Join us for a special evening with award-winning writer and part-time-Marathon-dweller Joe Holley. Joe will tell stories based on columns from his latest book, Native Texan: Stories from Deep in the Heart, and talk with attendees about Texas. He might also give us a sneak peek into what he’s got cooking next. We’ll serve light refreshments on the house and have copies of several of Joe’s books available for purchase.

Joe’s Bio: Joe Holley, a longtime columnist and editorial writer for the Houston Chronicle, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2017 and 2023 and a Pulitzer Prize winner in 2022. The author of six books that are mostly about Texas, he’s been an editorial-page editor in San Diego, Calif., a speechwriter for Gov. Ann Richards, a staff writer for The Washington Post and the Chronicle’s “Native Texan” columnist since 2013. An alumnus of Abilene Christian University, the University of Texas at Austin and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, his books include Slingin’ Sam: The Life and Times of the Greatest Quarterback Ever to Play the Game, Hurricane Season: The Unforgettable Story of the Houston Astros and the Resilience of a City; and Sutherland Springs: God, Guns and Hope in a Texas Town, published in 2020. Recipient of the 2021 Carr P. Collins Award, presented by the Texas Institute of Letters in recognition of the year’s best work of nonfiction, Sutherland Springs explores the aftermath of a mass shooting at a rural Baptist church on Nov. 5, 2017. He and his wife, Laura Tolley, a veteran journalist, live in Austin.