Please note that this event has passed. Please visit our Stars at Night page for information about this year’s event.
Each year, the editors and staff of American Short Fiction host a grand party that recognizes literary excellence, extraordinary literary service, a brilliant new story collection, and a debut writer from Texas. We’re so excited to celebrate with everyone on March 23, 2024, at the Tudor Cottage in Austin’s Pease Park.
The Stars at Night is our favorite event of the year because it’s intimate, festive, community-fueled, and inspiring. We always serve up fine drinks, good eats, special treats, spectacular company, and of course great country music to dance to. It’s the most down-home, sophisticated literary spectacular on the map.
We are hopeful that this gathering will be an important moment to bring together award-winning authors, aspiring writers, avid readers, and literary supporters—and a reminder of why literature is vital in creating a better, more just, and more connected world.
The Stars at Night is held in an ADA-accessible facility and ASL interpretation will be available during the spoken program. Please email amanda.faraone@americanshortfiction.org with any further questions about accessibility.
All proceeds will support American Short Fiction, a nonprofit literary publisher of the best voices in contemporary short fiction.
General Admission: $125 – One admission to our 2024 Stars at Night Celebration.
Party kicks off at 7 p.m.
Leading Lights: $250 – One VIP admission to our 2024 Stars at Night Celebration, including VIP pre-party, limited edition tote, books, and other swag!
6-7 p.m.
PLEASE NOTE: While ticket-buyers will receive a receipt for their purchase via email, there is no physical ticket for this event. We ask that guests check in at our will-call table upon arrival, where we’ll confirm your ticket(s).
The Stars at Night 2024 Honorees
Marie-Helene Bertino is the author of Parakeet, 2 A.M. at The Cat’s Pajamas, and the story collection Safe as Houses. She was the 2017 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Fellow in Cork, Ireland. Her work has received the O. Henry Prize, the Pushcart Prize, the Iowa Short Fiction Award, the Mississippi Review Story Prize, and fellowships from MacDowell, Sewanee, and New York City’s Center for Fiction, and has twice been featured on NPR’s Selected Shorts. She teaches creative writing at New York University and Yale University and lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Alejandro Puyana moved to the United States from Venezuela at the age of twenty-six. In 2022, he completed his MFA at the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas. His work has appeared in Tin House, American Short Fiction, The American Scholar, New England Review, Idaho Review, among others, and his story “The Hands of Dirty Children” was selected by Curtis Sittenfeld for Best American Short Stories 2020. His debut novel, Freedom Is a Feast, comes out on August 6th, 2024. He lives with his wife and daughter in Austin, Texas.
Diane Oliver was born in Charlotte, North Carolina and after graduating from high school, she attended Women’s College (which later became the University of North Carolina at Greensboro) and was the Managing Editor of The Carolinian, the student newspaper. She published four short stories in her lifetime and two more posthumously: “Key to the City” and “Neighbors” published in The Sewanee Review in 1966; “Health Service”, “Traffic Jam” and “Mint Juleps Not Served Here” published in Negro Digest in 1965, 1966 and 1967 respectively; and “The Closet on the Top Floor” published in Southern Writing in the Sixties in 1966. “Neighbors” was a recipient of an O. Henry Award in 1967. Diane began graduate work at the University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop and was awarded the MFA degree posthumously days after her death, at the age of 22, in a motorcycle accident in 1966. Her debut collection, Neighbors and Other Stories, will be published by Grove Atlantic in February 2024.
Roosevelt Weeks is the Director of the Austin Public Library where he leads a dynamic team and library system. In 2023, Weeks won the Librarian of the Year Award at the Texas Library Association 2023 Annual Conference. His responsibility includes 20 branch locations, the History Center and a new Central Library. Weeks joined the Austin Public Library team in September of 2017 and is passionate about improving technology, literacy and education, both inside and outside of the library. Weeks received his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Texas Southern University and his Master of Library Science degree from the University of North Texas.
Writer and television producer Maya Perez was most recently a co-producer on a romantic drama series starring Joshua Jackson and Lauren Ridloff and produced by Ava DuVernay for Starz. Prior to that, she was an executive story editor on Showtime’s American Rust S2 and an executive producer on the Lone Star EMMY Award-winning interview series Austin Film Festival’s On Story on PBS for eleven seasons. Maya’s feature screenplays have been optioned for production and recognized by fellowships from SFFILM/Westridge, Sundance Institute, and NY Stage & Film, and she currently has a pilot in development with Berlanti Productions. Maya received her BA from Vassar College and her MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at The University of Texas at Austin, where she is Area Head for Screenwriting.
Bae Price is an Austin-based country band performing the work of legendary musician Ray Price. From the best sides to the b-sides, they have Ray Price covered! Bae Price singer, Larny Fryer, loves two-steppin’, beer drinkin’, and generally all things honky tonk. Her record collection features a solid mix of classic and cosmic country with a special emphasis on the women of country music.
Founded in 1993, this Austin Texas band has been wowing audiences and dancers in honky-tonks around the world. The band was created by Brian Hofeldt and Tony Villanueva (who left the group in 2003 to pursue a career in the church). Over those 20+ years, the band has released eight studio albums, two live records, one retrospective collection and has been a part of numerous compilations and other recording projects.
Maria Bergh
Kathy Blackwell
Claire Burrows
Katerina (Kat) Cotroneo
Amanda Faraone, Co-Chair
Hillery Hugg
Zahie El Kouri
Greg Marshall
Laura Merritt
Matthew Patin
Maya Perez
Lucas Schaefer
Maury Sullivan
Jackie Rangel, Co-Chair
Andrea Turnipseed
The Burdine Johnson Foundation | Marc Winkelman | Michael Barrett
Tyler Drake and Paola Mathé | Zach Greenberger and Eunice Kang
Maria Bergh & Joint Detail | Claudia & Phil Chidester | Katy & Matt Culmo | Suzan Glickman | Jay Hodges | Linda Wells | Roots Behavioral Health
INFORMATION FOR SPONSORS
A registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization, American Short Fiction relies on the generous support of individuals, foundations, and corporations to support and promote the literary arts in Texas and beyond. If you or your organization is interested in helping us further our mission of finding, publishing, and promoting today’s best writers and writing, you can download our sponsorship package here.
For more information about sponsorships, please contact us by email at amanda.faraone[at]americanshortfiction.org.