New Books
Gretchen Johnson understands small towns are big stages. In The Joy of Deception she shows us in well-crafted short stories the odd, the bored, and the trapped. As one of her characters says about a mop that absorbs all the water in a swimming pool, they “wish for that kind of magic” in their lives, and they wait for another life to begin, hoping renewal stands in the wings. Their moments of truth, great beauty and disappointment seep from the pages. —Jennifer Ravey, ThePickyGirl.com Appearances by Jan Seale is a collection of remarkable short stories by a master story-teller who is also a well-known poet. She is the Texas Poet Laureate for 2012. Cover Art by Irene Hardwicke Olivieri "Jan Seale writes stories with the insight, economy and impact of poetry. They are narrative, of course, with plots of simple things, the history and glory in a stained candlewick bedspread, the recovered joy of a favorite machine even when it is operated by another, the simple but rewarding and joyous life of someone unlike yourself, the folly of men trying to impress women. All ending in epiphany." —Robert Flynn, author of Jade: The Law |   The name of the student newspaper for Lamar University and Lamar Institute of Technology is University Press. Totally separate from Lamar University Press, the student publication is a first-rate university newspaper. |
