They don't know what it is. The whole idea is that this is an opportunity for local booksellers and libraries and schools and institutions and so on to do something. We can't do it for them. We just provide an occasion. The cause of the debate has been variously attributed to miscommunication, institutional bias, or Austin-centric boosterism, but the root problem may be bafflement on the part of many about what exactly TIL does.
Nobody knows what it is.
Holland is the former curator of the Southwestern Writers Collection at Southwest Texas State University and an advisory board member for the Texas Book Festival. Holland's comment indirectly alludes to the crossroads Texas Writers Month stands at in its fifth year. Of course, writing is a solitary craft, and many writers like it that way, preferring not to be recognized and brought out of their working environs. Larry Wright must have a more complete perspective than any Texas writer on how that tricky dynamic of recognizing writers and yet leaving them to their own devices operates. In the fall of 1993, Wright first set in motion the discussions that would lead to establishment of Texas Writers Month.