FEBRUARY 2026 AUTHOR AWARDS ROUNDUP
Texas authors extend their brilliance across the literary world in our latest roundup.
Awards and Accolades:
2026 Spirit of Texas Reading List
The Ambassador of Nowhere Texas by Kimberly Willis Holt (MG)
The Art Thieves by Andrea Rogers (YA)
Even If It Breaks Your Heart by Erin Hahn (YA)
The Hills of Estrella Rojas by Ashley Robin Franklin (YA)
Los Monstruos: Felice and the Wailing Woman by Diana López (MG)
The No Brainer’s Guide to Decomposition by Adrianna Cuevas (MG)
The Pecan Sheller by Lupe Ruiz-Flore (MG)
When We Ride by Rex Ogle (YA)
Best Horror Books of 2025 from The Lineup
The Pink Agave Motel & Other Stories by V. Castro
Another Fine Mess by Lindy Ryan
The Spider Lady: Nan Songer and Her Arachnid World War II Army by Penny Parker Klostermann
Who Owns the Moon? by Cynthia Levinson and Jennifer Swanson
2025 Best Books of the Year from Shelf Awareness
Picture Book
Island Storm by Brian Floca
Adult Fiction
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
Nonfiction
Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty Year Trial to Overnight Success by Jeff Hiller
Best Books of 2025 from Esquire
The Imagined Life by Andrew Porter
Death Takes Me by Cristina Rivera Garza
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
Independent Press Award 2026 Distinguished Favorites
Action/Adventure – The Fatal Saving Grace by Jim Nesbitt
Crime Fiction – A Change in Destiny: Dark Suspicions by Janet K. Shawgo
Cross Genre – Born in the Aftermath by Ian Griffin
Other Award Winners:
Natlie Bright won The Academy of Western Artists award for Western Short Nonfiction for her article “Trying to Save the Texas Panhandle” about the Windy Deuce and Smokehouse Creek wildfires.
Rebecca Byron won a Gold Medal in the Vampire Novel category of the 2025 Global Book Awards for her work A Memory Not Mine. The book also earned a Gold Medal in the Paranormal Romance category of the Independent Press Awards.
Adriene Caldwell won the Book of the Year and BREW Readers Choice Award from the Chrysalis BREW Project for her work Unbroken: Life Outside the Lines. Additionally, the book has won the Bookish Readers’ Choice Award, a Literary Titan Book Award, two Firebird Book Awards (Memoir + Most Likely to Make You Cry).
Darlene Deluca earned a spot on the Yarde Top Reads of 2025 list with her novel Painted Dreams.
Kevin Hwan earned a second-place award in the Thriller category of the 2025 Book Awards from Bestsellersworld.com for his novel The Regression Strain. The novel also won the 2025 Independent Author Network Book of the Year in the Thriller category; a Gold Medal in the 2025 Readers’ Favorite International Book Award contest (General Thriller category); Medical Thriller of the Year, 2025 BestThrillers.com; Best Adventure, 2025 Bookshelfie Awards; First Place Thriller, 2025 Digital Book Today Literary Awards; Second Place, 2025 BookFest Awards (Medical Thriller category); Second Place, 2025 BookFest Awards (Dystopian – Viruses, Plagues & Zombies category)..
María Murillo garnered two wins in The Bookfest Awards for 2026. Her work dog + girl won First Place in both the Children’s–Animals and Children’s Picture Books categories. She also won Distinguished Favorite at the 2026 Independent Press Awards in the Animals/Pets-Children’s category.