LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE
is published weekly online and via free digital subscription. Upcoming events and breaking news are also published on our Facebook page.
Our Texas staff
Our team—all based here in the Lone Star State—bring nearly a combined century of experience in books, publishing, news, marketing, and business experience. And we draw on contributing writers who are tops in their fields.
Kristine Hall >> Owner, Publisher, and Lone Star Book Blog Tour coordinator
Before assuming leadership of Lone Star Literary Life, Texas native Kristine Hall served as coordinator for Lone Star Book Blog Tours for nearly three years, working with nearly 200 authors and publishers to promote Texas books and authors. A professional reviewer for numerous publicity services, authors, and publishers, Hall is a graduate of Texas A&M University and earned her master’s degree in library science from Sam Houston State University. She is an active member of the Texas Library Association and a proud member of the Grammar Police. Her book reviews can be found on Hall Ways Blog. Email her at: KristineHall@LoneStarLiterary.com
Michelle Newby Lancaster >> Managing Editor
Michelle is a voting member of the National Book Critics Circle, a member of the Texas Press Association, a member of the Writers' League of Texas, a member of PEN America, and the editor of The Texas Spur, a weekly newspaper since 1909. She has been an editor at LSLL since its founding in 2015. Michelle has been a reviewer for Kirkus Indie, a moderator at the Texas Book Festival, and served on the Permian Basin Writers' Workshop advisory committee. Her reviews appear in Foreword Reviews, Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, World Literature Today, High Country News, South85 Journal, The Review Review, Concho River Review, Monkeybicycle, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Atticus Review, The Rumpus, Bookslut, PANK Magazine, and The Collagist. Michelle has been blogging at Texas Book Lover since 2010. Email her at: Reviews@LoneStarLiterary.com
Kay Ellington & Barbara Brannon >> Founders
In 2014, Kay and Barbara realized that Texas is its own nation of books and on Groundhog Day, 2015, they launched LSLL to serve bookish Texas. They continue to be a part of the LSLL team in an advisory capacity.
You’ve heard it before: So many books, so little time.
And it’s truer than ever, with new titles coming out daily from publishers of all sizes—Big Five, indies, university presses, companies of one. Add to that harvest the overload of competition with other content—film, music, magazines, games—and the chances diminish that we’ll discover the stories we love or the books we need.
Lone Star Literary Life helps readers find those stories. We help authors and publishers find their ideal audiences. We help booksellers discern the titles they can sell and libraries the titles their patrons will want. We help writers become better, by connecting them with fellow travelers, steering them toward resources, and introducing them to the authors they learn from.
At least within the limited geography that is Texas.
Texcentric on purpose
Lone Star Literary Life is dedicated to the idea that Texas readers and writers deserve their own lair—a virtual speakeasy of letters where wordsmiths and bookworms are embraced as part of our state’s reading and writing community. So, howdy and welcome. You seem like our kind of folks.
Coverage as diverse as the state itself
From Hereford to Houston, Texline to Texarkana, Texas is a state with a half a dozen sprawling metropolises, another dozen or so mid-sized cities, and a whole bunch of towns with populations 10,000 or fewer. But there are book and bookstores, authors and readers, festivals and libraries and readings everywhere. Use us to find out what's going on in Austin or Nacogdoches or your neck of the woods.
Putting a stake in the ground for books
We want to challenge the world of books in Texas to be better-—to support its librarians, booksellers, writers and readers, and to boost literacy statewide.
We invite you to subscribe (for free), read (on Sundays if you’re at home, at midweek if you’re in the office), and share. Our mix of editorial and advertising content is designed to inform and educate. And sometimes even to inspire.
Texas-sized discoverability
With Lone Star Literary Life, if you don’t know about Texas books, it’ll be your own fault. We’ll have advertising, e-newsletters, book blog tours, podcasts, reviews, calendars, stories, photos, and interviews.
A big ol’ welcome mat
This is a non-exclusive club, and it’s open to everyone who loves Texas books.
Read more about our editorial, review, and advertising policies on the links at right.
Have events or info to share?
Send us your book and literary news, and your event details. We'll share statewide and beyond.
Send directory corrections and updates to info@LoneStarLiterary.com
