Five Texas writers will take the stage at The Grace Museum at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 19, to share their intimate perspectives and insights about Larry McMurtry, the internationally acclaimed novelist, screenwriter, and bookseller who died in 2021.

            The event, “Fellow Writers on the Life and Legacy of Larry McMurtry,” is being presented by Texas Star Trading Company and The Grace Museum. The program is free to the public.

            The five writers featured at the Grace are among 38 who contributed essays and

stories to a new book about McMurtry, Pastures of the Empty Page, published by the

University of Texas Press ($29.95 hardcover). The book will be available for purchase

and signing.

            Speakers are:

            George Getschow, a Wall Street Journal writer and Pulitzer Prize finalist who organized and edited the collection. He founded and remains the director of Archer City Writers Workshop in McMurtry’s hometown.

            Stephen Harrigan, a writer-at-large for Texas Monthly and the author of 13 books of fiction and nonfiction, including the best-selling novel The Gates of the Alamo.

            Kathryn Jones, a journalist, poet, and author of a forthcoming biography of Ben Johnson, who won an Academy Award for his supporting role as Sam the Lion in The Last Picture Show.

            Beverly Lowry, the author of six novels and five works of nonfiction, including her latest book, Dee Creek Drive: A Reckoning of Memory and Murder in the Mississippi Delta.

            Joe Specht, emeritus director of Jay-Rollins Library at McMurry University and author of The Women There Don’t Treat You Mean: Abilene in Song.

Praise for Pastures of the Empty Page:

More than three dozen writers contemplate the legacy of Texas’s most beloved author. . . a moving tribute.

~Andrew Graybill, Texas Monthly.

This book is part eulogy, part memoir, part literary criticism. All of it is absorbing.

~Michael Barnes, Austin American-Stateman

Pastures of the Empty Page is essential reading for both writers and readers. It should be on the bookshelf of everyone who values words, who appreciates insight and unexpected revelations, and who loves Larry McMurtry. As a bonus, it is brilliantly written. 

~Luis Alberto Urrea, author of Good Night, Irene

No Texas man of letters loomed larger than Larry McMurtry. This wonderful encomium from friends and admirers gets at the peculiar magic behind McMurtry's long and incredibly eclectic career as a celebrated novelist, screenwriter, bibliophile, and student of the American West.

~Hampton Sides, author of Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West

A brilliant and insightful collection of essays and personal recollections about one of America’s most important writers. Honest, funny, and compelling: this will go down as one of our great literary histories.

~Philipp Meyer, author of The Son

The elegiac remembrances offer intimate glimpses into McMurtry’s life (collaborator Diana Ossana recalls the “emotional breakdown” he suffered after a heart attack), with no shortage of surprises. . . . McMurtry’s fans will want to track this down.

~Publishers Weekly

A conclave of writers gathers to consider the late Larry McMurtry (1936-2021). . . . Sprinkled with surprising revelations, this is a good collection for every McMurtry fan’s library.

~Kirkus