WRITERS' LEAGUE OF TEXAS
formerly the Austin Writers' League
WLT
Star
Instructor
William Jack Sibley
“What
we ran away from so many years ago -- small towns, narrow minds, sexual
repression, artistic suppression, suffocating families, unfulfilling jobs,
busted marriages, lack of opportunity -- whatever it was, it does come
back to bite you in the butt,” says William Jack Sibley. “What
my first novel, Any Kind Of Luck (Kensington Publishing, NYC,
August, 2001-- paperback, August 2002, ISBN: 1575667665) ultimately conveys
is that one should never be afraid to face those initial anxiety-provoking
terrors -- going home, losing a relationship, career failure, death, illness,
loneliness, apathy -- whatever. When difficult circumstances arise it
helps to remember that all we’re really being offered is another
brilliant opportunity for growth.” (Any Kind Of Luck was
nominated for the 2001 Lambda Literary Awards, the Texas Institute of
Letters - John Bloom Award, and the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year
Award, as well as chapter excerpted in "Southern Lights: PEN
South, Literary Review, Vol II", Manya DeLeon Booksmith, ISBN:
0966460804; and Genre Magazine, chapter excerpt, August 2001 issue.) Any
Kind Of Luck has remained the No. 1 seller in the Amazon.com Las
Cruces, NM "Purchase Circle", outselling bestsellers on the
list including works by Joyce Carol Oates, Tony Hillerman and "Harry
Potter" Book 5. It was the sole August Book Review selection for
the Las Cruces, Thomas Branigan Memorial Library Book Review Luncheon,
moderated by Win Jacobs (8/12/03).
Sibley's next novel, FADED LOVE, is due out in the winter of 2004 - 05. FADED LOVE is the story of a man in prison who falls in love, through lengthy correspondence, with a woman he's never met. Getting out, he goes to find her and discovers that the love letters he's received were written not by a woman but by a closeted gay man -- a small town minister. Not only did the minister deceive the prisoner, but he sent a photograph of his sister (who lives with him) as a picture representing himself. And not only is the sister unaware of the ruse, but she herself happens to be a lesbian! The ex-prisoner has fallen in love physically with a woman who doesn't know he exists, and mentally with a man he doesn't know how to love. Set in the Texas Gulf Coast fishing village of Rockport, FADED LOVE is a darkly humorous and contemplative examination of the parameters of love, sex, sexuality and cultural perspective.
Sibley based Any Kind Of Luck on his own experience of returning home to small town Texas after living a very urban existence in New York City for eight years. A versatile writer, Sibley’s work has spanned from writing dialogue for television’s “The Guiding Light” to serving as a contributing editor at Interview Magazine to seeing his work produced Off-Broadway and regionally. His first play "Governor's Mansion" won the Southwest Regional Playwright's Competition in 1978, and was produced at Center Stage in Austin, TX. His play "Mortally Fine" was produced at The Actors Outlet Theater (W. 28th St.), NYC, in 1985 and at The Group Rep Theater in Burbank, CA, 1998. ("Mortally Fine" is excerpted in "100 Monologues; An Audition Sourcebook from New Dramatist," Laura Harrington, Editor, Mentor Books; ISBN: 04516268851.) "Mr. and Mrs. Coffee" (prod. Humboldt Univ., Arcata, CA, and excerpted in "Competition Monologues", University Press of America, Edited by Roger Ellis, ISBN: 0819168505), "If You Loved Me" (prod. Tennessee Williams Playwright Festival, Key West, FL), "Lock The Doors!" (prod. 29th St. Rep. Co., NYC, 1990, New Voices In The American Theater Festival), "It Happened In Santa Fe" (Prod. Railyard Performance Center, Santa Fe, NM, 1994). "Kitten and Princess" and "Two Men, Two Women and a Bird," one-acts, have all had NYC productions.
He has nine screenplays in various stages of Hollywood production, including the award winning "Where all the Rattlesnakes Are Born" (Silver Medal, Best Screenplay, WORLDFEST, Houston, 1992) and "White On Rice"(retitled from "Approximate Lives", Finalist, Best Screenplay, Charleston-Spoleto Festival, 1994). "December Story," "Amor," and "Dead Giveaway" are all presently under option. His screenplays have also been optioned by such esteemed directors as John Schlesinger (MIDNIGHT COWBOY), Arthur Hiller (LOVE STORY) and Pete Masterson (THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL). He's co-written three screenplays with actress Diane Ladd ("Hot Water Biscuits," "High Maintenance," and "The Last of the Bad Girls") and another ("The Big Hurt") for actor Tab Hunter.
A graduate of the University of Texas, Austin (1975), BS in Communications (Radio, Television, Film), Sibley is a former member and boardmember of The New Dramatists and is a member of the Writers Guild of America/West, the Dramatist Guild, The Writer's League of Texas, Gemini Ink and PEN International. He has been the playwright-in-residence at Humboldt University (Arcata, CA), as well as a guest playwright at the Tennessee Williams Festival in Key West and The Texas Playwright's Festival, Stages Theater, Houston. A fellow at the Blue Mountain Writer’s Colony in Blue Mountain, New York, Sibley has also had residencies at the Saskatchewan Writers/Artist Colony (St. Peters) and The Colony at Dairy Hollow, Eureka Springs, AR. In the Spring of 2003 he was a visiting guest lecturer at the Pen Ethnic Conference, Bay Shore, Long Island, NY. In July of 2003 he was guest speaker at the Tenth Annual Agents Conference, sponsored by the Writer's League of Texas, Austin, TX. In August of 2003 Mr. Sibley was selected to attend The Julia and David White Artist Colony in Ciudad Colon, Costa Rica. His writing has appeared in Utne Reader, The Dallas Times Herald, Heritage Magazine (summer 1996), Texas Co-op Power Magazine, The Dead Mule ("A Journal of Southern Literature"), Flying Colors Magazine, Southwest Airlines Magazine, Ford Times and The New York Native.
While he has lived in New York City and Santa Fe, Sibley is a sixth-generation Texan and currently commutes between Los Angeles and his great-grandfather’s ranch south of San Antonio. In addition to helping restore a 100-year old train depot, he writes, raises cattle and (formerly) ostriches, grows olive trees and is a past president of the Christine Historical Society and former board member of the Texas Historical Foundation and the Atascosa County Historical Commission.
Visit his web site at http://hometown.aol.com/wjsibley/index.html
Sign up for: Jack Sibley's RETREAT ("He Said, She Said...Say What?") in Salado, Texas
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