2025 Inprint Poets & Writers Ball

Saturday
February 8, 2025
6:30 pm

River Oaks Country Club
1600 River Oaks Boulevard
Houston, Texas 77019

FEATURED SPEAKER
Lawrence Wright

GALA CHAIRS
Brittany Sakowitz Kushner and
Kevin Kushner

Black tie

Thanks to the 2025 Inprint Poets & Writers Ball, Houston will continue to be a thriving city nurtured by the power of creative writing and reading.

For more than four decades, Inprint has been championing the world’s great writers and enhancing communities with the power of creative writing. The 2025 Inprint Poets & Writers Ball, a one-of-a-kind black-tie fundraising gala, was chaired by Brittany Sakowitz Kushner and Kevin Kushner. The featured speaker for the evening was Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower and Mr. Texas, Lawrence Wright.

The festivities took place at River Oaks Country Club on Saturday, February 8, starting at 6:30 pm with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. Short salon-style readings by three gifted young authors who have benefitted from Inprint programs and support followed. A gourmet meal, designed by Chef Emeritus Robert Del Grande of The Annie Café and Bar, added to the evening, along with literary-themed table decorations created by table hosts and volunteers and music by Latin Carnaval. The evening culminated over coffee and dessert with a keynote talk by Lawrence Wright.

As a thank-you gift, guests received a handmade artist-designed chapbook based on Wright’s work, in a signed and numbered limited edition. The evening also included a nightcap for those who want to keep the party going.

Underwriters

HOST COMMITEE

Mary and Marcel Barone
Susie and Sanford Criner
Annie and Campbell Eifler
Cece and Mack Fowler
Megan and Stephen Goldfarb
Lynn Goode and Harrison Williams
Holly and Breen Haire
Sis and Hasty Johnson
Claire Liu and Joe Greenberg
Franci Neely
Nikita and Atman Shukla
Mark Wawro and Melanie Gray
Andrea and Bill White
Cyvia G. Wolff
Nina and Michael Zilkha

TABLES

EPIC
Brittany Sakowitz Kushner and Kevin Kushner
Franci Neely/Nina and Michael Zilkha
Noelle and Eric Reed

NOVEL
Chris Bryan and Trey Peacock/Katie Sammons and Terry Lohrenz/Mark Wawro and Melanie Gray
Chinhui Juhn and Eddie Allen
Sabria and Kevin Lewis/Nikita and Atman Shukia/Sidley Austin
Gail and Stephen Zaruba

STORY
Nancy C. Allen/The Greentree Fund
Karen and Mike Brisch
Heather Brown and Henry
Segelke/Laura Calaway/
Elaine Howard
Bettie Cartwright
J. Mark Deaton and Brad Telford/Sarah Flournoy and Don Verser
Cece and Mack Fowler
Debbie Gary
Henneman Rau Kirklin & Smith LLP
Daniel P. O’Connor
Katie Padden and Rick Evans
Wealth Enhancement Group
Cyvia Wolff and Marc Grossberg

BOOK CLUB
Baylor College of Medicine – HEAL
Candace Baggett and Ron Restrepo
Carolyn Russell Brock and Glen Brock/Ogletree Deakins
Gracie and Bob Cavnar/Lynn Goode and Harrison Williams
Mary S and Jack Dawson
Susie and Joe Dilg
Vicky and Tony Estrera/Valerae Lewis and Michael O’Reilly
Bari and David Fishel
The G.B.C.
Holly and Breen Haire
Nancy Powell Moore/Bobbi Samuels
Ann and Tim Stout
Michelle and Rishi Varma
Anne Whitlock and Michael Skelly

BOOKSHELF
Mary and Marcel Barone
Lisa and Mark Coffin
Susie and Sanford Criner/Annie and Campbell Eifler
Megan Davis and James Kadlick/Sarah Beth and Paul Seifert
Jenny Elkins
Katharine Barthelme Frank and Shane Frank/Misty and Surena Matin
Caroline Kerr and Andy Lusk
Lucille and Chris King/Hampton & King, P.C.
Olivia Thomas

SEATS

EPIC
Carolyn and Platt Davis
Consuelo Duroc-Danner
Sis and Hasty Johnson
Claire Liu and Joe Greenberg
Marek Family Foundation
Lillie Robertson
Diana Strassmann and Jeff Smisek

NOVEL
Gwendolyn Dawson and Ba Nguyen
Nancy Manderson
Nena Duncan Marsh/JBD Foundation
Nancy McGregor and Neal Manne
Kyttie and Bentley Sanford

STORY
Ingrid Osborn Bond
Yini and Herman Collette
Liz and Steve Crowell
Nancy Dunlap
Cheryl and Will Jordan
Jean and Henry May
Regina Rogers
Lois and George Stark
Doreen Stoller and Dan Piette
Gay and Ron Tigner

BOOK CLUB
Patricia Baldwin
Nicole and Travis Chulick
Gulchin A. Ergun and Matthew A. McBride
Kristianna Foye
Alecia Harris
Victoria and Michael Hohertz
Liara Tamani and Larry Anismashaun
Sandra Tirey and Jan van Lohuizen
Andrea and Bill White

BOOKSHELF
Nicole Clark
Madeleine Callery Hussey
Docia Rudley
Brittany Smith and Crit Jones

Table Decorations

In a long standing tradition, the Inprint Poets & Writers Ball invites donors and friends to decorate the evening’s tables inspired by a bookish theme. The results are spectacular and showcase the creativity, wit, and style of Inprint’s supporters. Thank you to all who shared in the fun!

About Featured Speaker Lawrence Wright

Lawrence Wright is a Pulitzer Prize winning author, screenwriter, and playwright known for his compelling explorations of complex subjects, including terrorism, religion, and American culture.  He began his writing career at The Race Relations Reporter in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1971 before becoming a staff writer for Texas Monthly, and a prominent writer for The New Yorker, where he has penned numerous influential articles.

Wright gained widespread recognition with his acclaimed book, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2007. This seminal work provides a gripping account of the events leading up to the September 11 attacks, showcasing his meticulous research and narrative skill. In addition to this landmark book, Wright authored Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, an incisive investigation into the controversial Church of Scientology. His earlier work, Mr. Texas, offers a vivid portrayal of Texas and its unique cultural landscape.

Through his writing, Wright has established himself as a significant voice in contemporary literature, tackling pressing issues with clarity and depth. His ability to engage readers with profound insights into the human experience continues to resonate, making him a vital figure in American storytelling.

Before dinner readers

Nick Almeida is an Inprint C. Glenn Cambor Fellow and PhD candidate at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program where he was awarded the Inprint Donald Barthelme Prize in Nonfiction. Since 2021, Nick has taught Inprint Storytelling and Narrative Health workshops for Houston Methodist employees through The Center for Performing Arts Medicine and The Methodist Physicians Group and Baylor College of Medicine, as well as several Inprint Writers Workshops. He holds an MFA from the Michener Center for Writers, and his short fiction and essays have appeared in Kenyon Review, American Literary Review, The Southeast Review and elsewhere. His chapbook, Masterplans, was selected by Steve Almond as grand prize winner of the inaugural Masters Review Chapbook Open in fiction and is available now.

 

Dino Enrique Piacentini is the author of the novel Invasion of the Daffodils. His stories and essays have been published in Pembroke, Gulf Coast, Confrontation, The Masters’ Review, The Atticus Review, The Globe & Mail, and The Massachusetts Review, among other places. In 2016, he earned his MFA at the University of Houston, where he was an Inprint M.D. Anderson/C. Glenn Cambor Fellow. Currently he lives in Denver, where he teaches creative writing at Lighthouse Writers Workshop and the University of Denver’s University College.

Stalina Emmanuelle Villarreal received a PhD from the UH Creative Writing Program and is the recipient of the Inprint Donald Barthelme Prize in Poetry. They are an ekphrastic poet, photographic eco-essayist, sketch artist, sonic improv performer, literary translator, and an assistant professor of English at the University of Houston – Downtown. Their bilingualism stems from her 1.5-generation experience being both Mexican and Xicanx. Their debut collection of poetry and creative nonfiction is called Watcha (Deep Vellum), and their poetry can be found in the Rio Grande ReviewTexas ReviewThe Acentos Review, Defunkt Magazine, and elsewhere. Their published translations of poetry include Enigmas by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Photograms of My Conceptual Heart Absolutely Blind by Minerva Reynosa, Kilimanjaro by Maricela Guerrero, and Postcards in Braille by Sergio Pérez Torres.