The Stark Museum of Art will feature a presentation by Beaumont-based author Jim Sanderson as a part of the Lunch and Look series on Wednesday, Aug. 1, from 12:10 p.m. to 12:50 p.m. Lunch and Look: Jim Sanderson on Love, Age and Crime in Texas will take place at the Education Center located at 812 Green Avenue, across from the Stark Museum of Art. Box lunches will be available for pre-order for those planning to attend. To order a box lunch and reserve a seat, call 886-2787 and ask for the Museum Store.

Visitors are invited to a lunch program as Sanderson discusses his latest books Faded Love and Dolph's Team. Set in Texas, Sanderson's works to address diverse issues, from relationships and aging to mystery and murder. Chief Educator, Elena Ivanova, will introduce Sanderson and make a connection between Sanderson's books and the painting Idlers by Ernest Martin Hennings in the Museum's collection. Both books will be available for purchase in the Stark Museum of Art Museum Store. Book signing will take place half an hour before and immediately after the program.

"We are happy to continue to host renowned Texas authors as a part of our Lunch & Look program," says Elena Ivanova. "Like men in Hennings's painting, Sanderson's characters may be called 'idlers'. Retired or semi-retired, they spend a lot of time in each other's company talking endlessly about philosophical and existential issues. Sanderson's prose makes the reader poignantly aware of the human drama unfolding in the lives of these seemingly unremarkable aging men."

Jim Sanderson currently serves as Writing Director for Lamar University in Beaumont, and was the 2002 Distinguished Faculty Lecturer and recipient of the 2006 University Scholar Award.

His collection of short stories, Faded Love, was a Finalist for 2010 Texas Institute of Letters' Jesse Jones Award for Best Fiction of the year by a Texan or about Texas.

Many of the characters from Faded Love find their way into Dolph's Team, Sanderson's 2011 novel about a group of aging friends from both sides of the law investigating the murder of a friend.

In addition, he has published over sixty short stories, essays and scholarly articles.

Once labeled a "working class, Texas" writer, his stories often tell of what could have been, as best described by Joe O'Connell of the Austin American-Statesmen:

Sanderson's Texas is wide-open spaces with story settings ranging from Alpine to Austin to Beaumont. It's a land full of possibilities just out of reach, both emotionally and financially.

More information on the program, including the Café menu, can be found on the Museum's web site, http://www.starkmuseum.org under Education, Programs, Lunch and Look. This event has limited seating; for those wishing to attend, lunch orders must be placed and confirmed by Wednesday, July 25, at 5:00 p.m.

A confirmed prepaid lunch order serves as the reservation for this presentation. The Star and Crescent Moon Café of Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center will bring lunches to the Education Center to distribute orders to attendees. The Museum will provide complimentary coffee and soft drinks and will hold a door prize drawing for those in attendance.

Located at 712 Green Avenue in Orange, the Stark Museum of Art is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Admission is free. Group tours are available by appointment. For more information, call 409.886.ARTS (2787) or visit http://www.starkmuseum.org.