Andrew Porter debuts ‘The Imagined Life’ at San Antonio Book Festival

SAN ANTONIO — More than 100 authors will be featured at the San Antonio Book Festival (SABF) this weekend, many from right here in the Alamo City. 

Andrew Porter, a Pennsylvania native turned San Antonio professor will be one of several writers showcasing their newest book. 

Porter’s latest fiction novel, “The Imagined Life,” debuts on April 15 but will be available at the SABF, on Saturday, April 12 at the Central Library and UTSA Southwest Campus. 

Visitors will be able to buy “The Imagined Life” at the Nowhere Bookshop Book Sales tent, but Porter said he is happy when he sees unique editions of his previous books. 

“Most of the people are there to get the most recent book signed, but you do sometimes get people coming up with old books. And I always love it when they bring like, one of the kind of obscure editions of like my first book. And I love it, that’s always a nice surprise,” Porter said. 

His new novel, “The Imagined Life,” follow’s main character, Steven Mills who has reached a crossroads of sorts after his wife and son have left, and may not return. 

During this big transition, Steven becomes determined to find out what happened to his own father, a charismatic professor who disappeared in 1984 when Steven was twelve. 

Porter’s novel explores the impossibility of understanding one’s parents, first love, and the unbreakable bonds between a father and son.

The award-winning author said the book’s concept came to him during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

While on sabbatical from Trinity University and isolating from the epidemic, Porter began missing his family in California, a place he considers his home outside of San Antonio. And though Porter couldn’t physically visit the Golden State – he knew he could visit in his imagination. 

Porter then put pen to paper and became entangled with the characters and the mystery of the story, and thus “The Imagined Life,” was born. 

But “The Imagined Life,” isn’t Porter’s first publication. He’s won several awards for previous publications including his short story collections, “The Disappeared,” and “The Theory of Light and Matter” and the novel “In Between Days.”

Porter said he first started writing short stories in college before jumping into novel writing. 

“For the early years of my writing life, it was all short stories. And my first book was a collection of short stories, and then I wrote a novel and then I wrote another collection of short stories. And, now this is my second novel. So, my trend is to alternate between the two,” he said. 

Porter has been teaching at Trinity for the last 20 years, deciding to stay after falling in love with the Alamo City. And since he has gone through the rigorous process of publishing a book his students frequently ask about how he overcomes the tribulations of being a writer. His answer: Just keep writing. 

“I tell them it’s about perseverance, which is really true. There are a lot of students with talent, but the one thing you can never tell is which ones are going to kind of have that perseverance after they leave Trinity to keep writing. Because life as a writer has a lot of setbacks, a lot of challenges, and you have to be willing to kind of write in the face of those,” Porter said. 

Porter, whose been a moderator for the SABF, said he is excited to be a featured author this year. 

“It’s a great way to get to meet authors that I didn’t know before and to kind of familiarize myself with their work. There are always authors who I’m excited to meet because I have not crossed paths with them elsewhere. And so, one of the nice things, if you’re a featured author or panelist is they always have a reception or that type of thing afterward. And so there’s always a chance to kind of connect with authors that you want to meet,” he said. 

He said it’s also a great way for up-and-coming writers to make connections in the publishing world. 

 “I think it’s a great place to come for aspiring writers, because you get to meet authors and it’s very casual. But there also various organizations there with booths. There are presses like the Trinity University Press, and so you can actually meet with editors and publishers and people who are involved in that side of of things,” he said. 

Porter usually attends the festival with his two children who are avid readers themselves – which is no surprise when their dad is an award-winning author. 

Porter is currently halfway through his next short story collection which focuses on the significance of handwritten letters.

For more about Andrew Porter and the San Antonio Book Festival, click here.