The Texas Institute of Letters Lifetime Achievement Award is an award bestowed annually to distinguished writers from, or in some way associated with, Texas and is the TIL's highest honor. The honorees are chosen by the TIL Council from nominations made by the membership.
Winners : 1981:
Thomas C. Lea III (1907–2001) : 1982:
John Graves (1920-2013) : 1983:
William A. Owens (1905–1990) : 1984:
Larry McMurtry (1936–2021) : 1985:
Donald Barthelme (1931–1989) : 1987:
Elmer Kelton (1926–2009) : 1987:
A.C. Greene (1923–2002) : 1988: Charles Leland "Doc" Sonnichsen (1901–1991) : 1989: John Edward Weems (1924–1999) : 1990: Marshall Northway Terry Jr. (1931-2016) : 1991:
Margaret Cousins (1905–1996) : 1992:
Vassar Miller (1924–1998) : 1993:
Horton Foote (1916–2009) : 1994:
Americo Paredes (1915–1999) : 1995:
William Humphrey (1924–1997) : 1996:
Cormac McCarthy (1933-2023) : 1997:
Rolando Hinojosa-Smith (1929-2022) : 1998:
Robert Flynn (born 1932) : 1999:
Walt McDonald (1934-2022) : 2000:
Leon Hale (1921–2021) : 2001:
William H. Goetzmann (1930–2010) : 2002:
Shelby Hearon (1931-2016) : 2003:
Bud Shrake (1931–2009) : 2004:
T. R. Fehrenbach (1925-2013) : 2005: James Martin Hoggard (1941-2021) : 2006:
William D. Wittliff (1940-2019) : 2007:
David Joseph Weber (1940–2010) : 2008: Carolyn C. Osborn (born 1934) : 2009:
Larry L. King (1929–2012) † : 2011:
C.W. Smith (born 1940) : 2012:
Gary Cartwright (born 1934) : 2013:
Stephen Harrigan (born 1948) : 2014: Jan Reid (born 1945) : 2015:
Lawrence Wright (born 1947) : 2016:
Sarah Bird (born 1949) : 2017:
Pat Mora (born 1942) : 2018:
Sandra Cisneros (born 1954) : 2019:
Naomi Shihab Nye (born 1952) : 2020:
John Rechy (born 1931) : 2021:
Benjamin Alire Sáenz (born 1954) : 2022:
Celeste Bedford Walker (born 1947) : 2023:
Beverly Lowry (born 1938) : 2024:
Carmen Tafolla (born 1951) : 2025:
Elizabeth Crook (born 1959) : † Beginning 2011, the award date reflects the actual date of the presentation. For instance, Larry King's 2009 award was actually presented in 2010. Beginning in 2024, the award name was changed from the Lon Tinkle Award to the Texas Institute of Letters Lifetime Achievement Award. ==References==