Amarillo entertainment in brief for Jan. 7, 2024

WT's Great Books to launch discussion series on Amarillo native Saunders

CANYON — West Texas A&M University's Great Books Series will launch a series of discussions in January on the works of Amarillo native George Saunders in advance of the author's upcoming lecture at the university.

Dr. Daniel Bloom, organizer of Great Books and associate professor of philosophy in WT's Department of English, Philosophy and Modern Languages, will lead the discussion of Saunders' “Unloading for Mrs. Schwartz” at 7 p.m. on January 9 via Zoom .

The discussion series — sponsored by the EPML department at the Sybil B. Harrington College of Fine Arts and Humanities — is open to those who have or have not read the story, Bloom said.

“This is Saunders’ first-ever work, which seems appropriate as we begin our preparations for his visit,” Bloom said.

Saunders, who was born in Amarillo and spent time as a master's student in WT's English program in the 1980s, will be the guest speaker at Amarillo College's Creative Mind conference on April 4, which will be co-presented by the WT Distinguished Lecture Series and the Center. for the study of the Garry L. Nall Lecture in Western Studies of the American West. The lecture will take place at 7 p.m. on April 4 in Legacy Hall in the Jack B. Kelley Student Center on WT's Canyon campus.