Langdon Review Weekend September 9 – 12, 2009 Dora Lee Langdon Center Granbury, Texas Tarleton State University Stephenville, Texas Co-Editors: Moumin Quazi and Marilyn Robitaille Editorial Advisory Board Phyllis Allen Judy Alter Betsy Berry Alice Cushman Robert L. Flynn Todd Frazier Don Graham Dominique Inge James Hoggard Lynn Hoggard James Ward Lee Natrelle Long Jill Patterson Tom Pilkington Punch Shaw Thea Temple Richard Tuerk Cheryl Vogel Donna Walker-Nixon Betty Wiesepape 2009-2010 Contributors Scott Grant Barker Gregg Barrios Yvette Benavides Jerry Bradley Cassy Burleson Kevin Clay Jerry Craven Sherry Craven Jeffrey DeLotto Tom Dodge Peggy Freeman David Lowery Naomi Shihab Nye Eugenio R. Garcia Orts Danny Parker Mike Price Jessica Quazi Paul Ruffin Barrie Scardino Judith Segura 2 General Information REGISTRATION: The registration desk in the Langdon House will open beginning Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. and continuing throughout the Langdon Review Weekend. VENUE: All events with the exceptions of the Wednesday Opening Events, the film screening, and the Picnic with the Poet Laureate take place at the Dora Lee Langdon Center. The Studio, the Carriage House, the Rock House, and the Concert Hall are all within shouting distance of the Gordon House where registration is taking place. EXHIBITS: Various writers have been invited to display their books at a table in the Studio. Feel free to browse and ultimately purchase books. Say hello to Christina Stradley, Tarleton Campus Store manager extraordinaire. BREAK AREA: From 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m., help yourself to the snacks provided. Look for the tents on the Langdon Center Lawn. SOCIAL, CULTURAL, AND INTELLECTUAL PROGRAM: All the events from Thursday morning’s readings onward–the publication reception, readings, receptions, guest speakers’ programs, and the Saturday Morning Brunch–are all included in the registration fee, as is a copy of this year’s journal. Movie tickets and the meals on Wednesday afternoon and Friday evening may be purchased on location. Sign up and pay for your box lunch for the picnic at the registration desk. THE BOOK: We’re celebrating (and shamelessly promoting) the sixth edition of the Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas. Available for purchase at the Gordon House and in the Studio bookstore. IMPORTANT NOTE: Please respect the room capacity numbers posted at each venue. If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask Co-editors Moumin Quazi and Marilyn Robitaille or Langdon Center Director Janice Horak. 3 Langdon Review Weekend Schedule September 9 - 12, 2009 Day One, Wednesday, September 9 Specialty Workshop 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon • Specialty Workshop on Collaborative Writing, led by Mike Kearby Tarleton State University campus in Stephenville, Barry B. Thompson Student Center Ballroom B Mike Kearby is an author and ex-high school reading teacher. He is “intent on making sure every kid in Texas learns to read – just for the fun of it.” The Collaborative Novel Project 2009-2010 is a project involving students from the following schools: Albany High School Breckenridge High School Hico High School L. D. Bell High School Mineral Wells High School San Angelo Lakeview High School Stephenville High School Strawn High School Trinity High School Special thanks to our Workshop Sponsor: The Department of English and Languages, Tarleton State University, Box T-0300, Stephenville, Texas. 254.968.9039 www.tarleton.edu/english Session II: 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Workshop, continued. TSU campus in Stephenville, Barry B. Thompson Student Center Ballroom B 4 EVENING SESSION Langdon Review Weekend Launch Party Dinner, Music, & Drama on 09/09/09 Wednesday, September 9 7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Tarleton State University Barry B. Thompson Student Center, Ballroom B • 09/09/09 Dinner & Music by WillieNatra (FRIENDS OF THE LANGDON REVIEW dinner by reservation $19.99) Music by WillieNatra, performing a blend between country and lounge-style music. Bob Francis, piano ♦ Ira Campbell, trumpet ♦ Steve West, guitar & vocals ♦ Bob Hunt, bass ♦ Peggy Bott Kirby, guest vocalist • Drama 8:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Tarleton State University Barry B. Thompson Student Center Ballroom A Co-founder Steve McGaw Since 1996, SceneShop has produced over 100 new works— scenes and monologues—and presented them in an intimate, minimalist style, focusing on the essential communication between the playwright, the producing ensemble and the audience. 2009 marks the debut of Lost Beat Generation (LBG), a performance alternative stemming from, but not identical to, Fort Worth’s SceneShop. The aim of LBG is to be edgy, provocative and mobile. • SceneShop “Tinsel and Pepperoni” (SceneShop), written by Steven Alan McGaw, performed by Nicholas Irion and Steven Cashion. “Urges” (Lost Beat Generation), written by Rey Delbasa (of Florida), performed by Nicholas Irion and Nikki Singer. “lived in...” (SceneShop), written by Steven Alan McGaw, performed by Adam Whittington. 5 DAY TWO, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2009 MORNING SESSIONS Registration: 8:30 a.m. – Gordon House Thursday, September 10 Session I: 9:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. 2 concurrent sessions 1. Ethics and Medicine Carriage House • Donna Walker Nixon, Lecturer, Baylor University. Creative Non-Fiction piece about the intersection of medicine and the law: “Don't Call Him Drunken Ira Hayes.” Donna is the co-founder of the Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas, the founder of Windhover, and a former editor of the New Texas series. Her stories have been published in Echoes magazine, Concho River Review, descant, Writing on the Wind, and Red Boots and Attitude. • Richard M. Zaner, A. G. Professor Emeritus of Medical Ethics & Philosophy of Medicine, Vanderbilt University (retired 2002). “If You Listen, You Can Smile.” Dick will present a narrative focused on a clinical situation involving a severe dilemma for a young surgeon responsible for the care of an elderly gentleman. 2. Creative Writing Rock House • Joe R. Christopher, Professor emeritus of English, Tarleton State University. Poems from “A Celebration of Charles Darwin's Bicentenary.” Joe has published about a dozen pieces of short fiction, over a hundred poems, two dramas, three edited collections of others’ writings, and over a hundred pieces of non-fiction, including two book-length pieces of academic prose. • Carol Cullar, Executive Director of the Rio Bravo Nature Center Foundation, Inc. in Eagle Pass. Reading from her creative nonfiction story “Slim,” soon to be published in Holt McDougal’s ninth grade American Literature text with 1.25 million copies released in Canada and the U.S. Carol writes, “Slim was the hobo walking down Highway 66 on his way to California during the Dust Bowl of the ’30s who stopped to ask my grandmother for work and a dipper of water and never left.” • Andrew Geyer, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English, University of South Carolina Aiken. “Café le Coq.” Andrew is the author of a novel, Meeting the Dead (UNMP 2007), and a short story cycle, Whispers in Dust and Bone (TTUP 2003); his award-winning fiction has appeared in numerous literary magazines, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. 6 Thursday, September 10 Session II: 10:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. 3 Concurrent Sessions 1. History Concert Hall • Arch Mayfield, Professor of English, Wayland Baptist University. “What a Beecher!” He was said to be “father of more brains than any other man in America.” She was described by Abraham Lincoln as “the little woman who wrote the book that made this big war.” Her brother was of such notoriety—if not notoriousness—his funeral in New York City attracted over 50,000 people. These are all Beechers: the patriarch, Lyman Beecher; a daughter, Harriet Beecher Stowe; and a son, Henry Ward Beecher. This presentation, focusing on Harriet and Henry, highlights not only some of the better-known but also some lesser-known Beecher exploits and will include dramatic adaptations of two or three scenes read by two guest women readers. (H.B.S.’s involvement in the Lord and Lady Byron controversy and Henry Ward Beecher’s rumored sexual liaisons with numerous parishioners). • T. Lindsay Baker, W. K. Gordon Endowed Chair in History, Tarleton State University. “On the Trail of a Past as Elusive as the Wind.” T. Lindsay will examine his career-long efforts to study and interpret the history of wind power in America. He has published several scholarly works on the subject, including A Field Guide to American Windmills (1985), Blades in the Sky: Windmilling through the Eyes of B. H. “Tex” Burdick (1991), The 702 Model Windmills: Its Assembly, Installation and Use (1999), North American Windmill Manufacturers’ Trade Literature: A Descriptive Guide (1999), A Guide to United States Patents for Windmills and Wind Engines 1793-1950 (2004), and American Windmills: An Album of Historic Photographs (2007). 7 2. Poetry Rock House • Salvatore Attardo. “Haiku Summaries and Other, Longer, Poems.” Salvatore has been published in Harpur Palate, Whiskey Island, Tampa Review, CadillacCicatrix, Quiddity, Bateau, Main Channel Voices, Poetry Harbor, RIEN, Pegasus, and MO: Writings from the River. • Danny Parker, President of the Board of the Old Post Office Museum and Art Center in Graham, Texas. Poetry: “Whispers.” Danny is a poet, sculptor, photographer, and is trying his hand at water colors. He feels that he is a “cistern that catches what falls from another place, a higher source, and that the most important factor is to be open to what comes our way.” • Tony Zurlo. Poetry from “The Mind Dancing.” Tony writes: “Life in the Peace Corps, Army, and a year teaching in China so warped my self esteem that I have since concealed from editors age, gender, size, race, religion, politics, and other private predispositions, and survive folded up in a back room in Arlington, Texas, working on Alice in Cyberland, my long-awaited solution to the unified field theory.” 3.