THE TEXAS INSTITUTE OF LETTERS
presents
THE 2020 ANNUAL AWARDS BANQUET
(Well, virtually anyway.)
Welcome to the 84th Annual Texas Institute of Letters Awards Banquet!
When you heard that the TIL Awards Banquet was going to be CANCELED,
you probably thought of your officers as a wild bunch of OUTLAWS.
But then, as the world changed at
lightning speed every few hours,
as new updates were announced on the news every few minutes, as the Corona Virus and its devastation spread through conferences and events, some of you probably now think of us more like
THIS….
But the officers do not work alone. Helping us in our efforts to find, honor, and recompense outstanding writers, is a Council of 8, from all parts of the state, as well as our very active Past Presidents, and our members, who always offer good ideas, and hands to help carry out those ideas.
And it’s our members who are the REAL stars. They are the state’s most respected writers, and include winners of the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, MacArthur “Genius” Grants, and many other distinctions.
2019 Texas Institute of
We are your 2020 TIL Officers & COUNCIL OF DIRECTORS. Our goal is to support, honor, and connect writers.
One of our most important tasks of the year is the
selection and honoring of distinguished writers, who have consistently produced outstanding works of literature and letters.
And here they are, all 19 of them. Your 2020 Inductees to the Texas Institute of Letters:
Texas Institute of Letters�
New Inductees
March, 2020
Glenn Blake, author of Drowned Moon, Return Fire, and The Old and the Lost, currently serves as Senior Editor at Boulevard. Born and raised in Liberty on the Trinity, Blake taught in the English Department at Rice University, the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston, and The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins.
Nate Blakeslee is the author of the New York Times bestseller American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West and Tulia: Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small Texas Town. A writer-at-large for Texas Monthly, he served as a senior editor there from 2006-14. Blakeslee was also a former editor of The Texas Observer. Born and raised in Arlington, Texas Blakeslee now lives in Austin.
Cyrus Cassells, 2019 Guggenheim fellow, won the National Poetry Series, a Lambda Literary Award, a Lannan Literary Award, the William Carlos Williams Award and two Pushcart Prizes. His 2018 volume The Gospel according to Wild Indigo was a finalist for the Balcones Prize, the NAACP Image Award, and the Texas Institute of Letters Helen C. Smith Award. The author of six books of poetry and a tenured professor of English, Cassells teaches in Texas State University’s MFA program in creative writing.
Dan Goodgame is Editor-in-Chief of Texas Monthly, overseeing the 40 journalists who produce the prize-winning, 46-year-old magazine, as well as its website, live events, and podcasts. A Pulitzer Prize finalist and best-selling author, he was Editor-in-Chief of Fortune Small Business, and worked for TIME as White House Correspondent, Washington Bureau Chief, and Assistant Managing Editor, as well as at the Miami Herald, including as a correspondent in the Middle East. Goodgame co-authored Marching in Place, a book about the first President Bush, and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where he earned his Masters’ of Philosophy.
Andrew R. Graybill, Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians and founding co-editor of the David J. Weber Series in New Borderlands History at the University of North Carolina Press, is the Director of the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University. He has authored or edited 4 books and numerous reviews for The American Scholar, The New York Times, Texas Monthly, The Wall Street Journal, and others.
Robert Earl Keen is an Americana singer-songwriter from Houston, Texas who has been writing, recording, and performing for over thirty years. Keen’s acclaimed narrative-driven songwriting style has distinguished him as a notable influence in the songwriting community, simultaneously capturing the hearts and imaginations of audiences around the world. Keen was inducted in 2012 into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame, and in 2015, with 19 albums to his credit, he became the first recipient of BMI’s official Troubadour Award. In 2019 he was inducted into the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame and presented with the Rick Smith “Spirit of Texas Award”. Keen’s songs have been recorded by many artists, including George Strait, Joe Ely, Nanci Griffith, Lyle Lovett, and the Dixie Chicks.
Kathleen Kent’s fifth book titled The Burn, sequel to the Edgar-nominated The Dime, is a contemporary crime novel set in Dallas, and will be published in 2020. She also wrote three bestselling, award-winning historical novels, The Heretic’s Daughter, The Traitor’s Wife, and The Outcasts. Her short stories and essays have been published in D Magazine, Texas Monthly, CrimeReads and LitHub, and Dallas Noir.
The songs of James McMurtry have attracted national attention for a quarter century. His 2011 hit We Can’t Make It Here was cited among The Nation’s “Best Protest Songs Ever” and won the Americana Music Song of the Year. The critically acclaimed Childish Things spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Americana Music Radio Chart in 2005 and 2006, winning the Americana Music Award for Album of the Year. McMurtry received more AMA nominations for 2008’s Just Us Kids. The incisive and socially astute excellence of his lyrics have impacted thousands.
Emma M. Pérez is a Research Social Scientist at the Southwest Center of the University of Arizona and a Professor in the Department of Gender & Women’s Studies. Her first novel, Gulf Dreams, in 1996, is considered one of the first Chicanx queer/lesbian novels. Her second novel, Forgetting the Alamo, Or, Blood Memory (2009) earned the Isherwood Writing Grant (2009), 2nd place in Historical Fiction from International Latino Book Awards (2010) and the NACCS Regional Book Award for fiction (2011). Emma B. Pérez has also published numerous essays and the history monograph, The Decolonial Imaginary: Writing Chicanas into History (1999).
Emmy Pérez is 2020 Texas Poet Laureate, and co-founder of Poets Against Walls and a Macondo Writers Workshop member. The author of several books of poetry, including With the River on Our Face and Solstice, she received poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, CantoMundo, and others. Emmy Pérez is Professor of Creative Writing at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, where she also serves as Associate Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies.
J.L. Powers is the author of many award-winning children's and YA books, including The Thing Called the Future, winner of the Patterson Prize for Books for Young People and the TIL’s Best Young Adult Book Award. She launched Catalyst Press in 2017 to publish African writers and African-themed books. She has an MFA in Writing from The University of Texas at El Paso and two master’s degrees in African history from State University of New York at Albany and Stanford University. The recipient of a Fulbright-opezHayes grant, she splits her time between California, Texas, and South Africa.
Andrew Sansom is a prominent environmental writer, author of 8 books and Series Editor of 23 books on Texas. He is former Executive Director of both Texas Parks and Wildlife and Texas Nature Conservancy, and founder of the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State. Sansom founded and is editor for the “River Series” books published by Texas A&M University Press. His published works have appeared in Texas Monthly, The Texas Observer, Houston City Magazine, Politics Today, Texas Highways, Texas Parks and Wildlife and Texas Town and City.
ire’ne lara silva is author of three poetry collections, Furia, Blood Sugar Canto, and CUICACALLI/House of Song, as well as a short story collection, flesh to bone, which won the Premio Aztlán 2013. She and poet Dan Vera co-edited Imaniman: Poets Writing in the Anzaldúan Borderlands, a collection of poetry and essays. lara silva received a NALAC Fund for the Arts Grant (2017), the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Award (2014), and the Gloria Anzaldúa Milagro Award (2008) and was a founding fellow of the CantoMundo Writers Conference. Her poems have appeared in The New York Times, Acentos Review, Pilgrimage, and Yellow Medicine Review and The Weight of Addition: An Anthology of Texas Poetry.
Octavio Solis, a playwright and short story writer, has written more than twenty plays as well as a memoir. His latest play, Quixote Nuevo, opens this month in Houston and is featured in January’s Texas Monthly. His works have played in theatres across the nation, including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, California Shakespeare Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, the Magic Theatre, South Coast Repertory Theatre, El Teatro Campesino, Campo Santo, and Cornerstone Theatre. His short stories have been published in Zyzzyva, Catamaran, Huizache, and the Chicago Quarterly Review. Solis received the United States Artists Fellowship for 2011 and the 2014 Pen Center USA Award for Drama, among other recognitions.
Natalia Sylvester was born in Lima, Peru, and raised in Florida and the Rio Grande Valley. She teaches in the MFA program at Regis University. Her debut novel, Chasing the Sun, was named Best Debut Book of 2014 by Latinidad, and was chosen as Book of the Month by the National Latino Book Club. Her second novel Everybody Knows You Go Home, won an International Latino Book Award, the 2019 TIL Jesse Jones Award for Best Book of Fiction, and was named a Best Book of 2018 by Real Simple Magazine. Her third book, a debut YA novel upcoming in May from Clarion Books, has already been named a Junior Library Guild Selection.
Regina Taylor, playwright and actress, is the Denzel Washington Endowed Chair in Theatre of Fordham University. Her recognitions include a Golden Globe Award, 4 Helen Hays Awards, NAACP Image Award and others. Formerly Writer-in-Residence at the Signature Theater, the Dallas native is the author of the book Night in Tunisia and more than 20 screenplays, including stop.reset, Millenuim, Mambo, Escape from Paradise, Inside the Belly of the Beast, and more. She is currently writing a screenplay about Sojourner Truth.
Loretta Diane Walker, a multiple Pushcart Nominee and Best of the Net Nominee, won the 2016 Phyllis Wheatley Book Award for poetry, for her book, In This House. Loretta was named “Statesman in the Arts” by the Heritage Council of Odessa. Her collection Word Ghetto won the 2011 Bluelight Press Book Award. Walker has published five collections of poetry, and her work has appeared in literary journals and anthologies in the United States, India, Canada, and the UK.
Dan Williams has published 19 books and more than fifty articles and essays. A recent book, Past Purgatory, a Distant Paradise won the Philosophical Society of Texas’s 2019 award for best book of poetry. His most recent book is You Can’t Build a Company: The Life and Principles of Marlene and Spencer Hays. Williams is Director of the TCU Press and the Honors Professor of Humanities in the John V. Roach Honors College, Texas Christian
University.
Bill Wright won the Southwest Book Award for his first book, The Tiguas: Pueblo Indians of Texas and again for the more recent Authentic Texas: People of the Big Bend (a collaboration with Marcia Hatfield Daudistel). President Ronald Reagan selected Wright to serve on the National Council on the Humanities of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Our warmest congratulations to the new inductees!
And Welcome to the Texas Institute of Letters!
Poets: Cyrus Cassells, ire’ne lara silva, Emmy Pérez, & Loretta Diane Walker
Playwrights: Octavio Solis and Regina Taylor
Novelists: Glen Blake, Kathleen Kent, & Natalia Sylvester
Journalists/Editors/Publishers: Nate Blakeslee, Dan Goodgame, & Dan Williams
Songwriters: James McMurtry and Robert Earl Keen
Environmental writer/editor: Andrew Sansom
Scholars: Andrew R. Graybill and Emma M. Perez
Children’s/YA author: J.L. (Jessica) Powers
Photo-historian: Bill Wright
This year, TIL Fellows Osborn, Stratton, Flynn & Hoggard welcomed a NEW TIL Fellow with a pair of training pants.
But, as soon as they began their “Training”
for him as a new Fellow,
trying to teach him the ropes, how
to be of profound benefit to TIL,
they rapidly discovered that he was ALREADY
a well-established Saint, specializing in communication and blessing of
all matters related to Texas writers:
St. Steven Pius the 5th.
We have also, sadly, lost some members this last year, and you can find their full memorials under the Archives section of our website, but we would be remiss to not mention them now, as we honor those who came before us.
Jim Lehrer
(1934-2020)
Journalist; novelist;
co-founder, PBS Evening News Hour,
The MacNeil-Lehrer report
Wendell Mayo William Seale
(1953-2019) (1939-201
Novelist; historian; esteemed teacher of fiction writing Historian with particular focus on state houses and especially the White House
(1953-2019)
Novelist; historian; esteemed teacher of fiction writing
(1939-2019)
Historian with particular focus on state houses and especially the White House
Terrence McNally
(1938-2020
Tony-Award-winning playwright, librettist, and screenwriter.
Described as "the bard of American theater"
Please GO TO THIS LINK, for a very special message from Terrence McNally, as he accepts a 2019 TONY Lifetime Achievement Award, with a touching message for ALL of us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE8YRnGauYw&feature=youtu.be
“If you aint been throwed, you ain’t rode.”--T.M, 2019
Bob Compton Don Graham
(1927-2019)
Longtime Book Editor of the Dallas Morning News, when The News had one of the best book pages in the country: City Editor of The News; longtime TIL Recording Secretary
(1940-2019)
Film historian; Texas literary historian; former TIL President; J. Frank Dobie Regents Professor, UT
Lonn Taylor Bill Sloane
(1940-2019)
Curator; expert on Texas furniture and the Star-Spangled Banner; noted raconteur; historian for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History
(1935-2019)
Journalist; noted military historian
Bill Witliffe
(1940-2019)
Screenwriter; photographer; filmmaker; collector and archivist; publisher of Encino Press; TIL Fellow and past TIL President
And now, for your musical and intellectual entertainment, we bring you one of our new TIL Inductees, James McMurtry, with a link to his song We Can’t Make it Here Anymore which was ranked by music critic Robert Christgau the best song of the 2000’s, and called by author Stephen King “the most memorable protest song since Bob Dylan’s Masters of War.”
Please GO TO THIS LINK:
(or copy and paste the address in your browser)
For the full Music Video (includes explicit political references & images of American neighborhoods) go to:
OR, to see McMurtry perform it in Austin 2012, see:
The 2020 TIL Literary Awards
Many of our Awards Judges are TIL Members, and some are just generous supporters of TIL who contribute their time and expertise to serve on our Judging Committees.
Every year, TIL gives away more than $22,000 in awards, so that writers in Texas can continue to put a priority on the development of outstanding works. Every judging committee contains a diversity of gender and ethnicity, in order to increase a diversity of perspective within the works we honor.
We are deeply indebted to our wonderful judges who contribute many many hours to carefully read every submission.
The Jesse H. Jones Award
for Best Work Of Fiction
Judges:
John Blair, Chair
Sally Andrade
William Clark
2020 Texas Institute of Letters
Texas Institute of Letters 2020 Awards
The Jesse H. Jones Award Finalists:
Norma Elia Cantú
Bryan Allen Carr
And the
2020 Jesse H. Jones Award
for Best Work Of Fiction
goes to:
Where We Come From
2020 Texas Institute of Letters Awards
by Oscar Cásares
2020 Texas Institute of Letters
The Carl P. Collins Award
for Best Book Of Nonfiction
Judges:
Hugh Aynesworth, Chair
José A. Rodriguez
Beth Rogers
Texas Institute of Letters 2020 Awards
Carr Collins Award Finalists:
by
Steve Davis
by
Jason DeParle
And the 2020
Carr P. Collins Award
for Best Book of Nonfiction
goes to:
Janis: Her Life and Music
2020 Texas Institute of Letters
By Holly George-Warren
2020 Texas Institute of Letters
The Ramirez Family Award
for Most Significant Scholarly Book
Judges:
T. Lindsey Baker, Chair
Patrick Cox
Ellen Riojas Clark
Texas Institute of Letters 2020 Awards
The Ramirez Family Award Finalists:
by Alan Governar
by Kathryn O’Rourke
And the 2020
Ramirez Family Award for Most Significant Scholarly Book
goes to:
The Art of Texas
250 Years
2020 Texas Institute of Letters Awards
by Ron Tyler
The Sergio Troncoso Award
for Best Work of First Fiction
Judges:
John Blair, Chair
William Clark
Sally Andrade
2020 Texas Institute of Letters
Texas Institute of Letters 2020 Awards
Troncoso Best Work of First Fiction Finalists:
by Kimberly King Parsons
by Heather Harper Ellett
And the 2020
Sergio Troncoso Award
for Best Work Of First Fiction
goes to:
Lot
2020 Texas Institute of Letters Awards
by Bryan Washington
The Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for Best Book of Poetry
Judges:
Robin Davidson, Chair
Katie Hoerth
Michael S. Collins
e Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for Best
2020 Texas Institute of Letters
Texas Institute of Letters 2020 Awards
The Helen C. Smith Poetry Award Finalists:
by ire’ne lara silva
by Chelsea Wagenaar
And the 2020
Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for Best Book of Poetry
goes to:
The Tiny Journalist
2020 Texas Institute of Letters
by Naomi Shihab Nye
The John A. Robertson Award
for Best First Book of Poetry
Judges:
Robert Davidson, Chair
Katie Hoerth
Michael S. Collins
e Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for Best
2020 Texas Institute of Letters
Texas Institute of Letters 2020 Awards
Robertson Best First Book of Poetry Finalists:
by Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton
by Jennifer Sperry Steinorth
And the 2020
John A. Robertson Award
for Best First Book of Poetry
goes to:
Why I am Like Tequila
2020 Texas Institute of Letters Awards
by Lupe Mendez
The Texas Institute of Letters
Best Young Adult Book
Judges:
Margie Darcy Longoria, Chair
Renee Dyer
Bob Flynn
e Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for Best
2020 Texas Institute of Letters
Texas Institute of Letters 2020 Awards
TIL Best Young Adult Book Finalists:
by Kathi Appelt
by Vanessa Caraveo
And the 2020
Texas Institute of Letters
Best Young Adult Book
goes to:
Throw
2020 Texas Institute of Letters Awards
by Rubén Degollado
The Jean Flynn Award
for Best Middle Grade Book
Judges:
Sharon Amastae, Chair
Diana Lopez
Rose M. Catacalos
e Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for Best
2020 Texas Institute of Letters
Texas Institute of Letters 2020 Awards
The Jean Flynn Best Middle Grade Book Finalists:
by Meredith Davis and
Rebeka Uwitonze
by Mobi Warren
And the 2020 Jean Flynn Award
for Best Middle Grade Book
goes to:
The Other Half of Happy
2020 Texas Institute of Letters
by Rebecca Balcárcel
The Texas Institute of Letters
Best Children’s Picture Book
Judges:
Sharon Amastae, Chair
Diana Lopez
Rose M. Catacalos
e Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for Best
2020 Texas Institute of Letters
Texas Institute of Letters 2020 Awards
TIL Best Children’s Picture Book Finalists:
by Maria Illich
by María Alma González Pérez
And the 2020
Texas Institute of Letters
Best Children’s Picture Book
goes to:
The Boy Who Touched the Stars: El Niño Que Alcanzó Las
Estrellas
2020 Texas Institute of Letters
by José M. Hernández
The Edwin “Bud” Shrake Award
for Best Short Nonfiction
Judges:
CW Smith, Chair
Steve Kellman
Natalia Treviño
e Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for Best
2020 Texas Institute of Letters
Texas Institute of Letters 2020 Awards
Shrake Award for Best Short Non-Fiction Finalists:
by Rod Davis
Crowd-sourcing Justice
by Michael Hall
Mother Courage
And the 2020
Texas Institute of Letters Award
for Best Short Nonfiction
goes to:
Sabika’s Story
2020 Texas Institute of Letters
by Skip Hollandsworth
The Kay Cattarulla Award
for Best Short Story
Judges:
Celeste Bedford Walker, Chair
Jerry Thompson
Britt Haraway
e Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for Best
2020 Texas Institute of Letters
Texas Institute of Letters 2020 Awards
Catarulla Best Short Story Award Finalists:
The Wall
by William Cobb
Limes
by Rudy Ruiz
And the 2020
Kay Cattarulla Award
for Best Short Story
goes to:
Rosary at the Border
2020 Texas Institute of Letters Awards
by Sergio Troncoso
The Soeurette Diehl Fraser Award
for Best Translation of a Book
Judges:
Kurt Heinzelman, Chair
Norma Cantu
Will Evans
e Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for Best
2020 Texas Institute of Letters
Texas Institute of Letters 2020 Awards
Soeurette Diehl Fraser Best Translation Finalists:
Translated by Julia Leverone
William Cobb
Translated
by Robert Cantrick
The Soeurette Diehl Fraser Award
for Best Translation of a Book
goes to:
Still Life with Children:
Selected Poems of
Francesc Parcerisas
2020 Texas Institute of Letters Awards
by Cyrus Cassells
2020 Texas Institute of Letters
Lon Tinkle Lifetime Achievement Award for a lifetime of
distinction in letters
2020 Texas Institute of Letters Awards
John Rechy
John Rechy
A mini-documentary by Jesus Trevino
SHOWING NOW! GO TO LINK!
GO TO LINK:
http://latinopia.com/latino-literature/latinopia-word-texas-authors-honor-john-rechy/
WAIT! WAIT! WAIT!
It’s not a TIL Awards Banquet ‘til we harass
Bob Flynn
with jokes about how he was right here defending TIL during the Mexican-American War of 1845. (Robert Lopez Flynn fought on both sides, just to be fair.)
Flynn with US Cavalry, with his best
literary companion, his horse.
Flynn defending Mexico,Leading the Charge.
And how he not only served on the TIL Council of Directors for the last 3,792 years (at last count) but also is a Past President, a TIL Fellow, and is in the process of endowing not one, not two, but THREE literary awards for TIL.
But archaeologists have also recently found Pre-Columbian evidence of his early writings. Be sure and watch for them when we finally go on field trip to the Gault Archaeological Site, which our kind patron of the arts is offering to re-schedule for a future time, for TIL Members & Friends.
The glyphs found there are reputed to be more than 16,000 years old, when Bob Flynn was a mere teenager!
Of course, all of that was before he discovered the fountain of youth at Woodstock in 1968, and then spit the stuff out, spewing vile words like “WTH did you put in my chalice?!”
Since he only drinks from said fountain now occasionally, preferring the taste of Jack Daniels, some signs of the aging process have become evident on his left knee but not on his writing skills.
But it is his dignity in the face of adversity (and of constant ribbing by his fellow Councilors) and his sense of humor which has been worth even more than the financial contributions (“No, DON’T say that in front of HIM!” says Kip.)
And his now-legendary dramatic performance
(if you dont know, ask a Council Member) at the January Council meeting has earned him the…
TIL Academy Award for Best Actor 2020
Robert Lopez Flynn
In an ideal world, we’d be celebrating together tonight in Georgetown Texas, and listening to poetry, prose readings, songs, and the laughter of fellow writers. Since we can’t, we offer you the special treat of a bluegrass jam session in the Texas Hill Country, performed by
TIL 2020 New Member Robert Earl Keen. Enjoy!
GO TO LINK:
As we come to the end of our 2-year officer terms, we always wonder who should be chosen next to lead this maverick herd of creatives.
And a great ray of light came from the clouds, and the voice of the Lord Almighty said,
“It’s spelled T-R-O-…(sigh) N- C -- (muttering)
I should have made Biliteracy a Commandment -- O-S-...”
With unanimous acclamation by the TIL Council, our hard-working Vice-President, faithful WebMaster, and financial guru, Sergio Troncoso, was named to be the next President of the Texas Institute of Letters 2020-2022.
We know he will carry out his duties faithfully.
And he will rule collaboratively, with the amazing Vice-President, Diana Lopez, the Officers and Councillors of the TIL, and The Wild Bunch of Mavericks that compose the membership of TIL…
and Peace shall rule in the Land… (Well, maybe not that last part, but we can always write it that way until we script a better ending!)
Vice-President Diana Lopez
President Sergio Troncoso
A Message from our New President:
I am honored and excited to lead the Texas Institute of Letters for the next two years. I cherish our literary community, and I want to enhance our organization's connection to all members throughout Texas and beyond.
Our next meeting will be in El Paso, Texas on April 16-17, 2021, so please mark it on your calendars. Get ready to have fun while we celebrate new members and award winners in West Texas.
Finally, I want to thank Carmen Tafolla for her inspirational leadership of the TIL. She has been, and will always be, mi hermana. I also want to thank mis hermanos Kip Stratton and Steve Davis. Together we have created and nurtured a vibrant camaraderie that is at the core of what I value the most about the TIL.
- Sergio Troncoso, TIL President 2020-2022
And now, celebrate with us to the music,
and dance along to the TexManiacs, as we party at the
TIL VIRTUAL Awards Banquet
GO TO LINK BELOW:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb2MHDYnqbs
GO TO 36:20 mark of the above link and listen to Los Texmaniacs cover “The Midnight Special,” written by Texas musical giant Lead Belly, played in medley with the great Credence Clearwater Revival song, “Bad Moon Rising.” Your officers dedicate this performance, this evening and all the happy dancing your empty living room can fit TO YOU, our guests at this Virtual Banquet.
For more information on
The Texas Institute of Letters,
please visit our website:
www.texasinstituteofletters.org