2024 Conference
TIL’s annual meeting and award ceremony will be held on May 3-4, 2024 in The Woodlands, Texas.
Here is the link for booking rooms at a special rate at Crowne Plaza, our host hotel.
Texas Institute of Letters Block of Rooms
Poetry Award Endowed
The Burdine Johnson Foundation has agreed to endow the TIL award for Best Book of Poetry. Bill Johnson, the foundation executive director, is doing so in honor of his mother, Burdine, who was herself a poet. Much thanks to Bill and council member Wes Ferguson, who helped negotiate the endowment.
New Bilingual Poetry Award
Deep appreciation goes to Robert L. Girón for endowing the TIL’s new Girón/Valdez Bilingual Poetry Award for a published book of at least forty-five pages in English with a Spanish translation OR for a book in Spanish with an English translation, to be given biennially: $1,000 for the prize, with a $25,000 donation to permanently endow the award for the TIL.
2022 AWARDS
Congratulations to the winners of the TIL’s 2022 literary awards, which were presented in Corpus Christi at TIL’s annual banquet on April 29, 2023: Jennifer Sperry Steinorth, Sam W. Haynes, Bret Anthony Johnston, Gus Bova, Kirk W. Johnson, Rebecca Balcárcel, Xelena González, Guadalupe García McCall, Rudy Ruiz, Ramona Reeves, Jasminne Mendez, and Laura Villarreal.
At that same ceremony, Author Beverly Lowry received the Texas Institute of Letters’ prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award. This is the highest honor given by the TIL, which was established in 1936 to recognize distinctive literary achievement. Read full press release here.
Twenty-six New Members Elected to TIL
Members of the Texas Institute of Letters have overwhelmingly approved twenty-six new writers to the TIL, a distinguished honor society established in 1936 to celebrate Texas literature and recognize distinctive literary achievement.
The TIL’s elected membership consists of the state’s most recognized and serious writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, journalism, and scholarship. The membership includes winners of the MacArthur Fellowship, Man Booker Prize, Pulitzer Prizes in drama, fiction, and nonfiction, as well as prizes awarded by PEN, and dozens of other regional and national award and grant-giving institutions.
The 2023 inductees are Sheila Black, Jenny Browne, Christopher Carmona, Hayan Charara, Rubén Degollado, Heath Dollar, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Owen Egerton, Brian Floca, Fernando Flores, Héctor Galán, Liz Garton Scanlon, Kari Anne Holt, Cynthia Levinson, Caleb McDaniel, Marcia Argueta Mickelson, Michael Mooney, Robert Moore, Michael Parker, Ashley Hope Pérez, Roger Reeves, Terry Shames, Helen Thompson, Christian Wallace, Suzan Zeder, and Joaquín Zihuatanejo.
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ABOUT THE TIL
The Texas Institute of Letters is a 501(c)(3) non-profit Honor Society founded in 1936 to celebrate Texas literature and to recognize distinctive literary achievement. The TIL’s elected membership consists of the state’s most respected writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, journalism, and scholarship. Induction into the TIL is based on literary accomplishments. Application for membership is not accepted. The rules governing the selection of members and officers are contained in the TIL By-Laws. The TIL annually elects new members and gives awards to recognize outstanding literary works.
