Nov. 16 (at Speakeasy Austin)

November 16, 2024 — In our grand return to the Texas Book Festival at Speakeasy Austin, a jam-packed crowd witnessed a marvel of a night that saw Rita Bullwinkel outlast co-finalist Hollie Hardy in a Lone Star Lit finale that went to sudden death, winning Bullwinkel the LDM Austin, Ep. 18 crown, and literary immortality to go with it.

Here's the full lineup from the night:

ALL-STAR JUDGES: 

Literary Merit: Téa Obreht, author of the all-new novel The Morningside, international bestseller The Tiger’s Wife, a 2011 Orange Prize winner and National Book Award finalist, and Inland, an instant bestseller, winner of the Southwest Book Award a Dylan Thomas Prize finalist

Performance: Ray Suarez, journalist and author of the all-new We Are Home: Becoming American in the 21st Century, he's host of On Shifting Ground, an NPR radio program, and he's hosted Al Jazeera America’s daily news program and so many more

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

ALL-STAR READERS:

Round 1: 
* Rita Bullwinkel, author of Headshot and Belly Up, which garnered a 2022 Whiting Award. She's been published in ZYZZYVA, Tin House, The White Review, Conjunctions, BOMB, Vice, NOON, and Guernica

* Porochista Khakpour, author of the critically acclaimed novels, Tehrangeles, Sons and Other Flammable Objects and The Last Illusion; a memoir, Sick; and a collection of essays, Brown Album

Round 2:
* Hollie Hardy, poet, educator, and award-winning author of Lions Like Us and How to Take a Bullet, And Other Survival Poems. She's founder of Praxis Poetry and host of the long-running monthly reading series Saturday Night Special, a Virtual Open Mic 

* Mateo Askaripour, New York Times bestselling author of Black Buck and This Great Hemisphere, he's one of Entertainment Weekly’s 10 rising stars to make waves, and a recipient of the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 prize

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

Produced by Richard Santos

Where: Speakeasy Austin, 412 Congress Ave. D