Dr. Patrick Cox Texas Elected to Texas Institute of Letters

Members of the Texas Institute of Letters inducted Dr. Patrick Cox of Wimberley, Texas along with sixteen renowned Texas writers at their annual conference in McAllen, Texas. Dr. Cox joins the ranks of the TIL, a distinguished honor society founded in 1936 to celebrate Texas literature and recognize distinctive literary achievement.

The TIL’s membership consists of the state’s most respected writers of history, nonfiction, fiction, poetry, journalism and scholarship. Membership is based on literary accomplishments and is granted only though an election by existing members.

Dr. Carmen Tafolla, President of the Texas Institute of Letters states, “This is a great year for TIL, one in which we induct new members from a wide diversity of genres, covering the gamut from poetry to journalism, history to song lyrics, theater criticism to fiction and film, and from publishing and children’s books to poetry and non-fiction. Our new inductees are richly varied as well by region and ethnicity, gender and professional areas. They represent the best of what Texas has to offer from every corner of what composes the Texas Letters.”

The 2019 honorees include three-time-Oscar-nominated screenwriter-director Wes Anderson (Houston); playwright and Broadway actor Eugene Lee (San Marcos); poets Rosa Alcalá (El Paso), Robin Davidson (Houston), and Carrie Fountain (Austin); and fiction writers Tim Z. Hernandez (El Paso), Wendell Mayo (Corpus Christi /Ohio), and Ito Romo (Laredo/San Antonio); scholars and authors Patrick Cox, Ph.D. (Wimberley), Betty Sue Flowers (Austin/New York) and Ellen Clarke Temple (Lufkin); non-fiction writers Wes Ferguson (Austin), John MacCormack (San Antonio); songwriter and children’s book author Tish Hinojosa (San Antonio/Austin), Documentary and Feature Filmmaker Jesús Salvador Treviño (El Paso/ Los Angeles); children’s book author Xavier Garza (Rio Grande City/ San Antonio); and theater critic/playwright Robert Faires (Austin.)

Current TIL members include many distinguished writers: Sarah Bird, H.W. Brands, Sandra Cisneros, Elizabeth Crook, Light T. Cummins, Steve Davis, Arnoldo De Leon, Joe Ely, Ben Fountain, Leon Hale, Joe Holley, James D. Hornfisher, Richard Linklater, Cormac McCarthy, Larry McMurtry, Naomi Nye, Darwin Payne, Jan Reid, Mary Beth Rogers, Lonn Taylor, Andreas Tijerina, Frances B. Vick, Bill Wittliff, Lawrence Wright and many other outstanding Texas writers.

For more information, please visit the TIL website: www.TexasInstituteofLetters.org or email Carmen Tafolla, [email protected].