The Texas Institute of Letters is pleased to announce that the governing council, at the suggestion and with the funding of member Bryan Burrough, has voted unanimously to create of the Beverly Lowry Award for Best First Book of Nonfiction.
Submissions for the inaugural $1,000 prize will be accepted starting September 27.
Lowry, an acclaimed novelist and nonfiction writer, received the Texas Institute of Letters’ prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023. She also has received awards from the National Endowment from the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. The author of six novels and five works of nonfiction, Lowry has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Texas Monthly, and many other publications. Her most recent book is Deer Creek Drive: A Reckoning of Memory and Murder in the Mississippi Delta.
David Bowles, current president of the TIL, agrees with the other councilors that this award serves both to honor Lowry’s vital legacy and to elevate TIL through its association with her work and leadership.
The Beverly Lowry Award for Best First Book of Nonfiction is generously supported by Texas Institute of Letters member Bryan Burrough, the author of numerous bestselling nonfiction books, most recently The Gunfighters: How Texas Made the West Wild.
