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Members of a graduate seminar on Willa Cather and Katherine Anne Porter being taught during the spring semester at Texas A & M University met on Saturday, April 5, for what might be called a three-stage Porter Pilgrimage. Along with their professor, Janis Stout, five members of the class met in Austin at El Sol y la Luna Restaurant for breakfast with Beth Alvarez, who was in Austin to assist Paul Porter with arrangements for shipping his donation of Porter memorabilia to the University of Maryland at College Park Libraries. In attendance were Robin Cohen, Molly Johnson, Willa Jan Little, Tomas Pollard, and Patricia Wiese. Their purposes, besides enjoying migas, were dual: to learn about the resources at McKeldin Library and to enrich their understanding of the influence of Mexico on Porter's work. There was so much to be said about the first that the group's discussions never reached the second. Alvarez distributed informational materials to help the students plan future work in the collection and related collections and answered questions, which ranged from the variously-published texts of "Flowering Judas" to resources related to Porter's stay in Berlin.

After breakfast and after Dr. Alvarez was delivered to the Austin airport, members of the class drove on to Kyle, where they were given a leisurely tour of the Porter home by Yana Bland.

The third stop was the Southwest Writers Center at Southwest Texas State University, where Special Collections Assistant Steve Davis provided an overview of facilities and holdings. The Center's resources on Porter include several letters and a recipe for mole. Other holdings include papers of Southwest writers John Graves and R. G. Vliet, as well as extensive materials relating to the filming of Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove.

At least one research trip to the University of Maryland is being planned as a direct result of the session with Alvarez. An additional reward of the excursion was a Sour Cream Pie baked from KAP's recipe (found in a collection at Kyle) and brought to the following week's seminar by Pat Wiese.