The smell of new books, paper, pencils. Matching the long walk home with the stories inside your head, the going-story always different from the way-home story. Marigolds ripening in the yards, readying themselves for the altars of remembrance, for framing the ancestor’s faces. Gemini Ink offers San Antonio another literary cornucopia in this season abundant with memory, sensory richness, harvest, and possibility.

And don’t forget it’s your birthday! This year is Gemini Ink’s 10th anniversary serving readers and writers the bounty of human story: poetry, memoir, fiction, playwriting and more. We’ll honor you, who are our reason for being, at our anniversary INKstravaganza gala, Thursday, September 27 at Pearl Stable.

Also honoring the many ways our local community champions reading and writing, Gemini Ink’s Autograph Series will offer an exciting departure from the norm this fall. Instead of a major writer, the Autograph will present a major reader. Coleen Grissom, the irreverent literary provocateur who has raised several generations of San Antonio readers of all ages will be our October Autograph star. Entitled Instructions from a Master Mind, Dr. Grissom’s Autograph events will challenge, delight, sometimes annoy, and always inspire her legions of fans with the story of how she became the uncompromising and obsessive reader she is — and how you can become one too.

Now for other classes, workshops, and special events. Prizewinning novelist David Liss has had the wacky idea of writing the entire first-draft of a novel in eight weeks alongside five student colleagues. Kimiko Hahn, former poetry faculty at Houston’s prestigious writing program, will give poets a starred reading and writing experience in one precious afternoon. Local columnist Edmund Tijerina will advance the cause of writing briefly and boldly, always a good idea! And the first Basque poet to be translated into English (published by Graywolf Press) will be here with his translator in November.