Austin author, entertainer, and all-around Renaissance man Owen Egerton is finally receiving some formal recognition for all of his hard work and hijinks. He's one of this year's two Best of Austin "Best Authors," in no small part due to his darkly-comedic book of short stories, How To Best Avoid Dying, released earlier this year by Austin-based Dalton Publishing.

Egerton tied for the prestigious award with journalist-turned-punk-rocker-Texas-Rollergirl Melissa "Melicious" Joulwan. Her bruiser of a memoir, Rollergirl: Totally True Tales From the Track, takes a tough-as-nails insider's look at the rockstar popularity that Flat Track Derby has gained nationally over the past few years. Dirt is dished, bandages are applied, and the view is pretty cool from the other side of the track. We thought it was a damn good read, and a heck of a lot safer than trying out for the league.

We've been swooning over Owen for a long time, because of his work with Jerm Pollet and the Sinus Show, his blog, his appearances on DadLabs.com, and, of course, his spectacular writing. You can even check some of it out right here.

"Best Author in Austin? Living in the same town as Tim O'Brien, Dagoberto Gilb, Larry Wright (who won a Pulitzer this year), Spike Gillespie, Ric Williams and so many other brilliant writers and getting awarded Best Author in Austin makes me think either I'm a damn good writer... or people aren't doing enough reading," said Owen. "I'd put money on the latter, but I plan on believing the former. I urge all of you to do the same."

As luck would have it, Owen will be dispensing pearls of wisdom this Friday at Intellectual Property down on the Drag, as part of a panel discussion entitled Now I'm Legit: 1st Time Publishing.

So, Austin...It was a dead heat in the readers poll, a total two-way tie. What's your vote?

Now I'm Legit: 1st Time Publishing Panel Discussion
Friday, October 12th
Intellectual Property
5pm

Images from The Austin Chronicle