After easily deflecting a question as to whether he was the “Next Great American Novelist” at a recent signing and reading at BookPeople, and having discussed the Oprah Problem previously, Jonathan Franzen seemed out of the woods. The controlled chaos of a question and answer period is meant to result in some interesting, off-the-cuff interaction with the audience, but more often than not it feels more like a way for certain loudmouthed audience members inflict a little bit of themselves on everyone else (“Yes - I have a two-part question. I’m a firm believer in sustainable development, and my wife and I raise donkeys…etc.). Still, things were going swimmingly during this particular gab session, but one question did seem to rankle Franzen a bit. A man in the audience wanted to address what he called “the elephant in the room” - he was the second person to use that phrase during the Q&A, which means our room is rather filled with elephants, but anyway - regarding the recent controversy of The Media Vs. Women Writers. more ›

Local writer Spike Gillespie (along with a dozen of her closest friends) has been holding forth on the subject of wookin pa nub in all the wrong places. The Dick Monologues run once a month at Hyde Park Theater. When we walked in, there was a sea of women with tiny plastic cups of red wine. Any trepidation over being surrounded by that many sleeveless tops quickly dissipated as the raucously hilarious women (and... more ›

That's right: it's time to heat up your winter nights again, with the 14th season of FronteraFest. The Short Fringe, the Long Fringe, or Mi Casa es su Teatro -- FronteraFest is five weeks of alternative, offbeat, new, and just plain off-the-wall fringe theatre presented by Hyde Park Theatre and Austin Script Works. For complete FronteraFest 2007 information, including times and locations for the Short Fringe, the Long Fringe and Mi Casa es su... more ›