Items

• Domestic Life: A Novel in Parts by Paula Webb '88
  Webb's novel was set in Houston.
• The Lord's Motel by Gail Donohue Storey '82
  Signed by the author.
• More Night Travels to Tibet by Marilyn Stablein '84
  Marilyn Stablein has published books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and creates her own artists' books. This limited edition of prose poems was printed on handmade Nepalese lokta paper in Kathmandu, Nepal.
• The Expectations of Light by Pattiann Rogers '81
  An interest in nature and science links many of the poems in the collections published by Pattiann Rogers. The poet has taught at a number of colleges and universities. Rogers inscribed this copy of her first book of poems "To Cynthia [Macdonald], my friend and mentor..."
• Edisto: A Novel by Padgett Powell '82
  Powell's first novel, Edisto, was a finalist for the National Book Award. He has published five other novels and three collections of short stories. Powell has taught at the University of Florida since 1984.
• Mad Flights: Poems by Robert Lunday '85
  In addition to being the author of the poetry collection Mad Flights, Robert Lunday is a professor of English at Houston Community College Southeast.
• Truck Dance by Olive Hershey '86
  In Hershey's novel, heroine Wilma Hemshoff leaves her failing marriage to become a truck driver. This copy is inscribed to poetry faculty member Cynthia Macdonald.
• Spells: New & Selected Poems by Annie Finch '86
  The poet known as Ani has published six books and a CD of her work. She served as Director of the Stonecoast MFA Program in Creative Writing for ten years. She currently teaches, writes, and performs.
• Crazy Heart by Thomas Cobb '86
  Crazy Heart, Thomas Cobb's novel about a down and out country singer, was made into a 2009 movie starring Jeff Bridges. Cobb directed the creative writing program at Rhode Island College from 1987-2005.
• In Sunlight, in a Beautiful Garden by Kathleen Cambor '87
  Kathleen Cambor received the 2001 Guggenheim Fellowship for In Sunlight, In a Beautiful Garden, a novel based on the 1990 Johnstown, Pennsylvania flood. She directed the UH Creative Writing Program from 1997 through 2000.
• A Sunday in God-years: Poems by Michelle Boisseau '85
  Poet Michelle Boisseau has published five collections of her work and co-authored the textbook Writing Poetry. She teaches at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
• Drowned Moon by Glenn Blake '84
  Glenn Blake has published three collections of short stories set in Southeast Texas. He teaches at Johns Hopkins University.
• Letter from Donald Barthelme to Gail Donohue Storey acknowledging baby gift
  "...the wonderful baby is now solidly imprinted with UH chauvinism." --Donald Barthelme
• Assignment: The Abduction from the Seraglio
  This particular class assignment led to Barthelme writing and publishing his own story. "(The assignment) was to do a version of Mozart's s Abduction from the Seraglio. I had set it up in such a way that they had to make certain changes in the situation, so I got interested in these, and I did it myself. So there is some back and forth effect of teaching.” --Donald Barthelme
• Hiding Man: A Biography of Donald Barthelme by Tracy Daugherty
  UH Creative Writing Program alum and former Barthelme student Tracy Daugherty published this thorough and sympathetic biography of the influential writer in 2009.
• Photograph of Donald Barthelme and Gail Donohue Storey
  Gail Donohue Storey received an M.A. from the Creative Writing Program in 1982, and served as the Program's Administrative Director from 1982-1986.
• The King
  A reimagining of the King Arthur story set during World War II, The King was published after Barthelme's death in 1989. It was illustrated with woodcuts by Barry Moser.
• Sam's Bar
  Sam's Bar was a collaboration with the graphic designer and illustrator Seymour Chwast. Barthelme's text and Chwast's images capture a group of disparate New Yorkers stopping by a bar for a drink after work.
• Telegram from Elaine de Kooning
  "Paradise is magnificent. I'm overjoyed with my dedication. With gratitude and love, --Elaine [de Kooning]" Barthelme met painter Elaine de Kooning, the wife of abstract painter Willem de Kooning, through his friendships with art critics Harold Rosenberg and Thomas B. Hess.
• Paradise
  In Barthelme's novel Paradise, a 53-year-old architect who is separated from his wife invites three young lingerie models to live with him in his New York City apartment.
• Photograph from "Postmodernists Dinner," photographed by Jill Krementz
  Left to right: unidentified, unidentified, Donald Barthelme, John Barth, Robert Coover (turned), unidentified, Kurt Vonnegut, Walter Abish (with patch), William Gaddis (squatting), unidentified, William Gass, unidentified, unidentified. In 1983, Barthelme arranged a "Postmodernists Dinner" for the group of writers who were often lumped together under the "postmodernist" label. The reclusive Thomas Pynchon declined the invitation.
• Overnight to Many Distant Cities
  In this collection from the 1980s, Barthelme incorporated new elements, such as the more traditional story "Visitors"
• Sixty Stories
  Published in 1981, Sixty Stories captured the best of Barthelme's stories from the sixties and seventies. It was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 1982, and frequently appeared on syllabi for literature courses.
• The Dead Father
  The Dead Father took the subject of sons overshadowed by the expectations of their fathers into the mythological realm. In Barthelme's novel, nineteen men drag the oversized Dead Father through the countryside, accompanied by the son Thomas and his companions.
• Come Back, Dr. Caligari
  Influenced by Samuel Beckett, Barthelme developed a distinctive style of short story writing which eschewed traditional devices of plot and character in favor of playful language, the juxtaposition of ideas, and humor. Beginning in the 1960s and continuing throughout his career, many of his stories appeared first in The New Yorker magazine. Notable stories from Come Back, Dr. Caligari include "Me and Miss Mandible"