Alkek Library Hosts Wittliff Collections

On Thursday, April 3rd, at 6:30 p.m. on the seventh floor of Alkek, there will be a writing beyond borders conversation and a book signing following that. Texas State is presenting four distinguished alumnus to come and speak and have books for sale afterwards. It is an event that is bringing together four very different writers that have work that extends beyond the borders of the southwest.

One of the writers, Tino Villanueva, is a Texas State alumni,  born and raised in the San Marcos area to migrant workers. He ended up becoming a pretty acclaimed author of seven books of poetry so far and won the American Book Award. He writes in both Spanish and English, which is kind of interesting.

It is going to be a wonderful event with a wide range of authors. They are all going to be speaking coming from the region that we live in and how it has affected them in the world beyond.

Sarah Cortez is a Houston poet, and get this: a police officer. She is also an award winner of several books and one of them that is included is “How to Undress a Cop.” which I cannot wait to see and get my hands on that one. Severo Perez, a filmmaker and an author. He is best known for his movie “And the Earth Did Not Swallow Him” which won top honors worldwide when it came out. It is considered a classic Cinema.

Their goal is to expose students to not only people who might be in their field, if they are interested in any of these areas, or just to simply be inspired by the art that is created by writers who are from here as we are.

And then all of it is going to be moderated by the wonderful Carmen Tafolla, who has been here many of times. She has an internationally renowned author of more than twenty books. Highly anthologized and sort of looked at as the grandmother or godmother, she was recently named by the Mero San Antonio first poet laureate of the city.

The Wittliff Collections are continually working with other departments to bring national award winning authors, writers, screenwriters, filmmakers and songwriters to Texas State, and to the Wittliff in particular. If you have any questions regarding this event, you can contact Michelle Miller, media specialist for the wittliff collections, at 512-245-1442.

 Haley Brown, KTSW News