This year’s “Brazos Valley Reads” will take place on April 10, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. This event will be held on the Texas A&M Campus at the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center.
This event is organized by the Texas A&M English Department. However, this event is intended to be a holistic community effort, and it has only been so successful in the past because of the extensive support and group effort from various groups both on and off the Texas A&M Campus.
“Brazos Valley Reads” started up back in 2005, with hopes of bridging the gap between members of the TAMU community and the rest of the Brazos Valley community. For the past 13 years, “Brazos Valley Reads” has invited internationally recognized authors to participate in this special event, through public readings and meet and greets with members of the community.
“Brazos Valley Reads” plans on bringing back an alumni to be the featured author this Spring. Joy Castro will be joining us here in Aggieland this April 9 to 11.
Joy Castro is a professor of English and Ethics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is the author of two thriller novels, among other works, and her featured works for this event will be a short story collection paired with an essay collection. Castro’s fiction collection “How Winter Began” and her non-fiction essay collection “Island of Bones” will be featured.
“Island of Bones” is a raw collection of personal essays that show Castro’s experiences growing up as an adopted Latina girl in a land full of Jehovah’s witnesses. “How Winter Began” is a delicate collection of stories all centering around the omnipresent theme of whether to trust someone after the burn of betrayal.
Her novels have won awards with the Nebraska Book Award, and Castro was the winner of the International Latino Book Award for Most Inspirational Nonfiction Book.
Come on out and support “bridging the gap” between the Aggie community and the residential. This event is also sponsored and organized by Barnes & Noble Bookstore, Blinn College, College of Liberal Arts, Clara B. Mounce Public Library, The Eagle, Larry J. Ringer Public Library, Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research and the Women’s Resource Center. It seems as if the whole community has really come together in support of this educational and unique literary event.
Come out and listen to an award-winning teacher and read some award-winning novels that she wrote and published. There will be a meet and greet after Castro’s program, so book fans (or just fellow writers like myself) head on over for an awesome encounter with a professional.
For more information about this event or Castro’s visit in particular feel free to contact brv@tamu.edu.
