Well, not a chicken, so much as a “Chicken Boy,” the protagonist of Gregory G. Allen’s new kids’ book of the same name. When we last spoke to Allen, he was still living the champagne dreams and caviar wishes (well, emotionally, if not literally) of an independent author’s first big…
Few things are important enough to make me brave the DMA during prime Gaultier hours, but an Arts & Letters Live BooksmART appearance by Author Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket of A Series of Unfortunate Events) and illustrator Maira Kalman made wading through the fashion faux pas well worth it…
We loved large Jennifer Hudson. Everyone did. The admiration wasn’t due to her weight, it was because of her vivacious spirit, unmarred from Hollywood and backed up with a “This is me. Deal.” attitude. Yeah, she was hanging on to an extra 80 pounds — so? It didn’t stop her…
The cozy little shop called The Shabby Sheep, an Uptown emporium of supplies for knitters and crocheters, is now the home of the Jane Austen Society, which will meet at 11 a.m. on the second Saturday of the month, beginning February 11. Encouraging “knitting, spinning, crocheting, snacking, chatting, movie watching…
Being new to a city brings with it certain challenges: Learning Dallas street names, only to have them turn on you moments later. Identifying the strange, elemental metal flavor in the tap water (current suspect: the rarely noted Ruthenium). And of course, the most pressing: meeting like-minded folks. Book clubs…
Most writers hold book signings at book stores. Gregory G. Allen is not most writers. Tomorrow you can find him at Krimson and Klover, an upscale fashion boutique in Uptown, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., dedicating copies of his new novel, Well With My Soul, a 2011 USA Book News…
Are you there, readers? It’s me, Merritt. Did you finish Chuck Palahniuk’s Damned like a good Mixmaster Online Book Club member? Good! That’s exactly what we’d hoped for. Dilly dally no longer and get down there in the comments to discuss lying about causes of death, if you were feeling…
Stephen King made a rare appearance at the 6th Floor Museum recently, touting his new novel, 11/22/63, which was nominated last week for an annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award by the Literary Review. We understand that bad sex might not be the only reasonable gripe about King’s Kennedy-era thriller,…
Let’s face it, teachers, you’re just riding it out until winter break. Well, you’re in luck, because we know how to knock out — what, a week? — of lesson-planning with the annual Letters About Literature contest. Students are asked to write a conversational letter to authors who have inspired…
A few months ago, I discovered that the show of the year was coming. Not Radiohead or Wilco, or even Warbeast. This was a little different. It was something that my 5-year-old niece and her posse are totally nuts over: Pinkalicious the Musical. Excitement started building weeks ago. I’m sure…
Hey, what’s up? You been reading some crazy shit in the first half of this Chuck Palahniuk book, Damned? Yeah. Us too. Want to talk it out down there in the comments? We feel you. Head on down there. We can discuss the remote closing of curtains in Dubai, grimy…
Stephen King’s visit to the former Texas School Book Depository wasn’t morbid, the best-selling author said before Thursday night’s fund-raiser at the Majestic Theatre in downtown Dallas. Instead, he felt “a sense of predestination” while touring The Sixth Floor Museum more than three years ago. Yet his latest book, simply…
After seeing just how much you people love the Palahniuk based on the popularity of our Q&A and his packed house at the DMA, we thought we might engage you with a little interaction book club-style. So it’s gonna be his latest. It’s Halloween weekend so why not, right? Plus,…
The World Series game has been postponed so you need something new to do. Seems to us that Scott Pasfield’s one-night reception for and book signing of Gay In America at Ilume Galerie is the obvious choice. Why? Because it’s equally American as apple pie and baseball — it’s just…
So, Chuck Palahniuk races up the aisles of the Horchow Auditorium at the Dallas Museum of Art with arm-fulls of huge, inflatable brains, snapping them like Frisbees throughout the eager audience, most of whom look to be in their early- to mid-20s and many of whom are bedazzled with metal…
Because Chuck Palahniuk’s the guy who once wrote the lines, “I want to have your abortion,” and “the condom is the glass slipper of our generation,” [Fight Club, 1996], we weren’t at all certain what to expect when we sat down to talk with the prolific writer about his twelfth…
We’re back! She’s back! The ‘Pants are back! This time we’ve completed Tina Fey’s Bossypants, reading right on through the meaty Second City years, out of SNL and into Sarah Palin’s wig. Also, there was breast pumping during Entourage. What did you think of the second half? Of the whole…
“I want to share some advice from my grandmother,” author Alice Hoffman told the female-dominated audience at Tuesday night’s Arts and Letters Live at the Dallas Museum of Art, co-sponsored by the Dallas Holocaust Museum. Hoffman, wearing flats, glasses perched on her nose, reached into her bag for some papers…
For our first Bossypants assignment, we were to have read the first “half” of the book (remember, we admitted we had issues with math, and adding in the intro and all that gets so confusing). Simply put, the plan was to read right on up to “A Childhood Dream, Realized.”…
SMU students may remember C.W. Smith as the curmudgeonly creative writing prof who had permanent dibs on a particular wooden chair in Dallas Hall; others know him as the mentor and ally who helped them find their voice, or who simply told them for the first time that they were…
As an artist/writer in Dallas you feel a bit like you’re stationed at an outpost to complete a mission. You have a sense of space around your creative work, and I find that crucial.
Well lookee at those poll results up there: Tina Fey beat out The Magicians — both fictional and Penn Jillette. For the first assignment, book clubbers, we’re reading the first half of Bossypants (those who have read it say it’s a quick read). For those of you who don’t trust…
