Meet Larry McMurtry, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lonesome Dove, and Diana Ossana, his long-time writing partner and collaborator.
July 17, 2008 Nasher Hall
7 pm Doors Open
8 pm Larry McMurtry/Diana Ossana Salon moderated by Jerome Weeks, former book columnist of The Dallas Morning News
8:45 pm Audience Question and Answer
Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana
Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana have successfully collaborated as writing partners in fiction, film, and television. In addition to writing the Academy Award-winning screenplay for Brokeback Mountain, directed by Ang Lee and adapted from Annie Proulx's short story, this duo has written two novels, Pretty Boy Floyd and Zeke and Ned. Most recently McMurtry and Ossana co-wrote and co-executive produced the television miniseries, Comanche Moon, based on McMurtry's novel of the same name.
The team also co-wrote and co-executive produced four award-winning miniseries: Streets of Laredo and Comanche Moon for CBS; Dead Man's Walk for ABC; and Johnson County War for Hallmark Entertainment.
Current projects include the upcoming movie Boone's Lick, based upon McMurtry's 2000 novel, now in pre-production, slated for release in 2010, starring Tom Hanks and Julianne Moore.
Larry McMurtry, internationally acclaimed novelist, screenwriter and essayist, is best known for his 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning epic novel Lonesome Dove, which follows the journey of two former Texas Rangers on a cattle drive from the Rio Grande to the Montana frontier. The novel was adapted into a television miniseries starring Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones.
Born in Wichita Falls, Texas, Larry McMurtry earned degrees from North Texas State University and Rice University. He spent one semester at Stanford University as a Wallace Stegner Fellow. He has held teaching positions at Texas Christian University, Rice University, George Mason College, and American University.
Diana Ossana, essayist and short story writer, was born in St. Louis, Missouri and attended Eastern New Mexico University. After a successful career in law, Ms. Ossana began collaborating with Mr. McMurtry on screenplays, teleplays, and novels in 1992.
She first read Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain in The New Yorker Magazine in 1997. She and Mr. McMurtry wrote the screenplay based upon the story, for which they won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2006. Ms. Ossana, the film's producer, earned a Golden Globe for Best Dramatic Feature.
