The Association of Writers & Writing Programs Visits Austin, Texas

This morning, the last of our friends in town for the AWP meeting have left for their respective homes, a number returning to the snow and uncertain weather of the midwest. Austin is also hosting the SXSW Film Festival and Interactive Conference, SXSW Trade Show, and, starting on Wednesday, the SXSW Music Festival.
We hosted Roy Boney, Jr., Cherokee animator and comic book artist, for his first visit and speaking enagements in Austin. In addition to presenting at last Friday's "Native Expressions" event, Roy gave a nearly two-hour presentation at the Will Hampton Branch of the Austin Public Library on Saturday. He highlighted more of his claymation projects with children and youth at tribal schools and his own animation work. You'll find more information at blackgummountain.com. Roy has presented and done book signings at the San Diego Comic-Con International (comic-con.org). Roy's "Plugin Boy Soap Opera" (roysunshine.com) had a strong online following. This series is on hiatus while he is illustrating "Dead Eyes Open," a comic book series published by Slave Labor Graphics (slavelabor.com)in San Jose and carried by our own Austin Books and Comics.

The students and I are preparing for some library visits this week. We're heading to Bastrop where a Capstone student is providing the library staff with training on the use of TexShare databases. We're also working on the final details in organizing a day-long trip to east Texas to help a tribal librarian prepare a grant.