Chris Barton

TEXAS INSTITUTE OF LETTERS 2025 LITERARY CONTESTS NOW OPEN Submit now! Award eligibility requires either that the author have a significant Texas connection or that the work's subject substantially concern Texas. Judges will select finalists and winners in fourteen categories for the best works published in 2025. Winners will be recognized and more than $25,000 in prizes awarded at the TIL's annual meeting, to be held on May 1-2, 2026, in College Station, Texas. https://texasinstituteofletters.org/literary-awards

We invite eligible works published in 2025 across 14 categories—including a brand new one for Best First Book of Nonfiction—with over $25,750 in prizes going to the winners.

In a statement Wednesday to The Waco Bridge, ICE described the deportation as follows: "Sergio Garcia, a 65-year-old twice-deported criminal alien from Mexico, illegally entered the U.S., was afforded full due process under the law, and was ordered deported by an immigration judge at great taxpayer expense. In complete defiance to our nation's system of laws, he fled from authorities and remained an immigration fugitive for more than 23 years. After law enforcement finally caught up with him earlier this year, he was arrested and deported to Mexico on March 25." The regional ICE office in Waco is located at the federal courthouse on Franklin Avenue, four blocks from where Sergio's Food Truck plied its trade for 12 years.

The matter-of-fact wallop of the last paragraph here:

‘Why Sergio?’ Deportation ends 36-year dream for celebrated Waco chef and family - The Waco Bridge Sergio Garcia and his wife, Sandra, spent 36 years building a reputation for regional Mexican cuisine in Waco. It ended when ICE came to call.

Great reporting and writing about a terrible situation.

“Deportations like Sergio’s — to fixtures of the community — are making people think, ‘This could be me next, or my favorite place next, or somebody who I talk to every day.’”

wacobridge.org/2025/10/06/d...

Resistance is everywhere — it just isn't getting enough attention Nepal, Greece, Indonesia, Italy, Madagascar, and the United States

Bad news feels inescapable. There’s a lot of it, it goes viral, and things are getting worse.

But resistance is also everywhere, and it doesn’t get the same attention.

We need to share mass resistance, to inspire hope and so that more and more people join in.

www.jphilll.com/p/resistance...

But “Glitter” has 7 letters. “Shark” and “Train” only 5.

Oh! “Dazzle”!

How Do WE Match? (and book giveaway) with author Deborah Heiligman - Bartography This month I'm giving away four copies of Deborah Heiligman's new YA nonfiction book, LOUDMOUTH: EMMA GOLDMAN VS. AMERICA (A LOVE STORY).

Do you want the chance to get a free copy of Loudmouth AND find out how @bartography.bsky.social and I "match"? Sure you do. (You'll also find out I was not a perfect child.) Read his latest post: chrisbarton.info/how-do-we-ma... #teachersky #booksky #librariansky So many other skies....

They look so fun!

I didn't realize how much I needed that parent's reminder of why I do what I do, and how fortunate I am to be doing it, and how much I want to keep at it. I know there are educators out there who could use the same reminder about their own work.

So here it is.

And the books that this parent won weren't even ones that I'd written. They were written by other authors whose work I wanted to celebrate. Now, those authors are part of this story, too. It does take a village—one that I'm so glad to have a place in.

It's a rare thing for me to read an email out loud to my wife, much less get all choked up while doing so, but this parent's reply was such a moving one—it was well worth losing my composure over.

"You reminded me it takes a village. Whether it’s an exciting, animated author doing a book reading at an elementary school, or a concerned middle school teacher who is beginning a difficult conversation that is absolutely necessary to help K succeed.

"Thank you again, so much, Mr. Barton."

"As a mom I felt defeated, BUT getting this email from you reminded me of how far he has come since meeting you at school and I know he will get to 6th grade level too."

"But he still does struggle with reading and reading comprehension.

"Yesterday I got an email from his ELA teacher voicing her concern that he is not performing at a 6th grade level in her class."

"Fast forward to now. K started middle school and has found some books (mostly graphic novels) that he is interested in reading and stays on track long enough to read them. He also loves being read out loud to, he says it helps him remember."

"I was thrilled because we were really struggling with his reading abilities, comprehension, and interest all together. So I thought if you got his attention we should roll with that."

"This could not have happened at a better time, honestly. I started following you a few years ago after you visited my son K’s school and he excitedly came home with a signed copy of 'Whoosh!'"

It's from a parent who won a book giveaway through my newsletter. I shared the news with her on Wednesday and asked for her mailing address. Her reply included this:

For educators and children's authors who could use a lift—and for anyone else who might wonder why educators and children's authors do what we do, despite the challenges—I want to share with you (with the sender's permission) an email I received a couple of days ago.

Do Chris and I match? There's only one way to find out... Read our weird and shall I say Unique... conversation below! #booksky #kidlit #Yalit #doctors #libriansky #Spanish

How Do WE Match? (and book giveaway) with author Deborah Heiligman - Bartography This month I'm giving away four copies of Deborah Heiligman's new YA nonfiction book, LOUDMOUTH: EMMA GOLDMAN VS. AMERICA (A LOVE STORY).

I asked my fellow nonfiction author @dheiligman.bsky.social (VINCENT AND THEO; CHARLES AND EMMA; TORPEDOED) to play How Do WE Match? with me, and we outdid ourselves. chrisbarton.info/how-do-we-ma...

Shark vs. Train: Who will win? Congress has not authorized the use of military force.

Thank you so much!

I grabbed my copy of We Match at the @scbwi.bsky.social #MINIMFA conference this weekend in Austin. Be sure to get a copy for all the littles in your life! #BookSky #FREADOM

TIL Literary Contest Guidelines for 2025 [PDF version of guidelines] The latest slate of TIL literary contests is now open with prizes adding up to $25,750. In addition, the TIL will bestow a lifetime achievement award ($7,000) and the Jo...

Submissions are now open for the Texas Institute of Letters 2025 Literary Awards! texasinstituteofletters.org/til-2025-lit...

If you don’t know the TIL, we’re an honor society that’s been around since 1936. I’m VP, and we in TIL pride ourselves on honoring the best of the best of Texas writing.

Author Antwan Eady

author Martha Brockenbrough

Sample "How Do WE Match?" questions with Martha Brockenbrough & Antwan Eady:

What did you *think* you were going to become?

Did you collect anything as a kid?

Water, coffee, or tea?

Are you saying that you have canine companionship as we’re chatting?

chrisbarton.info/labels/how-d...

cover of picture book The Gathering Table, written by Antwan Eady and illustrated by London Ladd

cover of picture book A Gift of Dust: How Saharan Plumes Feed the Planet, by Martha Brockenbrough and illustrated by Juana Martinez Neal

I just finished two new "How Do WE Match?" chats that I'll be sharing soon, but first I want to mention that Wednesday morning I'll be picking four winners of this pair of books, in conjunction with my most recent chats. There's still time to get in the running: chrisbarton.info?s=how+do+we+...

The literary contests from the Texas Institute of Letters are open for submissions! Please consider submitting your work for many different literary categories for Texas writers or writers writing about Texas subjects. Deadline, Friday, January 9, 2026.

texasinstituteofletters.org/til-2025-lit...

To be eligible, either the author must have a significant Texas connection or the work’s subject must substantially concern Texas. If you know someone—or a bunch of someones—whose book, short story, or short piece of nonfiction seems to qualify, please let ‘em know!

TEXAS INSTITUTE OF LETTERS 2025 LITERARY CONTESTS NOW OPEN Submit now! Award eligibility requires either that the author have a significant Texas connection or that the work's subject substantially concern Texas. Judges will select finalists and winners in fourteen categories for the best works published in 2025. Winners will be recognized and more than $25,000 in prizes awarded at the TIL's annual meeting, to be held on May 1-2, 2026, in College Station, Texas. https://texasinstituteofletters.org/literary-awards

We invite eligible works published in 2025 across 14 categories—including a brand new one for Best First Book of Nonfiction—with over $25,750 in prizes going to the winners.

TIL Literary Contest Guidelines for 2025 [PDF version of guidelines] The latest slate of TIL literary contests is now open with prizes adding up to $25,750. In addition, the TIL will bestow a lifetime achievement award ($7,000) and the Jo...

Submissions are now open for the Texas Institute of Letters 2025 Literary Awards! texasinstituteofletters.org/til-2025-lit...

If you don’t know the TIL, we’re an honor society that’s been around since 1936. I’m VP, and we in TIL pride ourselves on honoring the best of the best of Texas writing.