The Big Texas Read - Gemini Ink

A Celebration of our State’s Big Appetite for Literature brought to you by Writing Workshops Dallas and Gemini Ink.

A Free Monthly Online Reading Series from Writing Workshops Dallas & Gemini Ink
(Zoom Meetings Monthly @ 7pm CST; RSVP for Zoom invite)

THE PITCH

Unplug from the outside world and JOIN us at The Big Texas Read (TBTR) brought to you by Writing Workshops Dallas and Gemini Ink. As featured in Poets&Writers, Forbes, The Dallas Morning News, San Antonio Express-News, U.S. News & World Report, San Francisco Chronicle, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Houston Chronicle, and Texas Highways, we’ll be reading one work of prose or poetry written by a Texas author every month—with Zoom author chats and Q&A’s. It’s a big virtual book club and we’d love for you to join us!

RSVP

November 16th, 2022 via Zoom @ 7PM CST

Up Next: We’ll be in conversation with Daniel Peña about his novel, Bang. We’ll also have a discussion on the craft and business of writing.

About Bang

An undocumented Mexican family living in South Texas is torn apart when a son inadvertently becomes involved with narcotraficantes in Daniel Peña’s debut novel that explores contemporary issues of immigration, border life and international drug smuggling.

Winner, 2019 NACCS Tejas Foco Fiction Award

In the Margins’ 2019 Advocacy/Social Justice Award Finalist — Judges “NACCS & In the Margins”

“Peña examines the symbiosis of the United States and Mexico and makes painfully clear the negative effects of international trade, legal and illegal. This is a notable and compassionate novel.” — Reviewer “Publishers Weekly”

“Peña provides a window into the struggles of immigrants on the border as well as the violent drug war fueling the migration. A piercing tale of lives broken by border violence.” — Reviewer “Kirkus Reviews”

“Bang is such a timely novel that offers devastating insights into how communities adapt to severe shifts in culture and society.” — Reviewer “NBC Latino”

“Daniel Peña’s debut novel reminds me of a bantamweight boxer. Lean and compact, it is packed with energy, ready to land blow after punch after jab on any reader who dares to underestimate it.” — Texas Observer

“Peña uses his prodigious gift for detail to take us inside the horrors that befall this family as a result of the fateful flight that started as a dare between brothers. Bang is a grim yet gripping debut that hinges on the desperate hope of its characters.” — Austin American-Statesman

About Daniel Peña

Daniel Peña is a Pushcart Prize-winning writer and Assistant Professor. Formerly, he was based out of the UNAM in Mexico City, where he worked as Fulbright-Garcia Robles Scholar. A graduate of Cornell University and a former Picador Guest Professor in Leipzig, Germany, his writing has appeared in Ploughshares, The Rumpus, the Kenyon Review, Texas Monthly, NBC News, and The New York Times Magazine. He’s currently a regular contributor to The Guardian and the Ploughshares blog. His novel, Bang, is out now from Arte Publico Press. He lives in the beautiful Dallas-Fort Worth area.

UPCOMING AUTHORS AND TITLES

December 14th: Tomas Q.Morin, Let Me Count The Ways
January 2023: Allison Hedge Coke
February 2023: Vincent Cooper
March 2023: Leticia Urrieta
April 2023: Steve Adams
May 2023: Andrew Porter
June 2023: Richard Z. Santos

PREVIOUS AUTHORS AND TITLES

Alexander Essbaum’s Hausfrau: A Novel
Carmen Tafolla and illustrator Regina Moya, The Last Butterfly
Laurie Ann Guerrero, I Have Eaten the Rattlesnake
Alexandra van de Kamp, Ricochet Script
Wondra Chang, Sonju
Johnnie Bernhard, Sisters of the Undertow
Barbara Ras,The Blues of Heaven
Mike Soto, A Grave is Given Supper
Deb Olin Unferth, Barn 8
Marisol Cortez, Luz At Midnight
Sergio Troncoso, A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant’s Son
Edward Vidaurre, Pandemia & Other Poems
Octavio Quintanilla, If I Go Missing
Sherry Kafka Wagner, Hannah Jackson
Nan Cuba, Body and Bread
Cliff Hudder, Pretty Enough for You
Rebekah Manley, Alexandra and the Awful, Awkward, No Fun, Truly Bad Dates A Picture Book Parody for Adults
Jenny Browne, Fellow Travelers: New and Selected Poems (TCU Poet Laureate Series)
Amanda Eyre Ward, The Jetsetters
Heather Harper Ellett, Ain’t Nobody Nobody.
Andrea Vocab Sanderson, She Lives in Music
Antonio Ruiz-Camacho: Barefoot Dogs
Poet Wendy Barker: Gloss
Debut Novelist Fowzia Karimi: Above Us the Milky Way
Edgar-winning novelist Joe R. Lansdale: Edge of Dark Water
Winner of the Iowa Prize for Nonfiction Kendra Allen: When You Learn the Alphabet
2020 Texas Poet Laureate Emmy Pérez: With The River on Our Face
New York Times Bestselling Author Kathleen Kent: The Dime & The Burn
Critically Acclaimed Novelist David Samuel Levinson: Tell Me How This Ends Well

PARTNER BOOKSTORES

We’re grateful to partner with independent bookstores Interabang Books in Dallas and The Twig Book Shop in San Antonio for The Big Texas Read. Order your book directly from either bookstore and have it delivered to your front door!

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A Celebration of our State’s Big Appetite for Literature brought to you by Writing Workshops Dallas and Gemini Ink.

November 16th, 2022 via Zoom @ 7PM CST

Up Next: We’ll be in conversation with Daniel Peña about his novel, Bang. We’ll also have a discussion on the craft and business of writing.

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