Midland & Odessa, Ep. 6

October 17, 2024 — After two years away, LDM retured to Odessa, as as we once again teamed with the geniuses at Odessa Arts for an electric fun night that saw Elizabeth Wetmore narrowly defeat Jonathan Pizarro in a Lone Star Lit finale that won Wetmore the LDM Midland & Odessa, Ep. 6 crown, and literary immortality to go with it.

Here's the full lineup from the night-of: 

ALL-STAR JUDGES: 

Literary Merit: James Wade, author of Beasts of the Earth and All Things Left Wild, winner of the prestigious MPIBA Reading the West Award for Debut Fiction, and a recipient of the Spur Award for Best Historical Novel from the Western Writers of America

Performance: Becka Oliver, Executive Director of the Writers' League of Texas after spending more than 16 years working in book publishing

Intangibles: Randy Ham, OCA&H Executive Director, founder of One Book Odessa and Books in the Basin

ALL-STAR READERS:

Round 1: 
* Elizabeth Wetmore, New York Times best-selling author of Valentine, she's a NEA Fellow, received two fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, and a grant from the Barbara Deming Foundation

* Richard Z. Santos, author of Trust Me, finalist for the Writer's League of Texas Book Awards and named one of the best debuts of the year by Crime Reads. He's editor of A Night of Screams: Latino Horror Stories and is Executive Director of Austin Bat Cave

Round 2:
* Jeramey Kraatz, author of the Cloak Society and Space Runners series, a forthcoming graphic novel about Lizzie Borden, and he also adapts anime series, films, and video games, including scripts for blockbuster franchises like Dragon Ball, My Hero Academia, and Attack on Titan

* Jonathan Pizarro, a Gibraltarian writer living in D.C. Shortlisted for a Global Commonwealth Literature Prize, his fiction has featured in Popshot, Litro and Untitled: Voices.

Hosted by LDM creator Adrian Todd Zuniga (author of the award-nominated novel Collision Theory)

Produced by Randy Ham, Executive Director at Odessa Council for the Arts & Humanities

Where: Copper Rose Building, 415 N. Grant Ave., Odessa (map)
When: October 17, 7pm start, 8:30pm finish
Cost: $20; $15 Advance Purchase; $10 for Odessa Arts Members