A large guffaw burst from author and playwright Larry L. King when he was introduced as one of America’s “most distinguished literary voices” at the Adams Writing Center’s Creative Writing Awards ceremony in April. King, who has retained his rough-and-tumble West Texas attitude, told the several hundred gathered that at age 6, he decided he was going to be a famous “arther” when he grew up. He made good on that promise, first as a journalist, then author and playwright, adding such works as Best Little Whorehouse in Texas to his resume. During his address, the former Nieman Fellow at Harvard read from his latest book A Writer’s Life in Letters, or, Reflections in a Bloodshot Eye, telling the audience, sometimes in spicy language, that he wanted the young writers present to understand the “salts and sours” of book publishing.