Thursday, September 13, 2001
Book festival binding together
By Bill Whitaker
Reporter-News Staff Writer
The time for confessions is at hand now
that Glenn Dromgoole and Jane Jones are nearly done coordinating
what promises to be the state’s second-largest literary fest.
The organizers have been flying blind.
“Jane and I have never been to a book
festival before, so we have no idea what we’re even supposed
to be doing,” Dromgoole said of the first-ever West Texas
Book & Author Festival, set for Sept. 22. “We have absolutely
no preconceived notions about what a book festival should be like.”
Despite their lack of experience, Dromgoole,
Jones and fellow Friends of the Abilene Public Library are excited
about the ease with which their literary extravaganza has come
together.
If there were ever an event worthy of enticing
bookworms from their cocoons, the West Texas Book & Author
Festival is it. Scores of authors — some famous, some obscure
— are expected at the Abilene Civic Center, 1100 N. 6th St.,
participating in seminars, readings and autograph sessions.
“We started this off thinking if we
could get 30 or 40 authors to come, that would be nice,”
said Dromgoole, president of the Friends of the Abilene Public
Library and author of several books. “But word just spread
about the event.
“Eventually, we had authors coming
to us, asking to be included. Now we’ve got over a hundred
coming.”
Some authors are among the finest Texas
has to offer.
Headlining the day-long event is a $15-a-plate
noon luncheon featuring, besides barbecue from Buffalo Gap restaurateur
and cookbook author Tom Perini, a conversation between Texas literary
titans A.C. Greene, John Graves and Elmer Kelton.
“They conned me into it,” said
Graves, 81, who lives near Glen Rose and wrote the enduring Texas
narrative, Goodbye to a River. “Actually, the way they got
me to come is they told me A.C. was going to be there.”
Dromgoole said the key to success was tapping
Jones to serve as festival chairwoman. Jones’ first move
was to delegate various responsibilities back to Dromgoole, including
corralling as many literary notables as he could find.
Some came easy, such as Jones County native
and former Associated Press roving reporter Mike Cochran. He’s
a fellow newsman who Dromgoole, retired Reporter-News editor,
knew from his days at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where Cochran
still offices.
Authors range widely in topic and genre.
Among those slated for the festival are 2001 Texas poet laureate
Walt McDonald of Lubbock, Tejano music journalist Ramiro Burr
of San Antonio, wildlife photographer Wyman Meinzer of Benjamin
and novelist Marshall Terry of Dallas.
Festival officials have organized the event
so that several activities will always be going on at once, including
seminars on topics such as “Getting Published,” “Texas
Mystique,” “Texas Music,” “Biographies,”
“Food & Fixins,” plus an active children’s
book corner.
In addition, a wide variety of books will
be for sale through the Abilene Bookstore, which is moving operations
to the Civic Center for the day.
Jones concedes many book-lovers will find
it odd such a large book festival is being mounted well west of
Interstate 35, away from Texas’ big cities. The state’s
largest such fest is the annual Texas Book Festival in Austin.
But then considering that all of the authors
coming have some sort of Texas connection, it’s not really
odd.
“This is West Texas, and West Texas
is really what the image of Texas is all about,” she said.
“You can go to Houston or Dallas and you might as well be
anywhere. But you get out here and it has all the mystique of
Texas.”
Ricki Brown, head librarian at the Abilene
Public Library, which gains all proceeds from the upcoming event,
is awestruck at the success experienced by the Friends of the
Abilene Public Library and the scope of the festival they’re
staging for the first time.
“Each week that goes by on the planning
of this thing, it’s like, ‘Whoa!’ “ Brown
said.
Contact story editor Bill Whitaker at
676-6732 or whitakerb@abinews.com
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©2001, Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps.
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