This year's Texas Book Festival, which takes place October 22 and 23 at the State Capitol and is free to the public, is shaping up to be tastier than ever - with a plethora of great cookbooks to purchase and many celebrity authors slated to appear. more ›

OH SNAP! So, Austin is considered the Live Music Capital of the world? Well that’s not all that’s crackin’ up and spacklin' in and amongst our cultured ranks. Some of us can read, and certainly do. Which is why Austin is blessed to host the Texas Book Festival again for 2009. Music’s nice and all for listenin’ and whatnot, but BOOKS and WRITERS will be on the main stage this weekend at the Texas Book Festival! more ›

Author Laura Dave will be in town this week to promote her second novel, The Divorce Party, now in paperback. Whereas her first novel, London Is the Best City in America, focuses on the events surrounding a wedding, the action in The Divorce Party takes place within a 24-hour period in which Gwyn, a sixty-something Montauk housewife, throws a fete for her divorce. The novel is divided in four parts, with each part split among the characters of Gwyn and her soon-to-be daughter-in-law Maggie. While Gwyn is facing the end of a thirty-five year marriage, Maggie is coming to grips with her own commitment issues. more ›

In this clip, he discusses his new book (The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart), Texans buying more guns, and strange Austin lawn art: "My wife and I moved to Austin . . . we'd drive around and see neighbors with bowling ball art . . ." Jon Stewart tells Bishop at the end of the interview, "You live in a f*cked up neighborhood." more ›

Amy Hempel is a sort of hero for short story writers. While everyone else seems to eventually leave the form to take a crack at the Great American Novel, Hempel has spent thirty years moving in the opposite direction, into shorter and shorter stories. Possibly more than any other American writer, she can claim to be the creator of the "short short" form. It's still hard to argue that anyone does it better. She walks the line between fanciful irony and soft-hearted sentimentalism with a natural balance that would make David Berman jealous. more ›