OCTOBER 2019 17
In 2011, San Antonio-based writer
William Jack Sibley decided to create a
literary festival honoring J. Frank Dobie.
Sibley, like Dobie before him, comes from
a ranching family in the areas surround-
ing Live Oak County. A wiry bullwhip of a
man with a crackling wit, Sibley can rope
and deworm cattle with the best of them.
He is also an accomplished author whose
literary output includes stage plays,
screenplays, and two acclaimed novels
set in Texas.
“I grew up reading Dobie,” Sibley told
me. “What made it so fascinating is that
his stories didn’t take place in some far-
away fantasyland. They happened in
places I knew.”
Sibley worked with local folks to use
Oakville as a venue for staging Dobie
Dichos. He had a bold vision for recruit-
ing performers. “I decided to go for broke
and invite the best, most prestigious writ-
ers I could think of,” he said. “I wasn’t
sure what to expect, but to my surprise,
they all said ‘yes.’”
There is a lot of love and respect for
Dobie among the Texas literati. Writ-
ers recognize his historical importanceand more than a few have drawn inspi-
ration—and helpful research—from his
work. And some, honestly, just like the
idea of coming out to a cool literary event
in an old ghost town.
The roster of performers who have
participated at a Dobie Dichos event
reads like a Hall of Fame of Texas letters:
Stephen Harrigan, Paulette Jiles, Eliza-
beth Crook, John Phillip Santos, Carmen
Tafolla, Bill Wittliff, Naomi Shihab Nye,
and many other luminaries.
I missed the first year of Dobie Dichos,
but in 2012 Sibley invited me, on the
strength of J. Frank Dobie: A Liberated
Mind, to speak in the capacity of Dobie’s
biographer. This was the first of several
iterations of Dobie Dichos in which I have
participated. On the appointed evening, I
drove the leisurely back roads to Oakvillecontinued on Page 94This year’s Dobie Dichos
takes place in Oakville
on Nov. 1. Participants
include writers Sarah
Bird and Sergio Troncoso,
plus musician Tish
Hinojosa. For more
information and to
purchase tickets,
visit dobiedichos.com.