Texas Institute of Letters Literary Awards Finalists for 2009

Darwin Payne sends this news relase from TIL http://www.texasinstituteofletters.org/TIL_2009_Finalists.pdf

Texas Institute of Letters Finalists

Named for 2009 Literary Awards

Finalists for the Texas Institute of letters awards for 2009 have been announced by William V. Davis, the organization's president.

Winners will be named at the Saturday evening, May 1, annual banquet at the Radisson Hotel in Austin. Judges made decisions in nine categories including fiction, first fiction, non-fiction, scholarly books, short stories, poetry, book design, magazine journalism, and children's books published during the year.

The institute was founded in 1936 to recognize literary achievement and to promote interest in Texas literature. Authors must have lived in Texas for at least two years or their works must relate to the state.

Jesse Jones Award for Fiction ($6,000): Scott Blackwood, We Agreed to Meet Just Here (New Issues Press); Oscar Casares, Amigoland (Little, Brown); and Cristina Henriquez, The World in Half (Penguin Group).

Carr P. Collins Award for Nonfiction ($5,000): Bryan Burrough, The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes (Penguin Press); Tracy Daugherty, Hiding Man: A Biography of Donald Barthelme (St. Martin's Press); Steve Davis, J. Frank Dobie: A Liberated Mind (University of Texas Press); and Bill Sloan, The Darkest Summer: Pusan and Inchon 1950, The Battles That Saved South Korea—and the Marines—From Extinction (Simon & Schuster).

Steven Turner Award for First Fiction ($1,000): John Pipkin, Woodsburner (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday); Barbara Renaud Gonzalez, Golondrina, Why Did You Leave Me? (University of Texas Press); and Lowell Mick White, Long Time Ago Good (Slough Press).

TIL Award for Scholarly Book ($2,500): Mary Jo O'Rear, Storm Over the Bay: The People of Corpus Christi and Their Port (Gulf Coast Books); Gene B. Preuss, To Get a Better School System: One Hundred Years of Education Reform in Texas (Texas A&M Press); Emilio Zamora, Claiming Rights and Righting Wrongs in Texas: Mexican Workers and Job Politics During World War II (Texas A&M Press).

Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for Poetry ($1,200): Wendy Barker, Nothing Between Us (De Sol Press); William Virgil Davis, Landscape and Journey (Ivan R. Dee); James Hoggard, Triangles of Light: The Edward Hopper Poems (Wings Press); and John Poch, Dolls (Orchises Press).

O. Henry Award for Magazine Journalism ($1,000): Pamela Colloff, "Flesh and Blood," June 2009, Texas Monthly; Michael Hall, "The Judgment of Sharon Keller," August 2009, Texas Monthly; and John Spong, "Holding Garmsir," January 2009, Texas Monthly.

Austin Public Library Friends Foundation Award for Children's Book ($500): Benjamin Alire Saenz, The Dog Who Loved Tortillas (Cinco Puntos Press); Gwendolyn Zepeda, Sunflowers/ Girasoles (Pinada Books).

Kay Cattarulla Award for Short Story ($1,000): John Henry Irsfeld, "Drifting Too Far," New South, Spring/Summer 2009; Marjorie Kempner, "Discovering America," Southwest Review, Fall 2009; and Jaina Sanga, "The Good Price." Asia Literary Review, Autumn 2009.

Fred Whitehead Award for Design of a Trade Book ($750): Lindsay Starr, "I Do Not Apologize for the Length of This Letter": The Mari Sandoz Letters on Native American Rights, 1940-1965, (Texas Tech University Press); Lindsay Starr, Sex, Murder, and the Unwritten Law Courting Judicial Mayhem, Texas Style, (Texas Tech University Press); and Thomas Fink, The Man's Book (Little, Brown).

No awards were given in the Stanley Walker Award for Best Work of Newspaper Journalism Appearing in Newspaper or Sunday Supplement; the Friends of Austin Public Library Award for Best Young Adult Book, or the Soeurette Diehl Fraser Award for Best Translation of a Book. The Fraser Award is given every two years, and it will be awarded in 2011 for books published in 2009 or 2010."