2023 Boerne Book Festival celebrates life of Larry McMurtry

Book lovers in the Alamo City, you’ll want to mark your calendars for this event, and you won’t even have to travel that far. Boerne is set to host some of the best writers from across the state, including a few notables from the San Antonio area.

The Boerne Book Festival is officially set for October 7, hosting six discussions with 12 Texas authors. The first panel starts at 9:30 a.m. and the last starts at 2:30 p.m. Entry into the festival is free and book signings will be available for all authors. The festival takes place at the Boerne Main Plaza at 100 N. Main St., Boerne, TX 78006.

“We’re fortunate to have some great book festivals in Texas each year, and as a writer, I know you’re not supposed to pick favorites. But my goodness the folks in Boerne really make this one special,” said James Wade, author of Beasts of the Earth. “Everybody involved does a tremendous job to ensure the authors and attendees have a great time. The grounds are beautiful, it’s usually not 100-degrees (though we might put that to the test this year), and the lineups are always Texas-centric, which is sometimes missing at some of the bigger fests.”

Get to know the authors here:

Swann is the author of Olympus, Texas, the story of the Briscoe family in East Texas who come to a chaotic gathering in the style of a Greek tragedy.

“I’m thrilled to be in conversation with the amazingly talented Texas authors, Kim Garza and James Wade, and Becka Oliver of The Writers’ League of Texas,” Swann said. “Book festivals are such a fun way for authors and readers to be in conversation, and I think they are essential to strengthening book communities.”

Wade is the author of three novels — All Things Left Wild, River Sing Out, and Beasts of the Earth — all of which take a fresh look at the Western genre.

Garza published her first novel in 2022, The Last Karankawas. It’s a story that celebrates the diverse communities of Galveston in the lead up to Hurricane Ike.

“The Boerne Book Festival has been a gift to writers and readers in the Hill Country,” Garza said. “As a Uvalde native, I know how special literary events like these can be, ones that draw Texas book enthusiasts and families and authors together, especially in an area like ours. I’m thrilled to be part of the lineup this year, alongside so many writers I admire!”

Stuart Gibbs is a middle grade author who has published five bestselling series. He will be presenting on his works Spy School, Fun Jungle, Charlie Thorne, Moon Base Alpha, and The Last Musketeer.

The panel takes readers back to 1848 with Comanches, Captives, and Germans from Texas A&M University Press. The inspiration comes from Wilhelm Friederich, a German immigrant in Texas, who in the 1840s completed three drawings depicting “Comanches, Germans, a captive girl, a wagon train, the landscape and wildlife of the Texas Hill Country, and dynamic scenes of cultural contact.”

The drawings are considered precious windows into life on the frontier and the four authors in the book — UTSA’s Dr. Daniel J. Gelo and Dr. Christopher J. Wickham, C.B. “Hoppy Hopkins,” and Brynden E. Moore — use their knowledge of Comanche culture, German immigration, and Hill Country history to dissect their importance today.

Biologist David M. Hillis of the University of Texas paints a vivid picture of the Texas Hill Country in his book Armadillos to Ziziphus from UT Press. Pulling from five decades of experience, Hillis takes a diverse look at the natural beauty of one of Texas’ most beloved locations.

“My book is about enjoying the natural beauty of the Texas Hill Country,” Hillis said. “What better place is there to celebrate and appreciate the Texas Hill Country than from its ‘front porch’ in Boerne? I am looking forward to sharing information from my book with readers who want to experience, protect, restore, and learn more about the natural wonders of a place Texans love to visit, play, and live.”

The panel will hear from authors Jo-Ann Power and Cindy Bonner on the “challenges and joys of writing about women in war” for their respective books.

Power’s Heroic Measures follows Gwen Spencer, an American who travels to France and volunteers as a nurse during World War I. “Braving bombings and the madness of men crazed by the hell of war, she is stunned to discover one man she can love.”

“Nurturing our public libraries and our local authors inspires others to read and write,” Powers said. “In an age when many books, old and new, are under attack and hurting support for public libraries, the Boerne event shows our citizens that literacy is the foundation of democracy. But more than that, reading and writing are the joys of everyday life for each person, young and old.

Bonner’s For Love and Glory is the story of Lange DeLony, a South Texas crop duster, who in 1940 enlists with the Royal Air Force because the U.S. hasn’t joined WWII. Along the way he meets Canadian ferry pilot Allison “Mackie” MacLeod and the pair begin “a hasty war-time romance that turns into an intense love affair.”

“My now deceased in-laws lived in Boerne for many years so I feel a special connection to the town I watched grow from a small German hamlet in the 1970s to the bustling artistic community it is now,” Bonner said. “The Boerne Book Festival was already on my agenda even before I was invited to participate as a speaker. There’s magic in being surrounded by book lovers, people who are as passionate about reading and about books as you are.”

Authors Stephen Harrigan, W.K. Stratton, and Douglas Swanson will join George Getschow to discuss the legacy of Larry McMurtry. Getschow collected written works about McMurtry in his book Pastures of the Empty Page: Fellow Writers on the Life and Legacy of Larry McMurtry, which will be discussed at the festival.

“I’m looking forward to returning to the Boerne Book Festival, which is always lively, informal and navigable,” Harrigan said.

Harrigan, Stratton, and Swanson — published writers and experts on Texas history in their own right — all contributed to Getschow’s book and will lead the discussion on the creator of Lonesome Dove, The Last Picture Show, and dozens more classic Texas stories.

“(The festival) has a friendly, down-home feel to it. The pace is laid back, yet the participants are all extremely enthusiastic about books and literature,” Stratton said. “Excellent authors are on the program every year, and readers are able to meet them and get books signed without the long lines that occur at other festivals.”

Free wine and bourbon samples from Bending Branch Winery will also be available until they run out.