Story Time

Winter 2024 | By Lynn Gosnell

On Rice’s campus, the winter lull is upon us. Gone are the ubiquitous electric scooters, racing bikes and the hordes of students crossing the Inner Loop from colleges to classrooms. Grabbing a coffee at the Brochstein requires no waiting in line, and finding a table in the tranquil and always inviting Crownover Courtyard is a breeze. It’s the perfect season to settle in with a book — or an issue of Rice Magazine!

We’re bringing readers a great variety of stories in this issue. Like a good biography? Turn to our cover feature, “Walkabout,” and learn about the Latin Grammy-winning composer and pianist Gabriela Lena Frank ’94, ’96. A prolific composer, Frank has lately been making news for the premiere and subsequent stagings of her first opera, “El último sueño de Frida y Diego” (“The Last Dream of Frida and Diego”). There are so many surprising layers to the story of this proud Shepherd School graduate and one of the most influential composers in American music today. 

We’re bringing readers a great variety of stories in this issue. Like a good biography? Turn to our cover feature, ‘Walkabout,’ and learn about the Latin Grammy-winning composer and pianist Gabriela Lena Frank ’94, ’96. 

How about a memoir? At a college associates’ night several years ago, I learned from an alumna about her fellow Will Ricer Mark Lewis ’01, an oncologist who writes candidly about his own hereditary cancer. Last summer, we reached out to Lewis for a story in the magazine, and we learned he’s working on a book, too. Don’t miss his clear-sighted and lyrical essay (“Kindred Spirits”) about his diagnosis and family history and how his illness connects him to his patients. 

For a revealing and complex story of American history, we would be remiss if we didn’t recommend “Looking Back To Look Forward,” our interview with Rice’s esteemed historians Alexander X. Byrd ’90 and W. Caleb McDaniel. The co-chairs of the four-year Task Force on Slavery, Segregation and Racial Injustice recently released the third and final report of this consequential scholarly project.   

For short story lovers, our departments deliver a reader-friendly collection about student and campus life, research and discovery, and accomplished alumni.

There’s also a fun Taylor Swift-themed quiz created by our magazine interns and a delightful profile of wine writer Ray Isle ’86, whose new book shares his knowledge of and affinity for the world’s natural and biodynamic wines. Cheers to the winter issue!  

Have some feedback to share with fellow readers? Kindly write to me at lynn.gosnell@rice.edu.