Having been raised by one hoarder and once married to another, I myself am a big purger. No way do I want to ever again live in a house crammed with crap. Nor, when I check out, do I want to leave my son to sort through 5,000 coffee cans of rusty nails, a vast collection of headless Barbies, and a stack of National Geographics dating back to the 1800s. So, several times a year, I go through my already very small pile of possessions and I purge. I take bags of clothes and kitchen stuff to my favorite thrift store, Top Drawer. I redistribute CDs I’ve imported to my Mac. And, once in awhile, I part with books, which is a little bit more difficult, as books and yarn are the two things I would hoard if I did hoard. ...

By the time you read this, I will have been in Barton Springs twice this week, which is a 100% increase over the number of other times I’ve gotten in that godforsaken body of water since I moved here nearly seventeen years ago. Unfortunately for me, I am one of those people with a horrible memory, by which I mean I remember way too many details, dates, and traumatic events and, thus, associate just about everything in the present, no matter how joyful, with something crappy in the past. Once, my young, hot boyfriend, Warren, and I played a game of Freaky Friday where we pretended to be each other. My role was easy, at least on the surface: chill out, don’t worry about the relationship, the weather, money, or anything else. His job? Call me every thirty minutes and say, You know, I was thinking about what you said this morning. It reminded me of the time my uncle took me fishing when I was six and I got a hook caught in my eye…...

What do you do when you finally get your life back and it’s broken? If you’re the heroine of Sarah Bird’s How Perfect is That, the self-monikered Blythe (née Chanterelle) Young, you toss back a cup of Red Bull, vodka, and Dexedrine and start hustling....

I love Sarah Bird. I LOVE HER, PEOPLE, do you hear me? In case you aren’t familiar with Sarah, let me tell you a few things. Sarah is this incredible novelist whom Austin is fortunate enough to call our own. In 2006, she and I tied for Best Author in Austin in the Chronicle’s Best of Austin Poll. When this happened, I told Sarah that I felt like a dandelion that had been placed in a vase alongside a gorgeous long stemmed rose. I could not believe that I might share such an honor with a writer of Sarah’s caliber....

Local author Sarah Bird (The Yokota Officers Club, Virgin of the Rodeo, The Mommy Club, The Boyfriend School, and Alamo House) doesn't know how to just sit down and write a book. For her, research for a novel—say, one about flamenco music and dance—means picking up and moving to New Mexico for a summer to take flamenco dance lessons at The University of New Mexico. This may sound a little extreme when she could've hacked......

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......

The Writers' League of Texas will be honoring author Lawrence Wright on September 21st with the 3rd Annual Award of Literary Merit. The award seeks to recognize individuals who "embody the League's mission of promoting literacy and elevating the art of writing." The first two Awards of Literary Merit were bestowed upon Sarah Bird (2006) and Anne Patchett (2005). Currently a staff writer for The New Yorker, Lawrence Wright has authored several books as well......

As festivals go, the Texas Book Festival is probably one of the most consistent we have in Austin. For the past couple of years, Clay Smith–the festival’s literary director–has sought out and scored some of the most notable figures on the nation’s book scene. This year is no exception as the festival is sporting some very prominent names. The festival “kicks-off” on Thursday night (7pm) at the Harry Ransom Center where Alan Furst will be......

FRIDAY [15] music • Ghostland Observatory and Thee Emergency at The Mohawk (912 Red River) ® party • Earthdance at NiaSpace (7:30pm-10pm, $15) party • Eastside City Limits party with Pink Nasty, Tnlons Fort, I Kill Cars, Missing Tapes, Brothesr and Sisters, Til We're Blue or Destroy, The Black at Red Scoot Inn and Old Austin Daze Compound (9pm-4am, FREE) ® party • Teleport Door presents the Pop Yo Colla' party with DJs Daniel......

MONDAY [11] film • AICN presents Calvaire at Alamo Drafthouse (7pm) ® film • El Mariachi at Rounders Pizzeria (8pm, Free) film • Dave Chappelle's Block Party at Café Mundi (8:30pm, Free) film • A Reasonable Guide to Horrible Noise at Alamo Drafthouse (9:45pm, $2) ® music • End of an Ear presents a listening party and midnight sale for TV On the Radio and Yo La Tengo, with DJs from The Rich Girls......

While gathering in the conference room to watch DVDs about your esteemed corporate founder or practicing falling off of chairs and into each other's arms as part of a trust exercise have always been a great way to spend an hour or two not surfing the internets at work away from your cubicle, the Writers' League of Texas has introduced a new program that will make you not dread the email from Human Resources,......

WEDNESDAY [28] [film] AFS 20th Anniversary Screening: Godard's Weekend at Alamo Downtown (7pm) (link) [film] Premiere of A Scanner Darkly with film score composer Graham Reynolds leading live performance at Paramount Theatre (5pm, 7pm) (link) [film] The Blindfolded Reformer at the Vortex with free Tito's vodka (Free, 7pm) (link) [books] Texas Monthly Bookclub presents Sarah Bird's The Flamenco Academy, hosted by Mike Shea at BookPeople (7pm) (link) [music] Awesome Cool Dudes, Daniel Francis Doyle, Zom......

Tired of “reality” reruns and box-office bombs? BookPeople offers an eclectic selection of alternatives. Thursday, June 22: Austin memoirist Spike Gillespie reads from her latest, Pissed Off: On Women and Anger. Publisher’s Weekly describes Pissed Off as an engaging and honest account that “transcends self-pity . . . as Gillespie progresses to talking about the nature of forgiveness and her increasingly calmer approach to life.” 7:00 p.m. (details) Friday, June 23: Amy Simmons of Amy’s......

MONDAY [12] [sports] World Cup Games at Alamo Village (Through 16th, 11am & 2pm) (link) [film] Labrynth at Alamo South (Through 16th, 1pm, Free) (link) [film] Baby Doll at Paramount Theatre (7pm) (link) [film] Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel at Alamo Downtown (7pm, $10) (link) [film] Blue Velvet at Rounders Pizzeria (8pm, Free) (link) [film] GoodFellas at Austin Java (8pm, Free) (link) [film] Rolling Roadshow: Nanny McPhee at San Marcos (8pm, Free) (link) [film] Stunt Rock......

Did the end of Bel Canto make you cry like it did us? Are you as interested in the friendship and literary relationship between Lucy Grealy and Ann Patchett as we? Do you like celebrating the works of a beautiful writer at dinner parties the way we do? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you will probably want to attend The Writers' League of Texas’ 1st Annual Award of Literary......