Set in a small, dusty Texas town, The Last Picture Show is one of Larry McMurtry’s most memorable novels, and the basis for the enormously popular movie of the same name. In this volume in Ig’s acclaimed Bookmarked series, award-winning author Steve Yarbrough shares with us the importance of this seminal novel on his life and work.

Steve Yarbrough is the author of nine novels, including The Realm of Last Chances (2013) and Safe from the Neighbors (2010), both published by Knopf. His 2006 novel, The End of California, (Knopf) was a finalist for the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for fiction. His 2004 novel, Prisoners of War, was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, and his 1999 novel, The Oxygen Man, won the California Book Award, the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Fiction, and the Mississippi Authors Award. His work has appeared in Best American Short Stories, Best American Mystery Stories, and the Pushcart Prize Anthology. In 2010, he won the Richard Wright Award.