Literary Death Match, Presented By Odessa Arts

Literary Death Match returns to Odessa after a two-year hiatus on October 17, 2024, at the Copper Rose Building (415 N. Grant Ave, Odessa, TX 79761), presented by Odessa Arts with support from Texans for the Arts and the Texas Commission for the Arts. Hosted by creator Adrian Zuniga, this night of electric storytelling and competition will feature four authors—Jeramey Kraatz, Richard Santos, Elizabeth Wetmore, and Jonathan Pizarro—competing for the Literary Death Match Odessa crown.

Judging will be handled by Becka Oliver, 2022 champion James Wade, and a mystery judge. In between literary rounds, enjoy free poems from Typewriter Rodeo, live music, books for sale by Front Street Books, and a cash bar with small bites. Authors will also be available to sign books purchased at the event.

Jeramey Kraatz - author of the Space Runners series and the Cloak Society series. His next books include I Witnessed: The Lizzie Borden Story (a graphic novel) and Deep in the Heart (his YA debut set in West Texas). Jeramey also writes the English dub scripts for a bunch of blockbuster anime titles like My Hero Academia and Dragon Ball. He lives in Texas.

Richard Santos - his debut novel, Trust Me, was a finalist for the Writer's League of Texas Book Awards and was named one of the best debuts of the year by Crime Reads. He's the editor of the collection A Night of Screams: Latino Horror Stories, and he received an International Thriller Writers Award nomination for his story "Rush Hour" in Austin Noir. A former Board Member of The National Book Critics Circle, Richard has also judged contests for The Kirkus Prize, The NEA, and many more. Recent work can be found in Texas Monthly and other. In a previous career, he taught in high schools and before that he worked for political campaigns, consulting firms, and labor unions.

Elizabeth Wetmore - Elizabeth Wetmore’s novel Valentine (Harper 2020) was a Best Book of the Year by Amazon, The Washington Post, Barnes and Noble, and BuzzFeed. A finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Texas Institute of Letters Sergio Troncoso Award for Best First Book of Fiction, Valentine won the Chicago Writers Association’s Book of the Year Award and was shortlisted for the Crook’s Corner Book Prize. Translated into more than a dozen languages, the French version was shortlisted for the 2020 Grand Prix de Littérature Américaine. Valentine has been named one of the 30 most essential books about Texas by Texas Monthly, and her work has been featured on BBC Radio 4, as well as The New York Times, Iowa Review, and other journals. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. A native of Odessa, Wetmore lives in Chicago where she is currently working on a book about cattle ranching, the petroleum industry, environmental depredation, and a devastating ice storm in South Texas.

Jonathan Pizarro- is a Gibraltarian writer and teacher. He is a graduate of Brunel University, where he was mentored by Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo. His short fiction has been published in various journals and anthologies, including Popshot and Litro. In 2021, his short story 'All We Have Left is Desire' for Queerlings Magazine was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His short story 'Luz in Nueva York (1992) made the shortlist for the 2021 Aurora Prize, and in 2022 he was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. His most recent short story was published in the successful Muswell Press anthology Queer Life, Queer Love 2, and is an extract from his forthcoming debut novel. He writes a column on culture for the Gibraltar Chronicle, and sits on the Gibraltar National Book Council with aim of promoting Gibraltarian literature at home and abroad. He has recently moved to Washington DC with his husband and their dog.

James Wade is the award-winning author of four novels. His latest, Hollow Out the Dark, was released in August of 2024 and named a must-read book by Barnes & Noble and Deep South Magazine. He is the youngest novelist to win two Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America, and the recipient of the MPIBA’s prestigious Reading the West Award. James’s work has appeared in Southern Literary Magazine, Texas Highways, Writers’ Digest, and numerous additional publications. James lives and writes in the Texas Hill Country with his wife and children.

Becka Oliver joined the WLT in September 2013 as Executive Director after more than two decades of experience working in newspaper and book publishing. She spent much of her publishing career inside two of the “big five” publishing leaders – Macmillan and Hachette Book Group — licensing domestic and foreign rights on behalf of countless notable authors, including Sandra Brown, Brad Meltzer, Nicholas Sparks, Jon Stewart and the Daily Show, and more. In 2007, she made the leap from Associate Director of Subsidiary Rights at Grand Central Publishing to Literary Agent, first at Endeavor and then at William Morris Endeavor (WME) after the two powerhouse talent agencies merged. As a literary agent, Becka represented clients working in both fiction and nonfiction, including Brunonia Barry, Sheryl Crow, Kamran Pasha, Joanna Philbin, Susan Rebecca White, and the popular blog Awkward Family Photos.

Host or Publisher Odessa Arts