Once a year, the members of the Texas Institute of Letters decide who has done the best writing in Texas in the past year, based on the books, articles, translations, and poems that have been submitted to the organization for consideration. Works need to be by Texans or about Texas. Here’s a partial list of the awards TIL members bestowed last Saturday:Excellence Sustained Throughout a Career: William H. Goetzmann, the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History and American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin
Best Short Story: Tom McNeely for “Tickle Torture,” in Ploughshares
Best Children’s Book: Carmen Bredeson for Animals That Migrate
Best Young Adult’s Book: Lori Aurelia Williams for When Kambia Elaine Flew in From Neptune
Best Work of Journalism in a Daily Newspaper: Mike Tolson, James Kimberly, Steve Brewer, and Allen Turner for “A Deadly Distinction,” published in the Houston Chronicle
Best Work of Magazine Journalism: Larry L. King for “The Book on Willie Morris” in Texas Monthly
Best First Work of Poetry: Ted Genoways for Bullroarer
Best Work of Poetry: Susan Wood for Asunder
Best Translation of a Book Into English: Wendy Barker and Saranindranath Tagore for Rabindranath Tagore’s Final Poems
Best Humorous Book: Marco Perella’s Adventures of a No Name Actor
Best Nonfiction Book: Larry McMurtry for Sacagawea’s Nickname: Essays on the American West
Best First Book of Fiction: Katherine Tanney for Carousel of Progress
Best Fiction: Sarah Bird for The Yokota Officers Club
This article appears in March 29 • 2002.