Celebrating 25 Years of The Austin Film Festival

Are you ready to celebrate Austin Film Festival’s silver anniversary? We at The Wittliff are looking forward to yet another festival full of fun, interesting, and inspiring film screenings and discussion panels. In fact, the Wittliff, in collaboration with AFF staff, is putting select panel recordings from past festivals online. Hear Ed Solomon, who also …

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“It’s Only Rock ’N’ Roll” now digitized

Forty-one issues of the indie music newspaper It’s Only Rock ’N’ Roll have been digitally preserved by The Wittlliff Collections at Texas State University. You can view the inventory here. Published in San Antonio by music journalist Ron Young, the preserved issues cover the period from March 1978 to April 1982.  It’s Only Rock ’N’ …

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Breathing new life into Cabeza de Vaca’s La relación

Scholars of Texas, U.S. and world history can now access an innovative online resource that showcases the earliest written account of Texas and the Southwest. Texas State University Libraries and The Wittliff Collections today launched a website celebrating La relación, a book written by Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and originally published in …

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Public History Students Gain Hands-on Experience in the Archives

(by Katie Salzmann) This fall semester, twelve graduate students from Texas State University’s Public History program have been processing several archival collections at the Wittliff as part of the “Archival Management” course.  Lead Archivist Katie Salzmann teaches the seminar class that is designed to introduce students to the principles and theories of archives. In addition …

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Sandra Cisneros’ archive opens to eager researchers

In summer 2015, the Wittliff Collections acquired the major literary archive of author, Sandra Cisneros. As one of America’s leading writers, Cisneros helped launch the Latino literary boom and is the author of poetry, a memoir, essays, children’s books, and fiction – including the internationally acclaimed The House on Mango Street. In October – just …

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Photo of a baja sexto

VIDEO: The Story Behind Tejano Music’s Colorful Characters

Ramón Hernández tells us the story behind some of Tejano music’s colorful characters. Ramón is a renown musicologist and was special guest curator of our “Legends of Tejano Music” exhibition in the Fall of 2017.

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Ray Benson donates archive to The Wittliff

SAN MARCOS, TX – Ray Benson, co-founder of the legendary Western Swing band Asleep at the Wheel, has announced he is donating his archive to The Wittliff’s newly-established Texas Music Collection. Benson’s archive will contain materials spanning his entire career, featuring records, photographs, instruments, wardrobe, awards and other memorabilia. In a career that has spanned …

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Photo of Sam Shepard

Vintage Keystone: Sam Shepard archives illuminate the arc of creation

(originally published Fall 2005) Editor’s note: This article has been slightly updated to reflect that Sam Shepard passed away in 2017. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Academy Award®-nominated actor Sam Shepard was not normally thought of as a “Southwesterner,” yet an extraordinary collection of his archives is held in the Wittliff Collections. “Sam is of the …

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Dead In The West book cover

VINTAGE KEYSTONE: Joe R. Lansdale “Ink is for wimps”

Originally published Fall 2013: If after reading a story you are left horrified, brimming with suspense, and full of laughter then you must be a fortunate victim of the writings of champion mojo storyteller Joe R. Lansdale, a man who once convinced a fan that the “Lonesome” Joe Lansdale “pens his books in blood, ‘cause …

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