HP Literary Festival
February 21, 2025
First, choose your class period
Then take a look at past presentations below
Note, however, that enrollment ended on Feb 12, 2025.
Photography as Witness in the Virtual Era
In an age when images flashing across your screen may look like photographs but might be entirely computer generated, what is the role of photography? How do visual journalists use photography to tell authentic stories that are valuable to society and perhaps to the future? In this workshop, we will reflect on the history of photography as a witness to the human experience and consider how visual storytellers add to the stream of images that help define us. Bring your cell phone camera and be ready to photograph.
SpeakerKael Alford
Kael Alford is a photographer, writer, and educator. Her work explores legacies of political violence, our relationship to the ecosystems that sustain us and our tenuous relationships to others. She develops photography-based projects that bring individual stories into dialogue with public discourse, backed by extensive research and long-term commitment to topics and subjects. Her photographs have been widely exhibited in North America and Europe and are held in the permanent collections at the High Museum of Art (Atlanta) and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art (New Orleans) and in private collections. She lives in Denton, Texas.
The Writer’s Toolbox: Collecting the Implements Necessary for a Successful Writing Career
The professional writer is a craftsperson who must bring their own tools to the job. We’ll have an interactive discussion of the tools you have, the tools you’re developing, and the tools you’ll need to acquire in order to excel as a professional writer.
SpeakerRusty Williams
Author Rusty Williams writes about history through the stories of the people who lived it. He is the author of six nonfiction books, five on Texas topics. His latest book, Texas Loud, Proud, and Brash, How Ten Mavericks Created the Twentieth-Century Lone Star State (Rowman & Littlefield) tells how Texas earned its outsized reputation. Deadly Dallas: A History of Unfortunate Incidents and Grisly Fatalities (The History Press) is recommended as a “must-read for anyone who approaches Dallas history with a sense of humor, however dark.” Rusty is also the author of Red River Bridge War: A Texas-Oklahoma Border Battle (Texas A&M Press), winner of the Oklahoma Book Award, and My Old Confederate Home: A Respectable Place for Civil War Veterans (University Press of Kentucky), honored with the Douglas S. Freeman Southern History Award. Rusty regularly speaks on historical topics nationwide and writes articles for magazines and journals.
Your Setting is a Character
A setting is more than just a scene or location, it’s a stage where your characters will jump out of the pages and come to life. And the right setting is a catalyst for conflict, which is an absolute necessity in any great work of fiction. “Your Setting is a Character” will provide students with the tools to infuse physical, spiritual, and emotional characteristics into their novels and screenplays through vivid description, historical context, and world building. Writers will also learn how to utilize personification, as well as unique challenges that are geared to specific story themes, which will ultimately result in an audience who is as captivated with the setting as they are with the characters.
SpeakerTaylor Moore
Taylor Moore is the author of Cold Trail, Ricochet, Firestorm, and Down Range, which was nominated for the Barry Award for Best First Novel, named a Strand Magazine Best Mystery of 2021, and selected for the Texas Library Association’s Lariat Reading List. He is a sixth-generation Texan who grew up on a farm and ranch northwest of Houston and is a former CIA Intelligence Officer who worked in both analysis and operations and later consulted for the Department of Defense on military intelligence issues. He now lives in the Texas Panhandle with his wife and two children, where he is a full-time author and screenwriter.
zzz Excused School Sponsored Absence
This is to be used in place of a workshop if you have an excused SCHOOL SPONSORED activity during this class period. You will be COUNTED UNEXCUSED until you provide the appropriate paperwork to your Attendance Office to verify your absence, unless provided by your coach.
Speaker*** Excused School Sponsored Absence
Full Presentations
"40 Million Streams Later" - How I Wrote Songs, Got Signed & Toured the World
Ever wonder how a song gets written? Recorded? Released? And Streamed millions of times? Want to be entertained by a guy who’s played 2,000+ shows to millions of people all over the world? Then my fun, energetic, inspired & inspiring workshop is for you. I’ll bring my guitar, sing some songs and talk about my 37+ year career in the music biz. We’ll go back to my humble beginnings as a student at SMU, to my band getting courted by all the major labels in LA and New York – to writing songs that got millions of streams and two Grammy nominations. I’ll talk about what’s working and what’s not – especially in this “New Music Business” where social media has become almost as important as the music itself. (+ maybe you’ll be in our next post 😉)
SpeakerCary Pierce
An HP Dad,* Cary is a Grammy-Nominated Songwriter, Performer and Producer. His songs and co-writes have been streamed over 40 Million times and he’s had record & publishing deals with Universal, Capitol and Warner Brothers. He’s toured the world and shared stages with John Mayer, Dave Matthews Band and many others. He has appeared on Conan O’Brien, countless other national and local TV shows and has written songs with artists as diverse as Katy Perry & Chris Tomlin. Cary & Jack O’Neill founded the band Jackopierce as SMU theater majors. After spending 5 years relentlessly recording & releasing music and touring the country they were signed to major label A&M Records.
For 37 years now, Jackopierce has toured the world in 48 states, 10 countries, on 3 continents and they’ve sold about 500,000 albums. They play about 50 shows per year and will be at the Granada in Dallas Friday, Apr 4. He lives in Dallas with his HP grad wife Cara and three *HP boys: Jordan ‘19, Jaron ‘26 and Elijah ‘28.
Everything I Ever Needed To Know About Writing I Learned From the Beatles
What can the world's most popular rock band teach us about writing? Plenty, it turns out. This workshop will use the Beatles' music and lyrics as a guide to understanding the creative process.
SpeakerMichael Merschel
Michael Merschel’s three decades in newspaper journalism included 12 years as books editor for The Dallas Morning News. He’s also the author of the novel Revenge of the Star Survivors, which won the Texas Institute of Letters’ award for best middle-grade book in 2018. Before that, he contributed to public radio’s A Prairie Home Companion and composed an out-of-office reply that was mentioned in The New York Times and featured on NPR. He now writes about cardiovascular health for American Heart Association News. Learn more at merschel.net.
Just Great Screenwriting!
Sometimes a screenplay is written that is the perfect blueprint for a phenomenal movie. In 1976, Rocky took the world by storm and walked away with the Oscar for Best Picture. In this interactive workshop, we will discuss the specific elements of the screenplay that laid the foundation for the film’s extraordinary success. It is highly recommended that attendees watch the film, but it is not required.
SpeakerKurt Voelker
Kurt Voelker was born and raised in Dallas, graduated from Harvard and went to graduate film school at USC. He has since written feature screenplays for Warner Bros, Paramount, Disney, Fox, Sony, MTV Films, Screen Gems and more. His work includes the Warner Bros release SWEET NOVEMBER, starring Charlize Theron and Keanu Reeves, and Lionsgate/Huayi Brothers’ animated feature ROCK DOG. Kurt also wrote and directed the award-winning, independent features PARK and THE BACHELORS, starring J.K. Simmons and Julie Delpy. He is currently writing a limited series about Mary Wollstonecraft and a feature about Olympic speedskater Irving Jaffee. He is also attached to direct the feature film SCRATCH.
Why We Love Murder Stories
While actual crime rates have been declining for decades, true crime has never been more popular. Documentaries, podcasts, books, magazine stories — few topics attract more eyes and ears than murder. In this session, we’ll talk about a real-life local crime — involving a seemingly boring married couple, $32 million in missing money, and a series of comically inept hitmen — all while examining why crime stories are so compelling.
SpeakerMichael Mooney
Michael J. Mooney is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Life and Legend of Chris Kyle. He’s a regular contributor to The Atlantic, GQ, ESPN the Magazine, Texas Monthly, and Politico. His stories have appeared in multiple editions of The Best American Crime Reporting and The Best American Sports Writing. His GQ story about a 21-year-old man who convinced an entire Texas town that he was a 15-year-old orphan — and then became the star of the high school basketball team — is currently in pre-production with producer Andrew Hevia, who won an Oscar for Best Picture with Moonlight. Mooney’s Atlantic feature about a married mother who ran a prison dog program, fell in love with a convicted murderer, and then helped him escape, was recently optioned by Warner Bros. Television Studios. He’s been interviewed as a subject-matter expert on Dateline NBC, and on a variety of shows on CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN, and Investigative Discovery. He lives in the Dallas area.