Brenda Ethridge Ferguson

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...

“April and May can be magnificent with birdsong and wildflowers and greenery gone crazy, and if good rains come in late August or September, as they often do, early fall can be a sort of verdant second spring before frosts turn red and blue and yellow and crisp.”
John Graves, From a Limestone Ledge

John Graves’ three books Goodbye to a River, Hard Scrabble, and From A Limestone Ledge brought him tremendous respect as a writer of nonfiction as well as Texas, national, and international awards...