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SUMMER 2026
Open Book:
New Pages from Inprint
| | FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR | | | |  | |
Giuseppe Taurino
Executive Director, Inprint
Dear friends,
In my first few months as Executive Director, I’ve enjoyed getting to know Inprint from a new vantage point—working alongside our talented staff, reconnecting with longtime friends of the organization, meeting new ones, and experiencing firsthand the many ways Inprint brings readers and writers together.
There is much to look forward to as we head into fall. New seasons of the Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series, Cool Brains!, and Escritores en la casa are about to begin, along with a full slate of writing workshops and community programs. As I’ve settled into this role, I’ve also come to appreciate more deeply the stories behind all of this work—the writers we welcome, the writing we help nurture, the people who gather with us, and the relationships that have sustained Inprint for more than four decades.
That is part of the idea behind Open Book. With each new season, we hope to share a few new pages from Inprint—taking you behind the scenes, celebrating people and moments that might otherwise go unseen, and giving you a glimpse of what’s ahead.
I’m grateful to be part of this community. I hope you enjoy this first issue of Open Book, and I look forward to sharing more with you in the months ahead.
Warmly,
| | | SPOTLIGHT | RECENT PAGES | LOOKING AHEAD | INPRINT IN THE WORLD | BY THE NUMBERS | | |
SPOTLIGHT
Meet Chris Jiang, Inprint’s newest full-time staff member
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Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Hi! My name is Chris Jiang, and I’m the Programs and Operations Coordinator here at Inprint! I’m an artist of many mediums, someone who spoils my dog, a hobby collector, feeder of squirrels, an advocate for the Oxford comma, and an avid lover of literature and its creation.
What has been your journey to Inprint, and how would you describe your current new role?
I started out working at Brazos Bookstore, where I worked many of Inprint’s events as a bookseller. Inprint hired me occasionally when they needed extra hands, and I like to say that they liked me enough to keep me! I’m ecstatic to be in my current role, which involves a lot of planning for our reading series and acting as a nexus for the office to keep everything running smoothly. I really enjoy having a finger in every pie.
You’re an avid reader! How did you develop such a love of books?
I’ve had this superpower since I was little where I can read in cars without getting motion sick. Every road trip, commute to school, and errand tagalong was spent devouring stories. I felt that books were able to take me to places a car never could. I clearly remember, when I was in second grade, refusing to get out of the car until I had finished the final pages of Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth.
Would you like to recommend a book or two that you’ve read recently?
I will always recommend Henry Hoke’s Open Throat. It’s one of my favorite pieces of fiction, and the prose is so poetic it almost feels like it’s a novel in verse. I also recently finished Another Country by James Baldwin, and I now consider it to be The Great American Novel. I’ve been reading a lot of literary fiction recently, so I’m taking a break with some fantasy and working my way through Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher series, as I am a huge fan of the video games.
What is your favorite thing about Houston?
The diversity! It comes through in so many facets. It feels like everywhere I turn, I can find a family-owned business to eat at, groups to join, and activities to do. I love meeting new people from all walks of life and learning about new ways to experience this city!
Is there anything you’d like people to know about Inprint?
We’re glad to have you! Every person that attends a reading, a workshop, or Writing Café brings energy to what we do. All of us at Inprint care deeply about the literary arts, and nothing makes us happier than seeing others share that same joy and passion.
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This spring, Inprint celebrated two annual traditions: the Inprint Prize Winners Reading and the Inprint Senior Memoir Workshop Reading & Celebration.
Typically held outdoors as part of Menil Neighborhood Community Day, this year’s Inprint Prize Winners Reading on April 18 moved into the Menil Collection lobby when a sudden downpour arrived. In 2026, Inprint awarded 10 prizes ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 to 11 students studying creative writing at the University of Houston and one undergraduate at Rice University. The winners, selected by outside judges, gave short readings from their prize-winning works.
Participants in the Inprint Senior Memoir Workshops at the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center gathered for a reading and celebration on April 26, sharing pieces about their lives, families, and communities. Inprint has offered the Senior Memoir Workshops at the Houston JCC since 1996. The 2026 workshops were taught by Anna Barr and Maria Hiers, both former Inprint Fellows. Anna now also serves as Inprint’s Development Manager.
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The 2026/2027 Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series opens with acclaimed Italian novelist Andrea Bajani and award-winning author Claire Vaye Watkins on Monday, August 24, at 7:30 pm at Congregation Emanu El.
Bajani, a professor and international writer-in-residence at Rice University, will read from his latest novel The Anniversary, winner of the 2025 Strega Prize, Italy’s most prestigious literary award. Watkins, “our most significant rising writer of the American West” (Vulture) and a Guggenheim Fellow, will share her new novel Yellow Pine. General admission tickets and season subscriptions are on sale now.
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The 20th anniversary season of the Inprint Cool Brains! Series launches with Rex Ogle, author of more than 100 books for kids, including comics, graphic novels, and memoirs, on Sunday, September 13, at 3 pm at Meyerland Performing and Visual Arts Middle School.
Texas-born and raised, Ogle shares his new books Fruitcake, a graphic novel about surviving middle school and finding the courage to be yourself, and Absent, a middle grade novel about three boys who skip school, told in verse, prose, and comics. Free tickets are now available.
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The 2026/2027 Inprint Escritores en la casa Series opens with Argentine poet, scholar, translator, and editor Ezequiel Zaidenwerg, sharing his debut novel in verse, Fantasma escritor, on Thursday, October 15, at 7 pm at Inprint House. Held in Spanish, the series is free and open to the public. Details are available here.
Zaidenwerg is the author of several books, including the poetry collections Doxa and La lírica está muerta, and has also translated writers including Anne Carson, Ben Lerner, Mary Ruefle, João Cabral de Melo Neto, and Emily Dickinson.
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In honor of National Poetry Month, Hello Houston welcomed Inprint Executive Director Giuseppe Taurino and Inprint Development Manager & Poetry Busker Anna Barr for the segment Inprint’s Poetry Buskers Bring Their Creative Written Verses to the Masses. Anna read “love poem from public radio,” which she wrote by request at the station.
Hello Houston, Houston Public Media
April 17, 2026
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Texas Observer’s Lise Olsen interviewed longtime Inprint Executive Director Rich Levy for the article Leaving His Mark on Houston’s Inprint, reflecting on Inprint’s history and growth and the many great writers who have come to Houston over the years.
Texas Observer
May 14, 2026
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Houstonia Magazine’s Holly Beretto featured Inprint Deputy Director Krupa Parikh’s middle grade book recommendations in The Houston Summer Reading List, 2026. Krupa highlighted books by Rex Ogle, who will appear in the Inprint Cool Brains! Series in September, and Chrystal D. Giles.
Houstonia Magazine, Summer 2026 Issue
June 12, 2026
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About the Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series, Axios Houston’s Shafaq Patel wrote, “The nationally recognized series brings Pulitzer Prize winners, bestselling novelists and acclaimed poets to Houston, strengthening the city's literary scene” in the article Inprint announces 2026-27 reading series lineup.
Axios Houston
July 28, 2026
| | First-time ticket buyers last season, a 41% increase | | Media mentions last season | | Individuals served annually | | Participants last season who said that Inprint Writers Workshops had an impact on their writing | | Events hosted last season | | Awarded in support of creative writing students at the University of Houston and Rice University—the highest total to date | | Your support makes Inprint’s readings, workshops, fellowships, and community programs possible. Thank you. | | | | |
