Every year, we present the Texas Writer Award (formerly the Bookend Award) to a writer who has made outstanding contributions to Texas literature. This year, we’re thrilled to announce beloved poet, educator, and editor Naomi Shihab Nye as the 2024 Texas Writer Award recipient.
Residing in San Antonio, Texas, Nye is the author of Grace Notes, Everything Comes Next, The Tiny Journalist, Voices in the Air, Sitti’s Secrets, Habibi, This Same Sky, and The Tree is Older than You Are: Poems & Paintings from Mexico among others. TBF Literary Director Hannah Gabel had the opportunity to interview Nye about her work and relationship to Texas and TBF.
Gabel: Can you share a bit about your connection to Texas and how your Texas ties have shaped your voice and perspective as a writer?
Nye: My family moved to San Antonio in 1967 from Jerusalem. We fled the Six-Day War where my Palestinian father was a journalist, and arrived in time for Hemisfair. A teenager found all this somewhat surreal. I graduated from Robert E. Lee High School (we tried to change its name in 1970, but that effort failed till much later) and Trinity University in San Antonio, which I adore to this day.
Gabel: What authors and/or books have inspired you and helped shape your work as a writer?
Nye: Everyone I ever read and loved, which would be so so many! Some Texas writers who made indelible impressions on me early on were Elroy Bode, Rosemary Catacalos, Roberto Bonazzi, William Goyen, Robert Flynn, my great teacher (we’re still pals), Beverly Lowry, Townes Van Zandt, Steve Harrigan, John Phillip Santos, Shelby Hearon, Prudence McIntosh, Horton Foote, J. Frank Dobie, John Graves, Del Marie Rogers, Marion Winik, David C. Yates and even James Michener, as a friend—the list is endless.
Gabel: Your work spans multiple genres—poetry, fiction, and children’s literature. How does your approach to storytelling differ across these forms, and what connects them in your mind?
Nye: They’re close cousins. Some things just feel right in a certain genre rather than another. It’s all instinct.
Gabel: You’ve been a part of the Texas literary community for years. Do you have any particularly special memories from your involvement with the Texas Book Festival over the years, either as an author or as an attendee?
Nye: Listening to Richard Linklater in the Capitol building with my great-nephew from the film program at UT was a highlight!
Gabel: Texas plays a significant role in much of your work, as does your Palestinian heritage. How do these two identities merge in your writing, and what do you hope readers take away from this blend?
Nye: Just humanity, I guess. Both places and peoples are often maligned by those who don’t know anything real about them. We are all mixtures. Finding a joy in that, sharing some details, trying to extend a sense of family—I have always felt lucky that my family chose to live here as randomly as they did.
Gabel: You’ve served as an educator and a mentor to countless writers. What are some of the most rewarding moments you’ve experienced teaching young poets and writers?
Nye: The greatest memories are of the teens and children who were so happy in beautiful towns like Albany, San Angelo, Comanche, Longview, Kingsville, Comstock, to share their voices with others. The little girl in Albany who shouted as I was driving away, “I always knew there was another poemist out there somewhere!” Some of us stayed in touch for years. And of course their devoted teachers and the warm friendly people of all these communities—I used to stay on ranches, in homes, as often as in motels, and made so many lifelong friends around the state.
Gabel: What impact do you hope your work will have on future generations of Texas writers?
Nye: No idea. Probably zero. I don’t think writers have the capacity to imagine things like this.
Gabel: The Texas Writer Award honors your career as a whole. What does receiving this award mean to you?
Nye: It’s an honor and a pleasure to be acknowledged in the amazing state I have embraced as my own for so many years. Thank you with all my heart! Love, Naomi.
Nye will be honored with a pair of custom handmade boots from El Paso-based artisanal bootmaker Rocketbuster during a special Festival Weekend ceremony. Festival attendees will also be able to see Nye during Festival Weekend sessions for her two 2024 releases: I Know About a Thousand Things: The Writings of Ann Alejandro of Uvalde, Texas (edited by Naomi Shihab Nye and Marion Winik) and Grace Notes, her poetry collection for young adults.
About Naomi Shihab Nye
Palestinian-American writer, editor, and educator Naomi Shihab Nye grew up in St. Louis, Jerusalem, and San Antonio, Texas. A graduate of Trinity University, she has been the Young People’s Poet Laureate for the U.S. (Poetry Foundation), poetry editor for the New York Times magazine, and The Texas Observer, and a visiting writer in hundreds of schools and communities all over the world, currently at Texas State University. Her books include Grace Notes, Everything Comes Next,The Tiny Journalist, Voices in the Air, Sitti’s Secrets, Habibi, This Same Sky, & The Tree is Older than You Are: Poems & Paintings from Mexico. Her volume 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East, was a finalist for the National Book Award. The Turtle of Oman and The Turtle of Michigan have both been part of the Little Read program, North Carolina. She received Lifetime Achievement Awards from The Texas Institute of Letters, The National Book Critics Circle (Ivan Sandrof Award), and the Arab American Museum.
