Call for submissions: TEXAS BOUND - deadline fast approaches!

Background: Texas Bound is part of Arts & Letters Live, the literary and performing arts series founded in 1992 and presented by the Dallas Museum of Art. (You may think of this as the North Texas version of "NPR's Selected Shorts" program.)

Here's the blurb I received a week or so ago:

Texas Bound features readings by Texas actors of short fiction by Texas-connected authors. Notable authors featured in past programs include Sarah Bird, Oscar Casares, John Bloom, Larry L. King, Steve Martin, Sandra Cisneros, Shelby Hearon, John Graves, Larry McMurtry, and Tim O’Brien. Well-known actors participating in Texas Bound have included Tommy Lee Jones, Kathy Bates, Marcia Gay Harden, Larry Hagman, and Doris Roberts.

Texas Bound has published three anthologies and four audiocassettes; to order books and tapes, call 214-922-1256. We encourage authors to become familiar with stories featured on the audiocassettes and in the anthologies in order to gain a broader sense of the series.

Texas Bound programs take place on four evenings in Dallas and one in Fort Worth during Arts & Letters Live’s programming season (January through May). There are two performances each evening, and the average attendance for each evening is 700–800 people. Typically three or four stories are read at each performance. The audience is warm and supportive and open to some challenging material. Texas Bound presents a range of fiction, from lighthearted and comic stories to dramatic narratives.

Submissions should meet these specifications:

• Short fiction on any theme written by an author who has lived in Texas OR short fiction with a Texas setting, subject, character, or theme

• Reads aloud well to an audience

• Represent your best work; no more than 2 submissions per author

• Previously published stories are accepted as well as those not yet published (if published, please note source where story originally appeared)

• Excerpts from novels will be considered as long as the author specifies an excerpt with a clear beginning, middle, and end

• 2,000–5,000 words in length

• Submissions should be in a 12-point font, double-spaced, with numbered pages throughout

• Four-hole punched copies of each story, bound with paperclips

• Include your mailing address, e-mail address, and phone number

Selection process and compensation:

Submissions will be considered over the summer. Emails confirming receipt of manuscripts will be sent. Manuscripts will not be returned. A representative from the series will contact you if your story is chosen for the 2008 Texas Bound program; no other notifications will be sent. Authors whose submissions are selected will receive a $150 honorarium, complimentary tickets to the reading, and an invitation to dinner with the actors following the program.

Deadline: May 18, 2007

Mail submissions to: Texas Bound Call for Stories, Arts & Letters Live, Dallas Museum of Art, 1717 N. Harwood St., Dallas, TX 75201.