TEXAS STATE FACULTY Readings
Channel: Wittliff Collections
Date: 2014-06-11

Three Texas State University faculty authors read from their new work. Book signing to follow. Books will be available for purchase courtesy of the University Bookstore.

RENÉ LeBLANC  "WHERE THE BODY ENDS"
Despite loss, betrayal, and illness, LeBlanc's stories approach the reader with an honest heart and an open hand. Unsentimental living—for those forced to sell their plasma or lock themselves away at night as protection from their disabled children—happens where the body ends and the world begins. LeBlanc received her MFA in Creative Writing from Texas State, where she teaches in the English department and is a Student Learning Development Specialist for SLAC.

TOMÁS Q. MORÍN  "A LARGER COUNTRY"
Winner of the APR/Honickman Prize, Morín's poems are "as infectious and spooky and darkly humorous as the Brothers Grimm, as shapely and colloquial and eloquent as John Donne, and as skeptical and addicted to history-as-fable as Zbigniew Herbert." (Tom Sleigh, from the introduction) Morín was educated at Johns Hopkins University and Texas State, where he teaches literature and writing.

[NOT SHOWN] DONALD W. OLSON  "CELESTIAL SLEUTH: Using Astronomy to Solve Mysteries in Art, History, and Literature"
Called "...the leading practitioner of...'forensic astronomy'" by Smithsonian magazine, Olson calculates phases of the Moon, determines the positions of the planets and stars, and identifies celestial objects to crack mysteries, spark our imagination, and provide a better understanding of the skies. Olson received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California-Berkeley and studied galaxy structure at UT-Austin. A professor of Physics and Astronomy, he has been teaching at Texas State since the early 1980s. The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) announced February 19 that Texas State University physics professor Donald W. Olson is the 2014 recipient of the Klopsteg Memorial Lecture Award. The prestigious award places Olson in the company of such past winners as Neil deGrasse Tyson of the Hayden Planetarium and James E. Hansen of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. This award recognizes educators who have made notable and creative contributions to the teaching of physics.

The Wittliff Collections
Alkek Library, Texas State University-San Marcos
FEBRUARY 25, 2014