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The house at 508 Center Street, in Kyle, Texas, where Katherine Anne Porter lived with her paternal grandmother, father, and siblings will be dedicated as a Literary Landmark in June 2002. The recognition comes as a result of an application to the Friends of the Libraries U.S.A. by the Texas Center for the Book in Dallas. The Literary Landmarks Association was founded in 1986 by Frederick G. Ruffner, a former president of the Friends of Libraries U.S.A. (FOLUSA). The association encourages groups or individuals to select landmarks tied to a literary figure or work of an author, to plan dedication ceremonies, and to apply to FOLUSA for official recognition. The first of these dedications was at Slip F18 in Bahia Mar, Florida, the anchorage of the Busted Flush, the houseboat home of novelist John D. MacDonald's protagonist Travis McGee. Dedications have included homes of famous writers (Tennessee Williams, Majorie Kinnan Rawlings, William Faulkner), libraries and museum collections, literary scenes (such as John's Grill in San Francisco, immortalized by Dashiell Hammett, and Willa Cather's Prairie near Red Cloud, Nebraska), and even "Grip" the Raven, formerly the pet of Charles Dickens and inspiration to Edgar Allen Poe, now presiding at the Rare Books Department of the Free Library of Pennsylvania. For more information about the Literary Landmarks program including a list of Literary Landmarks, visit the the Website of the FOLUSA at www.folus.org. The next issue of the newsletter will include complete coverage of this event.

The Porter House is part of the Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center, operated by Southwest Texas State University in cooperation with the Hays County Preservation Associates. Melissa Falcon served as the Writer-in-Residence for the first two years of this program, living in the Porter House and acting as curator of the museum. A grant from Curt Englehorn's "Angel" Foundation funded the Writer-in-Residence program; Matt Oates has been selected as the second recipient of this honor. An initial grant from the Burdine Johnson Foundation made possible the restoration of the house and construction of the Center. This has been generously followed by a new grant for the KAP Young Writers Program. Beginning in June 2002, SWT MFA students in Creative Writing will teach creative writing to local, Kyle, Texas, schoolchildren. The impact that the restoration of the house has had on the small town of 5000 has been so significant that the City Council has declared a downtown historic district and has begun efforts to preserve the rest of the town center, alongside the Porter house.

Events held at the seminar house of the Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center during the 2001-2002 academic year included readings and book signings by Robert Haas, Chris Offutt, Jean Valentine, Mark Doty, and Kate Wheeler. Former U. S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass, author of 20th Century Pleasures, for which he won the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the poetry collections that include Field Guide, Praise, and Human Wishes. He has translated the work of Nobel Laureate Czeslaw Milosz into English and was awarded a MacArthur "Genuis" Fellowship. Offutt is the author of The Good Brother, a novel, and two short story collections, Kentucky Straight and Out of the Woods. He has also published a memoir called The Same River Twice. Named Best Young American Writer by Granta, Offutt has also been the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship and the N.E.A. Fellowship. Jean Valentine is the author of eight books of poetry, including The Messenger, Dream Barker and Other Poems, Home Deep Blue, The River at Wolf, and The Cradle of the Real Life. Valentine has won countless honors, among them the Yale Younger Poet Award, the Guggenheim Fellowship, the National Endowment for the Arts grant, and the Maurice English Poetry Award. Mark Doty is the author of four poetry collections, including Turtle Swan, Bethlehem in Broad Daylight, My Alexandria, Atlantis, and Sweet Machine. He is also the author of two nonfiction works including Heaven's Coast: A Memoir and Firebird. Doty has received numerous awards, among them the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction, the Witter Bynner Prize for Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and the T. S. Eliot Prize. Kate Wheeler is the author of When Mountains Walked, a novel, and Not Where I Started From, a short story collection. Wheeler has been the recipient of the Pushcart Prize, two O. Henry Awards, a Best American Story of the Year, and was named by Granta as one of America's "Best Young Novelists."

For information about the MFA program or the literary series, please contact Matt Oates, Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center Coordinator at (512) 268?6637, or visit the Lindsey Literary Series Web site at http://www.English.swt.edu/TKL.