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More than 200 authors and about 40,000 book fans will descend on the Texas Capitol October 26-27 for the 2013 Texas Book Festival. Throughout the year KUT News speaks with authors about their lives and their work. To celebrate the upcoming festival, we have collected some of those interviews here. From 9-11 to Scientology to the Kennedy assassination, it's a diverse set of works from a fascinating group of authors.

Interview: The White House Photographer Inside the Bush Presidency on Sept. 11

On Sept. 11, 2001, Eric Draper presumed the morning trip to Florida would be a routine affair. Or, at least as routine as anything ever can be when you’re traveling with the President of the United States. 

Draper was, at the time, the official White House photographer. On the schedule that day: a visit to a Sarasota classroom to promote an education program. But as the events of the morning unfolded, Eric Draper witnessed history as few others could have. 

Draper is a longtime photojournalist. His book, "Front Row Seat," includes a chapter on 9/11 and its aftermath.

“For me, it amounted to suppressing a lot of my feelings in order to do my job of following the president and actually capturing his feelings,” Draper said as he described how he handled working that day. “I had to put my feelings aside, and luckily I had the camera as a distraction.”

Listen to KUT's interview with Draper in the Soundcloud player above, and view his images in the slideshow player at the top of this page.

Credit Eric Draper, White House
President George W. Bush aboard Air Force One on Sept 11. Draper said he tried to focus on the technical aspects of the job and keeping up with the president that day.

David entered radio journalism thanks to a love of storytelling, an obsession with news, and a desire to keep his hair long and play in rock bands. An inveterate political junkie with a passion for pop culture and the romance of radio, David has reported from bases in Washington, London, Los Angeles, and Boston for Monitor Radio and for NPR, and has anchored in-depth public radio documentaries from India, Brazil, and points across the United States and Europe. He is, perhaps, known most widely for his work as host of public radio's Marketplace. Fulfilling a lifelong dream of moving to Texas full-time in 2005, Brown joined the staff of KUT, launching the award-winning cultural journalism unit "Texas Music Matters."
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