Photo (L to R) Top Row: Janssen, Ballí, Mendez, Bracken, Balcárcel; Row 2: Wright, Cobb, Tate; Row 3: Bajaj, Simmons, Ruiz, McAllen; Row 4: Williams, Patterson, Wynter, Kemp, Treviño. 

This is your semi-regular roundup of new and recent awards garnered by Texas books and authors since our last roundup. 

AWARDS & ACCOLADES 

Members of the Texas Institute of Letters have overwhelmingly approved twelve new writers to be inducted into the TIL. 2024 honorees are Varsha Bajaj, Rebecca Balcárcel, Cecilia Ballí, Michael Bracken, Laeken Zea Kemp, Mary Margaret McAllen, Matt Mendez, Leslie Jill Patterson, Rudy Ruiz, Ruth J. Simmons, Natalia Treviño, and Lucinda Williams. The TIL’s elected membership consists of the state’s most recognized and serious writers. 

May Cobb's THE HUNTING WIVES will soon be an eight-episode series on Starz, with shooting to begin this spring. 

THE WAYS OF WATER by Teresa Janssen was just awarded the 2024 Lariat Award for Outstanding Western Novel by the Western Heritage Center/National Cowboy Museum. 

Don Tate won the 2024 Children & Youth Literary Award for Nonfiction with JERRY CHANGED THE GAME, sponsored by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, Inc. and the School Library Journal. 

GOD SAVE TEXAS by Larry Wright is the basis for an HBO docuseries. 

Anne Wynter’s NELL PLANTS A TREE won the 2024 Ezra Jack Keats Award for a Writer and the 2024 Golden Kite Awards for Picture Book Text. 

FINALISTS & LONG LIST ANNOUNCEMENTS 

Roxanna Asgarian is a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism with WE WERE ONCE A FAMILY: A STORY OF LOVE, DEATH, AND CHILD REMOVAL IN AMERICA.  

R.H. Snow’s WATCHER OF THE DAMNED: TRAIL OF TRAVAIL is a finalist for the Prometheus Award for Best Novel. 

Texas Author Finalists for the 2023 Laramie Book Awards (winners announced April 20, 2024): 

Myra Hargrave McIlvain -- THE KNOTTED RING 

Thomas Goodman -- THE LAST MAN: A NOVEL OF THE 1927 SANTA CLAUS BANK ROBBERY 

Julia Daily -- THE FIFTH DAUGHTER OF THORN RANCH  

K.S. Jones -- TASTEFULLY TEXAS 

Texas Authors on the Longlist for the Green Earth Book Awards (winners announced April 22, 2024): 

Meghan P. Browne -- THE BEES OF NOTRE-DAME 

Christina Soontornvat -- LEGENDS OF LOTUS ISLAND: THE GUARDIAN TEST and LEGENDS OF LOTUS ISLAND: INTO THE SHADOW MIST 

Jessica Lee Anderson -- NAOMI NASH: SAVING SNAKES  

Texas authors on the list of finalists for the Selah Awards (winners announced May 29, 2024) 

Mary Alford – AMISH WILDERNESS SURVIVOR (Romantic Suspense) 

Lori DeJong – LOVE’S TRUE CALLING (First Novel) 

Heather L. L. FitzGerald – THE SECRET OF STARDUST (Speculative) 

Kelly Irvin -- THE YEAR OF GOODBYES AND HELLOS (Women’s Fiction) and EVERY GOOD GIFT (Contemporary Romance)  

DiAnn Mills – FACING THE ENEMY (Romantic Suspense) 

Paula Peckham – ACCEPTED (Western) 

Karen Witemeyer – IN HER SIGHTS (Novella) 

Included on the final ballot for the 2023 Bram Stoker Awards (winners announced June 1, 2024) are Texas authors: 

Johnny Compton -- THE SPITE HOUSE  

Diana López – LOS MONSTRUOS: FELICE AND THE WAILING WOMAN 

Stephen Graham Jones – DON’T FEAR THE REAPER 

Cynthia Leitich Smith – HARVEST HOUSE 

Holly Lyn Walrath – NUMINOUS STONES 

Texas Authors on the Longlist for the 34th Reading the West Awards (public voting for short lists open May 1-May 31, 2024; winners announced June 2024): 

Fiction: ALGORITHMS by Sid Balman, Jr.; EDITH HOLLER by Edward Carey; THE MADSTONE by Elizabeth Crook; CHENNEVILLE by Paulette Jiles; FAMILY MEAL by Bryan Washington; HOLLER CHILD by LaToya Watkins; MIDNIGHT IS THE DARKEST HOUR by Ashley Winstead; SOMEONE ALWAYS NEARBY by Susan Wittig Albert; THE REUNION by Kayla Olson 

Debut Fiction: THE SPITE HOUSE by Johnny Compton; THE WAYS OF WATER by Teresa Janssen; THE WIND WILL CATCH YOU by Michelle Theall; SHOOT THE MOON by Isa Arsén; WHEN TRYING TO RETURN HOME by Jennifer Maritza McCauly; NIGHT WHEREVER WE GO by Tracey Rose Peyton 

Nonfiction: ARMADILLOS TO ZIZIPHUS by David M. Hillis; DARK DAYS by Roger Reeves; WILD HOUSTON by Suzanne Simpson and John Williams; BRILLIANT BITES by Maegan Brown; THE PEOPLE’S HOSPITAL by Dr. Ricardo Nula 

Memoir: ENERGY FOLLOWS THOUGHT by Willie Nelson and Mickey Raphael 

Picture Books: JUNETEENTH by Van G. Garrett, Reginald C. Adams, & Samson Bimbo Adenugba; BUTT OR FACE? by Kari Lavelle; NELL PLANTS A TREE by Anne Wynter & Daniel Miyares; SEALS ARE JERKS! By Jared Chapman; I’LL BE THE MOON: A MIGRANT CHILD’S STORY by Phillip D. Cortez; REMEMBERING by Xelena González; THE COUSINS ARE COMING by Kay Jones; IF YOU GET LOST by Nikki Loftin; ALL KINDS OF KIDS by Bill Martin Jr. and Michael Sampson; LOOKING FOR THE CHERRIES by Kay Karcher Mijangos 

Young Readers: THE FIRST MAGNIFICENT SUMMER by R.L. Toalson; IT HAPPENED ON SATURDAY by Sydney Dunlap; SKYRIDERS by Polly Holyoke; ANIANA DEL MAR JUMPS IN by Jasminne Mendez; TASTY: A HISTORY OF YUMMY EXPERIMENTS by Victoria Grace Elliott 

Young Adult: BOUNDLESS edited by Ismee Williams and Rebecca Balcárcel; THE FIGHT FOR MIDNIGHT by Dan Soloman; ANDER & SANTI WERE HERE by Jonny Garza Villa; BY ANY OTHER NAME by Erin Cotter; THE BROKE HEARTS by Matt Mendez; JUST A HAT by Shanah Khubiar; THE RENAISSANCE OF GWEN HATHAWAY by Ashley Schumacher