WINNERS OF 2026 LITERARY AWARDS
Below you’ll find the official press release announcing the award and honor winners for this year’s fourteen literary award categories.
TIL Annual Conference 2026
Schedule for April 16-19, 2026 Venue: Texas A&M Hotel and Conference Center. Space for both the hotel and the banquet is limited, so make your reservations now. Thursday, April 16 (Local Members and Early Bird Arrivals) Friday, April 17 Saturday, April 18 Sunday, April 19
Recipient of the 2026 Jones Fellowship
[PDF version of press release] TEXAS INSTITUTE OF LETTERS ANNOUNCES RECIPIENT OF JONES FELLOWSHIP The Texas Institute of Letters announces the recipient of the 2026 Jones Fellowship: ire’ene lara silva. The Jesse H. Jones Fellowship from the Texas Institute of Letters is aimed at working writers who are at any stage…
TIL Statement on Proposed Transmission Line Near Hard Scrabble
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE [PDF Version] The Texas Institute of Letters expresses deep concern about a proposed high-voltage transmission line that could pass near or through Hard Scrabble, the former home and restored landscape of celebrated Texas writer John Graves, located north of Glen Rose along White Bluff Creek, which flows…
Bill Broyles Wins Lifetime Achievement Award from TIL
For Immediate Release [PDF Version] Author and screenwriter William “Bill” Broyles, Jr. has been named the recipient of 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. The award will be…
2026 New Members Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE [PDF Version] February 12, 2026 Members of the Texas Institute of Letters have overwhelmingly approved twenty-four 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…
Introducing the Lowry Award
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…
TIL Literary Contest Guidelines for 2025
[PDF version of guidelines] The latest slate of TIL literary contests is now open with prizes adding up to $25,750. In addition, the TIL will bestow a lifetime achievement award ($7,000) and the Jones Fellowship ($9,000), for a total of more than $41,000 in annual awards. The Texas Institute of…
Kip Stratton
William Kip Stratton – friends call him by his middle name – is the Los Angeles Times bestselling author of The Wild Bunch: Sam Peckinpah, a Revolution in Hollywood, and the Making of a Legendary Film and eight other books. He is also the award winner of the Western Heritage Award for Last Red…
2025 Land Acknowledgment for Brownsville
The lower Río Grande Valley was originally home to more than 50 bands of what are collectively referredto as the “Carrizo Cluster” of the regional Indigenous Coahuiltecan culture. These nearly 10,000 native American souls were joined by other groups displaced by colonial westward expansion, such as the Lipan Apache community…
