Newly inducted members are Susan Wittig Albert, Glenn Dromgoole, Gerald Duff, John Erickson, Jan Reid, and Red Steagall

The Texas Literary Hall of Fame features authors whose work enhances Texas's literary heritage.

 

Lone Star Literary Life's publisher, Kristine Hall, and managing editor, Michelle Newby Lancaster, attended the Friends of the Fort Worth Library's 8th biennial induction ceremony for the Texas Literary Hall of Fame Friday, March 15, 2019, at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden Conservatory.

 

Susan Wittig Albert (left) is the award-winning, NYT bestselling author of Loving Eleanor, about the intimate friendship of Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok; The General's Women, about the two women who loved Eisenhower; and A Wilder Rose, about Rose Wilder Lane and the writing of the Little House books.  Her award-winning fiction also includes mysteries in the China Bayles series, the Darling Dahlias, the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter, and a series of Victorian-Edwardian mysteries she has written with her husband, Bill Albert, under the pseudonym of Robin Paige.

 

Jan Reid (right), who lives in Austin and is the author of twelve books, first won acclaim for his pop culture classic The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock and his magazine journalism, principally for Texas Monthly.  His first novel, Deerinwater, was written with the support of a Dobie-Paisano Fellowship and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Comanche Sundown and Sins of the Younger Sons both won the Jesse H. Jones Award from the Texas Institute of Letters for the year’s best fiction.

 

Russell "Red" Steagall (left) is an actor, musician, poet, and stage performer who focuses on American Western and country music genres. Steagall's first book, Ride for the Brand, a 168-page collection of poetry and songs, was published in 1993. In 2003, Born to This Land was published as a joint effort between Red Steagall and Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Skeeter Hagler. The book contains Hagler's black-and-white studies of modern ranching, accompanied by Steagall's award-winning poetry.  The Texas Legislature named Red Steagall the Official Cowboy Poet of Texas in April 1991 and he is also the official Cowboy Poet Laureate of San Juan Capistrano, California. He was named 2006 Poet Laureate of the State of Texas, the first "cowboy" poet to be named the poet laureate of Texas.

 

John Erickson (right) has written and published seventy-five books, more than 600 articles, and is best known as the author of the Hank the Cowdog series of books, audio books, and stage plays. The Hank the Cowdog series began as a self-publishing venture in his garage in 1982 and has endured to become one of the nation’s most popular series for children and families.   His stories have won a number of awards, including the Audie, Oppenheimer, Wrangler, and Lamplighter Awards.

 

Gerald Duff (left, pictured with Michelle Newby Lancaster) won the award for the best book of fiction about Texas, Blue Sabine, from the Philosophical Society of Texas; the Cohen Prize for Fiction from Ploughshares Magazine; and the Silver Medal for fiction from the Independent Publishers Association. His novel Playing Custer from TCU Press was named a finalist for the Spur Award for the best historical fiction of 2015.  A member of the Texas Institute of Letters, Duff has published twenty books. His memoir, Home Truths: A Deep East Texas Memory, was published by TCU Press in 2011.

 

Glenn Dromgoole (right, pictured with Kristine Hall) was an editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and at other Texas newspapers and now lives in Abilene, Texas where he is a co-founder of the West Texas Book Festival and a bookstore owner. Among his books are What Dogs Teach Us, A Small Town in Texas, and 101 Essential Texas Books.   Abilene named him Outstanding Citizen of the Year in 2013.  

 

Plaques with the authors' names are on the west wing wall of the Fort Worth Central Library under the mural "Texas Tales" by artist Marjory Buckley.

 

 

 

Founded by the Friends of the Fort Worth Library in 2004, the Texas Literary Hall of Fame honors authors whose body of work enhances Texas’s literary heritage, is original and first published in this country, and has already been recognized for its literary significance. Held biennially, the Hall of Fame is commemorated by the “Texas Tales™” painting by Marjorie Stark Buckley hanging in the west wing of the Central Library.

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