Event Type : Book Presentation

Join us for the Dallas launch of Once Wild, the debut short story collection by s b del llano. The evening will feature a reading and conversation with writers Susan Ayotte Norman and LaToya Watkins, followed by cake and a book signing.

Once Wild, published by High Frequency Press, is a collection of literary fiction exploring identity, survival, and the universal dimensions of humanity. Moving across cultures and landscapes, these stories examine what it means to endure, transform, and remain connected to the wildness within us.

About the participants

s b del llano was raised among Indigenous peoples and multicultural communities in the mountains, foothills, and jungles of Colombia. He moved to the United States at seventeen to pursue his education, earning a BA in literature in Chicago, a Master of Liberal Arts at Southern Methodist University, and a PhD in Humanities and Writing at the University of Texas at Dallas. A writer, poet, and educator, his fiction, poetry, and nonfiction have appeared in The New Guard, Sojourn, Hindsight Journal, and Reunion: The Dallas Review. He lives in Dallas and New York City.

Susan Ayotte Norman is a fiction writer from Dallas and holds a PhD from the University of Texas at Dallas in Narrative Theory and American Literature. She teaches Academic Writing and leads the Hilltop Scholars Program at Southern Methodist University. Her short fiction has appeared in TLR: The Literary Review and the anthology Her Texas: Story, Image, and Song, and has been featured in Short Edition’s international short story vending machines.

LaToya Watkins is the award-winning author of two books. Her short story collection, Holler, Child, was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the Reading the West Book Award and the Writers’ League of Texas Book Award in Fiction. Her debut novel, Perish, was published to great acclaim in 2022. Her writing has appeared in A Public Space, The Sun, McSweeney’s, and Kenyon Review, among other publications.

This event is free and open to the public.

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Join us for an evening with Dallas artist Brad Ford Smith celebrating Where To Find A Ghost, a collection of local stories of calamity and mayhem paired with Smith’s signature India and walnut ink drawings.

Rather than recreating scenes from the past, Smith depicts these Dallas locations as they appear today, inviting us to reflect on time, memory, and how sites of great tragedy can change in perception without losing their significance.

About Brad Ford Smith

Brad Ford Smith is a visual artist and art conservator living in Dallas. His work explores a wide range of subjects, from the influence of dyslexia on visual perception to tongue-in-cheek pseudo-science exhibitions presented under the guise of the Nomadic Fungi Institute. His current practice focuses on drawing local places of historic and cultural significance that have often transformed into urban detritus.

Where To Find A Ghost, published by K.Co Press, is available as a standalone title and as part of Traces, a special set that also includes House Of Giller—drawings made over several years at the home of Smith’s friend, the late Dallas artist Susan Giller—and a new edition of Nine Days With LiHua, which chronicles his time cat-sitting a mysterious feline with a distinct point of view in New York City.

This event is free and open to the public.

Photography by James Khattak.

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Join us for a conversation with Karen Olsson about her new novel, Dear Thorns, with Dallas writer Sonia Smith.

About the book

In the South Texas ranchlands, wildlife researcher Lora spends her days tracking the elusive ocelot. An affair with a younger intern disrupts her carefully ordered life, while competing ambitions at the refuge test her dedication to conservation.

With humor and a keen eye for the landscape, Dear Thorns explores midlife desire, the distance between ideals and institutions, and the ways people and animals struggle to find room in a changing world.

About the speakers

Karen Olsson is the author of Dear Thorns, Waterloo, All the Houses, and The Weil Conjectures. Her debut novel, Waterloo, was a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway Award. A former editor of The Texas Observer, she has contributed to The New York Times Magazine, Slate, Bookforum, and Texas Monthly. She studied mathematics at Harvard and lives in Austin with her family.

Sonia Smith is a Dallas-based writer and two-time Livingston Award finalist whose reporting has appeared in Texas Monthly, The New York Times Magazine, Slate, and the Kyiv Post. Her profile of climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe was selected for The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2017.

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Join us for the Dallas launch of The River That Made Texas: A Forgotten History of the Trinity, with river historian Scot McFarlane, naturalist Ben Sandifer, and the Texas Rivers Protection Association.

A conversation and Q&A about the book will be followed by a signing and storytelling session with conservationists and river advocates, including the East Texas organization Save The Cutoff.

About the book

The Trinity has shaped Texas through flood and drought, commerce and conflict. In The River That Made Texas, Scot McFarlane follows the people who have called its banks home—from the Comanche and steamboat pilots to enslaved and free people, sharecroppers, and urban residents. Their stories reveal a river that has been both a route and a barrier to freedom, a source of livelihoods, and a force in the state’s economic and environmental history.

About the author

Scot McFarlane is a Maine-based river historian who grew up along the Trinity in East Texas and founded the Oxbow History Company. His work explores people’s relationships with rivers and streams, and has appeared in Environmental History, Southern History, Slavery and Abolition, and Texas publications. He previously worked with the American Historical Association and Historic New England’s Recovering New England’s Voices initiative.

About the speakers

Ben Sandifer is a Dallas author, photographer, and environmental advocate. A Certified Master Birder and Honorary Lifetime Texas Master Naturalist, he serves as a citizen scientist with the Texas Stream Team and as naturalist for the Dallas Hunting and Fishing Club.

Alexander Neal is a water resources professional and secretary of the Texas Rivers Protection Association. A former Dallasite now based near the Brazos River, he has worked across Texas as a park ranger, wildland firefighter, and water resources specialist.

Save The Cutoff is a nonprofit conservation organization founded in 2022 by hunters and fishermen in Henderson County. It works to restore public access to a historic section of the Old Trinity River and preserve its longstanding hunting and fishing traditions.

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Keltie Knight brings The Evil Genius Tour to Dallas for an evening of conversation, candid stories, and writing, moderated by Moll Anderson.

Built around the book’s invitation to stop shrinking yourself, the event makes room for ambition, big feelings, and the parts of ourselves we have been told are “too much.” Keltie will lead an expressive writing and manifestation workshop, followed by a conversation and audience Q&A.

This is a ticketed event. A pre-signed copy of the book is included with General Admission. VIP tickets also include a meet & greet, photo opportunity, personalized book signing, first choice of seats, and a swag bag.

Tickets are managed by the tour organizers through Eventbrite. Please check the ticket page for current availability and full details.

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