miniature books by asking her family how to spell every, single, word. She studied creative writing at Michigan State University’s Honors College before earning her Master of Fine Arts degree in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. She currently resides in Texas with her husband and two daughters and spends her time teaching, traveling, and getting lost in imaginary worlds.
Dylan Powell 25:22
Dylan Powell is an award-winning author who writes crime stories, mystery fiction and books about Texas. Powell's work has been featured in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, the Best American Mysteries 2018 and a host of fine truck stop bathroom walls across the Texas badlands.
Kathryn Lane 33:07
Kathryn Lane is the award-winning author of Coyote Zone, the second book in the Nikki Garcia thriller series. A transplant to Houston, Lane draws inspiration for her work from her love of world travel. She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, the Writers League of Texas, and she lives in the Woodlands, Texas with her husband, Bob.
George Vance McGee 40:56
Born in Austin, George Vance McGee is a liberal arts graduate from the University of Texas. He is the author of Attractive Tales from Grand Cities: A Social Memoir. He spent five years living and working in NYC before returning to his hometown of Austin, where he writes and works as a realtor.
Daniel García Ordaz 49:53
Daniel García Ordaz is the founder of the Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival and the author of You Know What Iâ’m Sayin’? (El Zarape Press, 2006) and Cenzontle/Mockingbird: Songs of Empowerment (FlowerSong Books, 2018). His writing centers on the creative power of language. García has been a featured reader and guest at numerous literary events, including the Dallas International Book Fair, McAllen Book Festival, Texas Library Association, and Border Book Bash.
Daniel Peña 57:45
Daniel Peña is a Pushcart Prize-winning writer and Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of Houston-Downtown. He was formerly based out of the UNAM in Mexico City where he worked as a Fulbright-Garcia Robles Scholar. A graduate of Cornell University and a former Picador Guest Professor in Leipzig, Germany, his writing has appeared in Ploughshares, The Rumpus, the Kenyon Review, NBC News, and Arcturus among other venues. He’s currently a regular contributor to the Guardian and the Ploughshares blog. His novel, Bang, is out now from Arte Público Press. He lives in beautiful Houston, Texas.
David Bowles 01:07:49
A Mexican-American author from deep South Texas, David Bowles is an assistant professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Recipient of awards from the American Library Association, Texas Institute of Letters and Texas Associated Press, he has written a dozen or so books, including Flower, Song, Dance: Aztec and Mayan Poetry, the critically acclaimed Feathered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky: Mexican Myths, and They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid’s Poems, which is a recent recipient of the Claudia Lewis Award. In 2019, Penguin will publish The Chupacabras of the Rio Grande, co-written with Adam Gidwitz, and Tu Books will release his steampunk graphic novel Clockwork Curandera. In April 2017, David was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters for his literary work.
Leza Cantoral 01:18:39
Leza Cantoral is a Xicana writer & editor who lives on the internet. She is the Editor in Chief of CLASH Books & host of the Get Lit With Leza podcast where she talks to cool-ass writers. Tragedy Queens: Stories Inspired by Lana Del Rey & Sylvia Plath is a CLASH Books anthology of stories that she edited as a result of being a Lana Del Rey & Sylvia Plath megafan. You can find her on YouTube at Get Lit With Leza. She blogs at lezacantoral.com.
A Texas-sized thank you to all of the authors who were generous enough to share their time at the festival with us. Please do click through to each of the authors’ sites and support these women and men of the word by buying more books & by reading more widely today.
**misanthropy is a really fun word. I mean, so fun.