Nov. 1 Harry Ransom Center Hosts "Literary Austin"

Panel To Kick Off Texas Book Festival

Thursday Nov. 1. 7 p.m.

Jessen Auditorium in Homer Rainey Hall

Seating is free, but limited.

The Texas Book Festival and the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin present panelists Robert Draper, "Literary Austin" Editor Don Graham, Bill Minutaglio, Karen Olsson, John Spong and Marion Winik, who will discuss their writing and their contributions to the anthology "Literary Austin." The panel will be moderated by Austin author Stephen Harrigan.

"Literary Austin" brings together the history, color and character of Austin since 1839, when it was selected, on the advice of Mirabeau B. Lamar, as the site for a new capital of the then-Republic of Texas.

Essays, fiction and poetry in the anthology reveal the variety of literary responses to Austin through the decades and are organized in a roughly chronological fashion to reveal the themes, places and personalities that have defined the life of the city.