Award-winning writer Skip Hollandsworth will speak to students at this semester’s NE Campus “Living Literature” event.
“Skip Hollandsworth is a Texas legend. … We hope that our students and anyone attending can gain insight into the arts of narrative writing, storytelling and publishing from him,” said event facilitator and NE English instructor Amanda Brotherton.
The event on March 24-25 will be headlined by Hollandsworth and literary agent David Hale Smith.
Hollandsworth is the executive editor for Texas Monthly magazine and a four-time National Magazine Award finalist, the industry’s equivalent of a Pulitzer Prize. His career started with student journalism, covering the Texas Christian University football team for TCU’s school newspaper, The Daily Skiff.
In 2010, he won the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing for “Still Life.” It was the story of John McClamrock, a Dallas high school football player paralyzed after a tackle in 1973, and the strength of his mother Ann. She cared for him for the rest of his life, dying just eight weeks after him in May 2008.
Hollandsworth co-wrote the 2011 film “Bernie” starring Jack Black, which currently holds an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer. The movie is based on his Texas Monthly article “Midnight in the Garden of East Texas,” about a 38-year-old mortician who killed his companion: a wealthy 81-year-old widow.
He has written profiles about numerous celebrities including Farrah Fawcett, Sandra Bullock and Troy Aikman. He is also the author of the historical true-crime book “The Midnight Assassin,” a New York Times best-seller about America’s first serial killer.
“I just love his writing so much,” Brotherton said. “It’s always been an escape and great source of entertainment for me.”
NE English instructor Brock Kingsley is helping facilitate the event, but he credits Brotherton for students having this opportunity.
“She played the largest part in bringing Skip Hollandsworth to campus,” he said.
The other speaker, Smith, works for InkWell Management Literary Agency. He operated his own agency in Texas before joining InkWell in 2011, where he represents Hollandsworth, as well as many other successful authors including New York Times best-sellers Greg Rucka and Blake Crouch. He actively sells film and television rights for his clients.
Rucka has had multiple of his comic series and novels adapted for the screen, notably Netflix’s film “The Old Guard,” based on the Image Comics series, and ABC’s television show “Stumptown.” Crouch has also had novels adapted for the screen: “Dark Matter,” “Good Behavior” and the “Wayward Pines” trilogy.
“David Hale Smith has been at Inkwell Publishing for many years and has a long history of publishing both fiction and non-fiction,” Brotherton said. “We hope he will provide audiences with some insight into the publishing industry from an agent’s perspective.”
There will be a Q&A and book signing in the NE Library March 24 and March 25 it will take place in the Center Corner in NSTU 1615. They are open to the public, as well as TCC students, staff and faculty. The March 24 event will be from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., and the March 25 event will be from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m.
