Playwright and filmmaker David Mamet will appear at UT's Hogg Auditorium on Monday, February 4th for a discussion of his work with the Austin Chronicle's Robert Faires. The event is the first of several appearances by Mamet at UT in conjunction with the acquisition of his archives by the Harry Ransom Center....

The death toll from the cyclone that hit Bangladesh is over 3,000 now; the UN says a million people have been left homeless. We're (*cough*) so surprised: Austin named the fall allergy capital of the nation. Alberto Gonzales didn't have an easy time speaking at the University of Florida last night. After child workers were found at one of their factories in India, Gap is determined to improve working conditions there. US Military calls......

Logo from Austin Jewish Book Fair Keynote Lecture: "Iraq, Al Qaeda, and the Future of Israel" with Jeffrey Goldberg and Lawrence WrightSunday, November 11Jewish Community Association of Austin (7300 Hart Lane)7:30pm, $12 Gen Ad, $10 Students/Seniors/JCC Members[info] | [tickets] Austin Graphics and Comics Night with Paul Benjamin and Terry and Patty LaBanThursday, November 8Barnes and Noble Westlake (701 S. Capital of Texas)7:30pm, Free[info]Less than four days are left in the 2007 Austin Jewish Book Fair,......

Chris Garcia over at Austin360 has the scoop on an open casting call for the upcoming film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Road. They're looking for "white boys, ages 7-10, with a thin/slight build"—presumably this is to cast the role of the young son in the story, who accompanies his father (to be played by Viggo Mortensen) as they make their way across a ravaged post-apocalyptic America. The casting call will take......

We hate it when things end. Seriously. We cry at funerals (end of life), weddings (end of freedom), heck we even cried at the end of the last Harry Potter book for no other reason that that it was all over. Needless to say, we are all sadfaced at the moment because our favorite excuse to sit on our rear ends all summer is coming to a close this week. Yep, that's right, the Paramount......

The Writers' League of Texas will be honoring author Lawrence Wright on September 21st with the 3rd Annual Award of Literary Merit. The award seeks to recognize individuals who "embody the League's mission of promoting literacy and elevating the art of writing." The first two Awards of Literary Merit were bestowed upon Sarah Bird (2006) and Anne Patchett (2005). Currently a staff writer for The New Yorker, Lawrence Wright has authored several books as well......

It's an odd proposition, but according to Michael Kimmelman, New York Times' chief art critic, there are striking parallels between museums and department stores as "institutions of social change." He's in Austin this afternoon to present his argument, which will also examine the role of commerce in today's museums. A finalist for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize in criticism, Kimmelman has authored several books on art and art history. Notable works include “Portraits: Talking with Artists......

The Harry Ransom Center at UT is announcing today that they have acquired the archives of American playwright David Mamet. These archives include journals, manuscripts and drafts of each of the acclaimed writer's plays and screenplays. David Mamet, writer of such works as "Glengarry Glen Ross", The Untouchables, and Wag the Dog, will also come to UT for a series of short residencies over the next four years. In a letter to the Ransom Center......

It was announced today that Austin-based scribe Lawrence Wright was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction. This is not the only award his book, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, has won, but it is one of the more illustrious honors it has received. Wright is currently a staff writer for the New York Times New Yorker, has written for Texas Monthly, and helped pen the screenplay for the Denzel......

Meet Suzan-Lori Parks, winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize in Theatre for the fantastic Topdog/Underdog. She’s the author of numerous other plays that are invariably full of dazzling dialogue and original music, and obsessed with history. Parks spent part of her childhood in West Texas, where she set her debut novel, Getting Mother’s Body (2003) and where, she swears, she really enjoys visiting in summer. She’ll be at the Paramount tonight at 7:30 pm, to......

MONDAY [15] [music] The Wood Brothers Featuring Chris Wood of Medeski Martin & Wood at Stubb's (link) [music] Wood Brothers at Waterloo Records (Free, 5pm) (link) [music] El Ten Eleven at Cactus Café (Free, 8:30pm) (link) [film] Taxi Driver at Austin Java (8pm, FREE) (link) [film] Soma at Café Mundi (8pm, FREE) (link) [film] Anime Monday at Ventana del Sol (7:30pm) (link) [film] American Beer with Amazing Beer Sampling (Sold Out) at Alamo Downtown (7pm)......

What they say about judging a book by its cover is true. Don’t do it! The late Wendy Wasserstein’s first and only novel, Elements of Style, has a pretty pink cover that looks like a neatly-wrapped gift and invites the viewer to tear into it with excited anticipation about the goodies inside. Only, what’s inside that pretty pink cover is shallow, overdone, contrived, and very disappointing. At least in our humble opinion. Elements of......

*Congratulations to reader Jenny Miller, winner of the ticket giveaway.* Next Tuesday night, Spark: KLRU's Engaging Speaker Series will feature hip-hop pioneer and social activist Chuck D, along with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Leonard Pitts. UT professor S. Craig Watkins, author of Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Popular Culture, and the Struggle for the Soul of a Movement, will lead the discussion. *Ticket Giveaway Alert:* We're giving away a pair of tickets to go be part......

The 2006 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced today, with UT's David M. Oshinsky, George Littlefield Professor of American History, garnering the prestigious History prize for "a distinguished book upon the history of the United States." Said book was Polio: An American Story, what Publishers Weekly hailed as "an edifying description of one of the most significant public health successes" in our country's time. Congrats, Professor! Other winners included Geraldine Brooks for March (Fiction), the Staff......

We hate to whine, but sometimes writing reviews can be really difficult. You'd think it'd be the negative reviews we'd struggle with, but nope. It's the glowingly positive ones. This explains our delay in getting our thoughts about Hyde Park Theatre's current production, The Glory of Living, onto paper. Or rather, ether. We liked this production so much that we're a little tongue-tied. We keep asking ourselves, "Where to start?" Part of us wants......

August Wilson, "Theater's Poet of Black America", passed away yesterday after a brief fight with liver cancer. He was 60. Wilson, whom we profiled back in June, was the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of a ten-piece, decade-by-decade exposition of the twentieth century as experienced by African Americans - from dealing with extraordinary obstacles like race relations, segregation, and the suffrage movement, to the banalities of daily life. Most recently the Pro Arts Collective performed Wilson's......

This weekend is your last opportunity to see Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson's "King Hedley II" at the State Theatre. More than merely garnering every theatre-related prize under the sun - we count several Pulitzers, a Tony, and the New York Drama Critics' Circle award just at a glance - Wilson is one of America's most perceptive playwrights and, through his works, a historian of African American life. His impressive body of work, most......