Brenda Ethridge Ferguson

Thomas, Louisa Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams 2016. 500 pp. Penguin Press ISBN 9781594204

In this biography of Mrs. John Quincy Adams, Louisa Thomas provides a front-seat, panoramic view of world-changing history within the scope of a woman’s personal story, a woman with hopes and dreams and, yet, a destiny, perhaps, she would not knowingly have chosen. It can appear that during this time, free men largely selected their paths—sometimes highly sacrificial paths—and women simply...

Literary Texas: Sandra Cisneros

I am a woman, and I am a Latina. Those are the things that make my writing distinctive. —Sandra Cisneros

In 2015, Texas State University’s Alkek Library acquired Sandra Cisneros’ literary archive. The archive, housed at the Wittliff Collections, includes manuscripts, correspondence, diaries, journals, and numerous other items pertaining to her life and work, a work which has long been the focus of many professors, scholars, and readers. Cisneros has said her hope...

Texas State University in San Marcos owns an interesting item, for an institution of higher learning, that is. It is an old, maple canoe paddle and is highly valued there. “The paddle, part of the university’s Wittliff Collections of papers and artifacts from Southwestern literature, was used by John Graves on a trip down the Brazos River in 1957. The book that resulted from that trip, Goodbye to a River, established Mr. Graves a giant in Texas letters and one of the nation’s more elegant...