Posts by Inprint Staff

Inprint Staff

About Inprint Staff

The Inprint Staff is a bit nerdy, a bit quirky. They read too much, don't sleep enough, and love dark chocolate. But seriously, they are an all around great group of people. The staff include Executive Director Rich Levy, Associate Director Krupa Parikh, Development Director Ricardo Rivera, Communications Manager Ellie Mix, Business & Accounting Manager Ginnie Muller, and Inprint/UHCWP Intern Katie Edkins Milligan. If you come to Inprint events, you'll see them in action.

The Inprint 2015 Houstoncentric Holiday Book Buying Guide

December 22, 2015, by

As the holidays are literally hours away, Inprint has put together a Houstoncentric Holiday Book Buying Guide to help with that last minute gift buying—or to give your personal reading list a happy local boost.

Inprint shared this list during its monthly appearance on the Open Journal Radio Show on KPFT 90.1 FM, Houston’s Pacifica station. All the books on the list are written by current or former Houstonians (with one technical exception). Whether you are looking for a holiday gift or something good to read yourself, it’s always nice to try something published by a fellow Houstonian. Read and enjoy and happy holidays!

Whisper-HollowFINAL3Andrew Brininstool, Crude Sketches Done in Quick Succession (fiction)

Chris Cander, Whisper Hollow (fiction)

Tracy Daugherty, The Last Love Song: A Biography of Joan Didion (nonfiction)

Adam Day, Model of a City in Civil War (poetry)

Marisa de los Santos, The Precious One (fiction)

David Eagleman, The Brain: The Story of You (nonfiction) Continue reading →

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Word Around Town Celebrates 10 years with citywide poetry tour

July 31, 2015, by

11014968_978827775475073_8222462771485068992_nThis Sunday, the 10th anniversary season of Houston’s widely celebrated Word Around Town (WAT?!) Poetry Tour begins. The tour features seven straight nights of poetry in seven different venues across the city. The tour will feature 16 of Houston’s top poets and a select nightly feature.

The WAT?! Poetry Tour kicked-off its inaugural launch in the summer of 2006 with 12 poets. The tour’s purpose is twofold: 1) to introduce poets to venues they’ve never been to and 2) to expose audiences to poets they’ve never heard before. This year’s tour features  Kool B, Brother Said, Chris Crawford, Gerald Cedillo, Deep, Corina Delgado, Winston Derden, Marlon Lizama, Tracy Lyall, Jonathan Moody, Joshua Nguyen, Nyne, Bishop Ragtime, Bucky Rea, Roses, and Royal the Poet.

We had a chance to interview Lupe Mendez, Houston writer and one of the lead organizers of the tour.

INPRINT: How long have you been involved with WAT and how has being involved with it shaped you as a Houston writer?

LUPE: I have been one of the lead organizers for the tour for the last 7 years; with this tour, it marks my 8th year as an organizer.  I would say organizing has helped me push the limits of discipline in my own writing time. It’s been a good 5 years since I have held a spot in the line up and so getting to hear such amazing poetry from the featured poets encourages me to sharpen my words, it builds the excitement in my own writing.

Continue reading →

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Blue Sun, Yellow Sky: An Interview with Jamie Jo Hoang

June 29, 2015, by

Jamie Jo HoangWe are always thrilled when former students of Inprint Writers Workshops write us with the news that they’ve finished a book that they started in one of our classes. Jamie Jo Hoang is one such young writer, and her self-published book Blue Sun, Yellow Sky, is about an artist who develops a condition which will rapidly lead to blindness, and her journey to accept her condition. The book is available locally at Brazos Bookstore. Inprint asked Jamie Jo to tell us more about herself and her writing.

Inprint: Please tell us how you got your start in creative writing.

Jamie Jo Hoang (JH): For most of my life I have been a listener. I listened to the stories my grandmother told while she chewed tobacco on the front stoop of our small apartment building in Orange County. I listened to the stories my parents told of their escape during the Vietnam War. And I heard the stories of others come to life in books I found at the local library when I was kid. Then during my freshman year of college at UCLA, I applied for admission to the School of Film and Television, and it was there that I really learned the craft of creative writing.  I continued taking writing classes after college and Blue Sun, Yellow Sky began in an Inprint class taught by Aja Gabel. That Inprint class is also where I met two of my best friends (a.k.a. my creative writing soundboards) Shawn and Ellen. Continue reading →

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A host of literary activities planned for Comicpalooza 2015

May 18, 2015, by

Comicpalooza 2015 logoFor those of us who have a passion for the written word, we think of the books we’ve read over our lifetime that helped inspire this passion in us. As kids we began reading classic children’s books, then moved on to middle-grade page-turners, and as adults we developed our own areas of reading interests.

For many of us however, the passion for good stories comes from a variety of sources, such as graphic novels, comics, screenplays, as well as short stories and novels encompassing a wide variety of genres.  Houston’s annual Comicpalooza convention—which returns for the sixth year to the George R. Brown Convention Center on Memorial Day weekend, May 22 – 25, 2015—celebrates this fact. This popular convention, which has a host of literary activities planned, is expected to attract 45,000 people.

We talked to Vijay Kale, the curator of the literary activities, who shared more information about the convention with us.

INPRINT: Vijay, what initiated Comicpalooza to add a literary track of activities? Was it someone on the planning committee, was it feedback you received from the public, or was it something you conceived of?

VIJAY: The George R. Brown Convention Center enables Comicpalooza to use 1.1 million square feet of exhibit space to offer a wide range of events and content.  The ability to provide more than 2,200 hours of programming allowed for a Literary Track to include more than 50 literary panels and writers. We are extremely proud of the local and national talent assembled, which includes many well-known Texas-based writers as well as national best-selling authors. This year’s guest list and programming is the best so far, and we hope to further improve by including more professional writers and local organizations. Continue reading →

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Physician turned writer, Michael Lieberman talks about his work

January 19, 2015, by

mwl-head-shot-color-1 copy 2This month Mike Lieberman, Houston poet and novelist, came out with his third novel, The Women of Harvard Square. We caught up with Mike this week to talk to him about his prolific writing life.

For those of you who do not know him, in addition to his literary accomplishments, Mike is a former research physician who chaired the department of pathology at Baylor College of Medicine for many years and was also the founding director of The Houston Methodist Hospital Research Institute. He is a member of the Inprint Advisory Board and on the Board of The Jung Center of Houston. A graduate of Yale College, he received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Mike is warm and engaging and he will talk about The Women of Harvard Square and sign copies this Thursday at The Jung Center, 5200 Montrose, at 5:45 pm. The reading is open to the public.

Inprint: Tell us a little bit about The Women of Harvard Square and how it compares to your other novels. Continue reading →

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Not Yo’ Mama’s Poetry!

May 16, 2014, by

If you still have nightmares about interpreting The Rime of the Ancient Mariner for your seventh grade English teacher, come conquer your fear of poetry and hear what hip young poets are writing these days.

There is a ton of fresh, smart, and diverse poetry coming from Houston poets and it’s exciting to see. Inprint is proud that the four University of Houston Creative Writing Program PhD candidates who will be reading their poetry Monday night—Beth Lyons, David Tomas Martinez, Karyna McGlynn, and Justine Post—are good friends of the organization and the Houston reading and writing community. The free reading takes place Monday, May 19, 7 pm at Brazos Bookstore, Houston’s fine independent bookseller, 2421 Bissonnet.

All four poets have participated in Inprint’s Poetry Buskers program, which sends poets out to write poetry on demand (on a typewriter!) at Houston festivals and other public events. Justine and Karyna have each won the Inprint Paul Verlaine Prize in Poetry; David Tomas was one of the three pre-dinner readers at this year’s Inprint Poets & Writers Ball and will be teaching an Inprint Writers Workshop this summer; and Beth is currently working part-time at Inprint! We are also happy to report that all four are wonderful poets whose work yields many riches.

Here’s a short poem we promise you’ll understand from David Tomas Martinez’s just released book of poetry, Hustle, along with bios of each of the poets who will read Monday night

HustleScientifically Speaking

There have
been exciting

discoveries
in the field

of me.
Many

of which,
I have

made
myself. Continue reading →

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Houstonians celebrate National Poetry Month in fun and exciting ways throughout April

April 15, 2014, by

As most of us in the literary world know, April is National Poetry Month. It is that cheery time of year when we pay tribute to the world of poetry and the people who write great poems. Poets do not traditionally receive the level of book sales, media coverage, and public popularity that other writers do, so I would say they truly deserve a month dedicated to celebrating their unique brilliance.

Anne Carson credit Peter SmithHouston is brimming with poetry activity all month long and if you venture out every once in a while, you will find it difficult not to stumble upon a poetic activity or two. For Inprint, the superstar Anne Carson will be closing out the 2013/14 Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series on April 28th. Michael Ondaatje says Anne Carson is “the most exciting poet writing today.” Houstonians are definitely excited about her reading, with less than a hundred tickets left, Carson is evoking fan girl enthusiasms from poetry lovers. We plan on giving her fans exactly what they want. Unlike other Inprint readings, Carson will be taking the stage by herself, reading and perhaps talking about her poems. She will forgo an on-stage interview. For more information click here.

typewriter for eblastsOn a more local level, Inprint was proud to have the Inprint Poetry Buskers out and about last weekend at UH Mitchell Center’s CounterCurrent Festival. If you haven’t experienced the Inprint Poetry Buskers yet, stay tuned, you’ll be seeing them more and more. They write poems on demand for free using typwriters for anyone who stops by to visit them at festivals and other events. For those who feel that poetry isn’t for them, wait until someone writes you your very own poem! Catch them next at the Menil Community Arts Festival May 3rd .

WITS imageOur friends at Writers in the Schools (WITS) have had a very busy month. WITS celebrates National Poetry Month through the words of Houston students. Executive Director and poet Robin Reagler says, “We publish a poem a day on our blog, and it airs on KPFT also. We are distributing poetry postcards at over 100 Houston locations. We are sponsoring a poetry contest  for kids with cool prizes that include a TV appearance and amazon.com gift cards.” If you want to spread the joy of poetry to your kids, WITS has you covered. Continue reading →

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Writers, Opera, and Chitra Divakaruni’s River of Light

March 21, 2014, by

RIVER-art-newWhen we think of writers and the different mediums through which they share stories, we think of novels, memoirs, poems, perhaps even oral traditions. But do you ever think of opera?

Houston has a thriving literary community and one of the many ways writers are enhancing the cultural life of this city is through serving as librettists for the Houston Grand Opera.

The comingling of writers with the Opera has been going on for several years and Inprint is proud to be a part of it. In 2006, the Houston Grand Opera approached Inprint to identify a Houston writer who could develop and write a unique libretto for a main stage piece celebrating Houston’s diversity. The overall project was called “Song of Houston,” and the piece—for soloists, chorus, and orchestra—was called The Refuge. The writer was to spend months interviewing dozens of people in six different Houston immigrant communities, and then distill these stories into a libretto portraying the struggles to get to this country and adjust to life here in the United States. Inprint recommended Leah Lax, a UH Creative Writing Program (UH CWP) alumna, on the basis of her work teaching senior citizens for Inprint, and the piece was a great success, resulting in a major write-up in The New York Times.

Since then, Inprint has connected HGO with several Houston writers who have written libretti for original works commissioned by HGO, including Farnoosh Moshiri (The Bricklayer), Irene Keliher (A Way Home, a bilingual opera), Janine Joseph (From my Mother’s Mother), and Bao Long Chu (Bound)—all UH CWP alumni. Inprint also worked with the HGO staff to select Houston writers to teach writing workshops to senior citizens in the Third and Fifth Wards, which resulted in poems set to music by composers at UH and Rice—these teachers were also UH CWP graduate students. As a result of this partnership, Inprint Executive Director Rich Levy now serves on the HGO Community Outreach (HGOco) Committee, where he is helping the HGO staff to envision future collaborations with Houston area writers.

Now HGO is building on its success and continues to work with the city’s top writers.

As part of its Song of Houston: East + West series, HGOco is presenting River of Light with the libretto written by Houston writer Chitra Divakaruni. Amongst the literary community here, Chitra is a household name. Chitra, an American Book Award winner and faculty member at the UH Creative Writing Program, is the author of novels, short stories, and poems, including her latest novel Oleander Girl. Continue reading →

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Mat Johnson talks about his upcoming interview with George Saunders

January 21, 2014, by

saunders1On Monday we are thrilled to be presenting George Saunders as part of the 2013/2014 Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series. Tickets for his reading sold out very quickly and those who don’t have tickets are kicking themselves for not buying tickets sooner. So what is it about George Saunders that makes him for so many people the writer of the moment?

Mat JohnsonWe thought it would be best to ask Mat Johnson a few questions. Mat is the author of the novels Pym, Drop, and Hunting in Harlem; the nonfiction novella The Great Negro Plot; and the graphic novels Incognegro and Dark Rain. He’s a faculty member at the UH Creative Writing Program and will be conducting the on-stage interview of Saunders on Monday night. A big thanks to Mat for taking the time to talk to us.

Inprint: What was the first thing you read by George Saunders?

Mat Johnson: Pastoralia. It was one of those books that everyone told me I should read because it was so brilliant, and I assumed by that they meant it’s boring-but-smart-enough-that-you-blame-yourself. I bought it, put it off for a while, then when I finally picked it up, I kicked myself for not doing so sooner. It is a great thing when something lives up to its hype, and even surpasses it. This book did that for me. Not just smart and original, but entertaining, engaging. Continue reading →

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Talking to David Berg: A Brother and his Book

June 28, 2013, by

Run Brother RunLast Friday, Brazos Bookstore was packed as Houston lawyer David Berg read from his new book Run, Brother, Run: A Memoir of a Murder in My Family. The standing-room-only crowd listened intently as David read the foreword and took questions from the audience. The memoir focuses on the murder of his brother Alan Berg by hit man Charles Harrelson (father of actor Woody Harrelson) in Houston in the late 60s.

The memoir has been receiving significant local and national attention. The Houston Press recently included Berg in a story about “Houston’s Top 10 Authors” and the New York Times wrote, “What is remarkable about the book, though, is Mr. Berg’s writing. He elegantly brings to life the rough-and-tumble boomtown that was 1960s-era Houston, and conveys with unflinching force the emotional damage his brother’s death did to his family.”

We had the opportunity to catch up with David and ask him a few questions.

INPRINT: Could you talk about how you came to write this memoir after having kept this traumatic event in your life mostly a secret for so many decades? I imagine the process was incredibly difficult. Was it also in some ways therapeutic?

DAVID: With the book finished and a little perspective, I think I wanted to tell my brother’s story for a very long time but wasn’t conscious of it.  For four decades I rarely talked about Alan and even less about how he died.  Then, on vacation in the early nineties, I watched an astonishingly large flock of geese—so many that dusk turned dark—flying along paths that had been charted for them over millions of years and thought of how little choice they had about the direction they flew—and then I started thinking about Alan, and how much of his life, too, was predetermined, and maybe, too, his death. And all those memories came bursting through the barrier his violent death had created.  Continue reading →

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