Texas Literary Hall of Fame
Texas Literary Hall of Fame was established to celebrate and encourage the state’s rich literary heritage by honoring its foremost authors, whose original writing reflects enduring cultural relevance and artistic creativity
Guidelines
The Texas Literary Hall of Fame was established to honor authors past and present
whose body of work, fiction or non-fiction:
- Significantly contributes to Texas’ literary heritage
- Was first published in this country, and
- Has been previously recognized for its literary significance
TCU Library, AddRan College of Liberal Arts and TCU Press
Announces 2024 Texas Literary Hall of Fame Inductees
The TCU Mary Couts Burnett Library, in partnership with the TCU AddRan College of Liberal Arts, TCU Press and the Center for Texas Studies, announced their selection for induction into the Texas Literary Hall of Fame. The authors will be honored at the official induction ceremony on October 29, 2024.
The Texas Literary Hall of Fame was established to celebrate and encourage the state’s rich literary heritage by honoring its foremost authors, whose original writing reflects enduring cultural relevance and artistic creativity. The Texas Literary Hall of Fame honors inductees every two years.
“We are thrilled to honor these amazing authors whose induction into the Texas Literary Hall of Fame was inevitable,” says Tracy L. Hull, Dean of the TCU Library. “Their induction is a validation of their talent and expertise as an author.”
“The Texas Literary Hall of Fame showcases top literary writers across the nation. This group of inductees follows a long list of others who demonstrate how Texas has shaped the cultural landscape of their writings,” said Sonja Watson, Ph.D., Dean of the AddRan College of Liberal Arts.
The 2024 Texas Literary Hall of Fame honors the following inductees:
Tracy Daugherty
Tracy Daugherty is the author of seven novels, six short story collections, two books of essays, a memoir, a novella collection, and six biographies, the latest of which, Larry McMurtry: A Life was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His work has been recognized with grants from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He is a five-time winner of the Oregon Book Award, a winner of the Oklahoma Book Award and a member of the Texas Institute of Letters.
Molly Ivins
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) was an American newspaper columnist, author and political commentator, known for humorous and insightful writing, which often used satire and wit to critique political figures and policies. She began her journalism career at the Minneapolis Tribune where she became the first female police reporter at the paper. Ivins joined The Texas Observer in the early 1970s and later moved to The New York Times. She became a columnist for the Dallas Times Herald in the 1980s, and then the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. In 2001, Ivins became an independent journalist. Her column was subsequently syndicated by Creators Syndicate and carried by hundreds of newspapers. Her freelance work appeared in many national magazines, and she contributed essays to both the Lehrer News Hour and National Public Radio. She wrote several books, including, Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush and Who Let the Dogs In? Incredible Political Animals I Have Known.
Stephen Graham Jones
Stephen Graham Jones is the New York Times bestselling author of nearly thirty novels and collections, and there is some novellas and comic books in there as well. Jones has been an NEA recipient, won the Texas Institute of Letters Award for Fiction, the Los Angeles Times Ray Bradbury Prize, Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, Independent Publishers Award for Multicultural Fiction, WLA’s Distinguished Achievement Award, ALA’s RUSA Award and Alex Award, the 2023 American Indian Festival of Words Writers Award, the Locus Award, four Bram Stoker Awards, three Shirley Jackson Awards, six This is Horror Awards, and has been a finalist for the World Fantasy Award, British Fantasy Award, and Eisner Award. Jones also made Bloody Disgusting’s Top Ten Horror Novels, and is the guy who wrote Mongrels, The Only Good Indians, My Heart is a Chainsaw, Earthdivers, and I Was a Teenage Slasher. Up next are True Believers and The Buffalo Hunter. A native Texan, Jones lives in Boulder, Colorado.
Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy (1933-2023) was a Pulitzer Prize, winning novelist and playwright. All the Pretty Horses, The Road and No Country for Old Men were among his acclaimed books that explore a bleak world of violence and outsiders. McCarthy received numerous writing awards, including the William Faulkner Foundation Award in 1965 for The Orchard Keeper and the National Book Award in 1992 for All the Pretty Horses. Other published works include novels Outer Dark, Child of God, Suttree, Blood Meridian, The Crossing and Cities of the Plain; a play in five acts called The Stonemason; and a screen play called The Gardner’s Son.
Jan Seale
Jan Seale, the 2012 Texas Poet Laureate, has authored thirty books, including poetry, nonfiction, fiction, and children’s books. Her writing has also been published in such venues as Texas Monthly, Writer’s Digest, Newsday, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Yale Review. She has held a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry and has been a Humanities Scholar for Humanities Texas as well as an Artist-in-the-Schools for the Texas Commission on the Arts. She holds membership in the Texas Institute of Letters, the Texas Folklore Society, and the Texas Association of Creative Writing Teachers. A native Texan, Seale lives in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas near the international border.
Cynthia Leitich Smith
Cynthia Leitich Smith is an acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty books, winner of the 2024 Southern Miss Medallion for Outstanding Contributions in Children’s Literature, and the 2021 NSK Neustadt Laureate. Reading Rockets named her to its list of 100 Children’s Authors and Illustrators Everyone Should Know. Her debut picture book, Jingle Dancer, is widely considered a modern classic, and her chapter book Indian Shoes was among the first children’s titles to represent urban Native life. Her debut tween novel Rain Is Not My Indian Name was named one of the 30 Most Influential Children’s Books of All Time by Book Riot, which also listed Smith among the 10 Must-Read Native American Authors. Smith is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation and lives in Austin, Texas.
Sergio Troncoso
Sergio Troncoso is the author of eight books, most recently Nobody’s Pilgrims, which won the Gold Medal for Best Novel- Adventure or Drama in English from the International Latino Book Awards. He also wrote A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant’s Son, which Luis Alberto Urrea hailed as “a world-class collection” and Junot Díaz called “a masterwork.” Troncoso edited Nepantla Familias: An Anthology of Mexican American Literature on Families in between Worlds, which received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews. A Fulbright scholar, Troncoso is past president of the Texas Institute of Letters. He has been teaching at the Yale Writers’ Workshop since 2013. His work has appeared in the Pleiades, Yale Review, New Letters, Other Voices, Houston Chronicle, Texas Highways, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Texas Monthly.
