Native American Author Headlines ASU Writers Conference

SAN ANGELO, TX – Angelo State University will host critically acclaimed author Dr. Brandon Hobson as the featured speaker for the 26th ASU Writers Conference in Honor of Elmer Kelton March 2-3 on the ASU campus.

Hobson will give two free public presentations on Thursday, March 2, in the C.J. Davidson Conference Center inside the Houston Harte University Center, 1910 Rosemont Drive:

• 9:30 a.m. - "A Conversation with Brandon Hobson"

• 7 p.m. - "Reading and Presentation by Brandon Hobson"

The two-day conference will also include seven free public sessions featuring readings and presentations by 21 guest authors and poets. All of these sessions will be in the Eldon Black Recital Hall inside ASU's Carr Education-Fine Arts Building at 2602 Dena Drive. Profiles of the guest writers and the complete conference schedule are available at angelo.edu/writersconference.

An award-winning author of novels and short stories, Hobson is also an assistant professor of English at New Mexico State University and teaches creative writing at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M. He is also an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation Tribe of Oklahoma.

The author of five novels, Hobson's 2018 novel, "Where the Dead Sit Talking," was a finalist for the National Book Award, winner of the Reading the West Award and longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award. His 2021 novel, "The Removed," won the Western Heritage Award and was named a Best Book of 2021 by Publishers Weekly, Time, Kirkus, Library Journal, Good Housekeeping and Harpers Bazaar. His latest novel, "The Storyteller," will be released in May. He was also named a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation for demonstrating exceptional creative ability in the arts.

Hobson's short stories have also garnered their share of accolades, including a Pushcart Prize, which annually honors the best works published by small presses. His stories have also been published in a variety of literary journals, including McSweeney's, Conjunctions, American Short Fiction, NOON and others.

The ASU Writers Conference is dedicated to San Angelo's own best-selling western author, Elmer Kelton, who passed away in 2009. The author of more than 40 books, Kelton was a seven-time winner of the Western Writers of America's Spur Award and was the first Distinguished Visiting Professor at ASU. The conference is hosted by the Natalie Zan Ryan Department of English and Modern Languages and sponsored by the university with support from the ASU Alumni Association, College of Arts and Humanities, and Guy and Eva Choate.