Sponsor San Antonio high schoolers to enjoy a lunchtime virtual event with Ben Fountain featuring an interview with Yvette Benavides, Professor of English and creative writing at Our Lady of the Lake University and host of Texas Public Radio’s Book Public podcast. Secretary Julián Castro will kick off the event with a warm welcome! This sponsorship includes a swag bag for each student with a signed copy of a book by Mr. Fountain and a boxed lunch or luncheon voucher. Inspire our high schoolers in these challenging times! Learn more about sponsorships HERE.

To thank the sponsors of our luncheon for SA high school students, we offer access to a special VIP Happy Hour with Ben Fountain and a line-up of San Antonio writers, including Patricia Portales, Andrew Porter, and more! Enjoy our signature cocktail—the “Fountain of Inspiration” or your beverage of choice—as you listen to a lively pre-event discussion!

Free Public Reading

Friday, April 16th 7-8:30 pm

Don’t miss this chance to get up close and personal with New York Times bestselling writer Ben Fountain. Known for his “wicked sense of humor” and “razor-sharp insight,” Fountain interrogates every aspect of American life, from presidential campaigns to NFL Sunday, food fads, and our media glorification of war.

A former practicing attorney, Ben Fountain is the author of Brief Encounters with Che Guevara, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award and the Barnes & Noble Discover Award for Fiction, and the novel Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, winner of the National Book Critics’ Circle Award and a National Book Award finalist. Adapted into a feature film by director Ang Lee, Billy Lynn has been called the “The Catch-22 of the Iraq War.” Fountain’s series of essays published in The Guardian on the 2016 U.S. presidential election became his 2018 masterpiece: Beautiful Country Burn Again. Fountain’s work has been translated into over twenty languages.

Featured Author
New York Times Bestselling Author Ben Fountain

Honorary Chair
Secretary Julián Castro

Moderator
San Antonio Express-News columnist Gilbert Garcia

Autograph Series Committee
Zinnia Bayardo, Lyn Belisle, Tiffany Jenkins, Steven G. Kellman, Patricia Portales, Andrew Porter, Patricia Pratchett, Barbara Ras, Bonnie Reed, Josie Seeligson, Alexandra van de Kamp, Eddie Vega

Autograph Series presents writers of national and international stature—many of them recipients of major prizes such as the Pulitzer or National Book Award—in free public performances followed by an audience Q&A and book signing. Ours is one of the few such series in the nation offered to the public at no cost. Autograph Series is partially supported by a ticketed colloquium luncheon with the visiting writer. Previous Autograph writers include Margaret Atwood, U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, Ha Jin, Edward P. Jones, Tim O’Brien, Grace Paley, Philip Levine, Luis Alberto Urrea, and Terrance Hayes, among others.

Thank you to Our 2021 Autograph Series Sponsors & Donors!