Lamar University’s 2010 Literary Festival will attract three award-winning writers to campus for events Feb. 1 and Feb. 22.
Authors Robert Flynn and Jean Flynn will read from their works at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 1, in the Dishman Art Museum Lecture Hall. They will attend a question-and-answer session at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 1 in Room 101 of the Maes Building.
On Monday, Feb. 22, short-story writer Andrew Geyer will present a reading at 7 p.m. in the Dishman Lecture Hall, with a question-and-answer session scheduled at 5:30 p.m. in Room 101 of the Maes Building.
“Robert Flynn, winner of the Lon Tinkle Award, given by the Texas Institute of Letters for lifetime achievement, is one of the most respected writers in Texas,” said festival coordinator Jim Sanderson, professor of English and writing director in the Department of English and Modern Languages. “Since the early ’60s, he has produced some of the best and funniest writing to come out of Texas. Jean Flynn is a match for her husband’s wit. She has put her talents to good use in a number of articles, essays and lectures. Most notably, she has written a series of lively and popular ‘histories’ for young adults.
“Andrew Geyer, raised on a Southwest Texas cattle ranch, is Texas to the bone,” said Sanderson. “His sometimes experimental, sometimes realistic fiction reveals his Texas roots. His acclaim is growing in the literary world.”
A native of the tiny Texas town of Chillicothe, Robert Flynn says his life and work “could be described as the search for morals, ethics, religion or at least a good story in Texas and lesser-known parts of the world.”
“He is coming to Lamar to find a good story, or maybe a preposition,” Sanderson said.
Robert Flynn is the author of eight novels: “North To Yesterday,” “In the House of the Lord,” “The Sounds of Rescue,” “The Signs of Hope,” “Wanderer Springs,” “The Last Klick,” “The Devil’s Tiger” (co-authored with the late Dan Klepper), “Tie-Fast Country” and “Echoes of Glory.” Other credits include a dramatic adaptation of Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying”; a non-fiction narrative, “A Personal War in Vietnam”; a memoir, “Burying the Farm”; an oral history, “When I Was Just Your Age” ; two story collections, “Seasonal Rain” and “Living With the Hyenas”; and two collections of essays, “Growing Up a Sullen Baptist” and “Slouching Toward Zion.” He is a past president and a fellow of the Texas Institute of Letters as well as a recipient of its Distinguished Achievement Award.
Jean Flynn, who is married to Robert Flynn, is the author of eight biographies for children in grades 4 through 7. Another, “Lady,” a biography of Claudia Alta (Lady Bird Johnson) is for young adults. Her most recent biography is “Ladies First: Women Who Dared to be Different.” Others include “Jim Bowie: A Texas Legend,” “William Barret Travis: Victory or Death!” “James Butler Bonham: The Rebel Hero,” “Stephen F. Austin: The Father of Texas,” “James W. Fannin: Remember Goliad!” “Anson Jones: The Last President of the Republic of Texas” and “Annie Oakley: A Legendary Sharpshooter.” Several magazines have published her articles. She retired after 31 years in public education, so she would have more time to research and write. In addition to writing, she conducts workshops for librarians, teachers and writers and is active in authors’ visits to schools. The Flynns live in San Antonio.
Geyer is also is an educator as well as a writer, now serving as an assistant professor of English at the University of South Carolina-Aiken. His third story cycle, “Siren Songs from the Heart of Austin,” has just been published by Ink Brush Press. Geyer’s first novel was “Meeting the Dead” (University of New Mexico Press, 2007). His debut cycle, “Whispers in Dust and Bone” (Texas Tech University Press, 2003) won the silver medal for short fiction in the Forward Magazine Book of the Year Awards competition and was named a finalist for the John Gardner Fiction Book Award. One of the stories in the collection won the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America as the best work of short fiction published in 2003. Geyer was recently named Featured Fiction Writer for the 2010 Batchelor Emerging Writers Series at Barton College in Wilson, N.C.
Geyer was born in Austin and grew up on a working cattle ranch. He lived in Austin in the 1980s and ’90s, along with stints in South Carolina, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Lubbock. A lover of the outdoors and an avid runner and canoeist, Geyer has traveled extensively in North, Central and South America, as well as Europe and North Africa.
The Lamar Literary Festival is sponsored by the office of the provost, the Department of English and Modern Languages and Sigma Tau Delta international English honor society. Several books by Robert Flynn (most under $25) and two books by Geyer ($20) will be available for purchase and signing by the authors. Additional information is available from Sanderson at (409) 880-8559, email jim.sanderson@lamar.edu.
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