Greetings to those of you finding this post after (or during! or even before!) the “Advocacy in the Off Season” session at the 2026 Texas Library Association annual conference.

A couple of years before I collaborated with librarians Lucy Podmore and Minda Anderson on this TLA session, I teamed up with Perma-Bound’s Lex Anne Seifert and my fellow author Cynthia Levinson for a presentation at the TASLA summer workshop. In 2024 I shared a similar set of resources, and I’ve updated them here in March 2026.

Below, you’ll find a few resources that I recommend for discovering and connecting with some of the many (many, many, MANY!) accomplished Texas authors.

Whether it’s for your library’s programming or because you hope to marshal support in advocating for the freedom to read in your community, connecting with Texas authors and other writers can be an inspiring and enriching experience for everyone involved. And, crucially, it can be a vital part of sustaining a culture of literature in the Lone Star State.

And now, those resources:

1.  Authors Against Book Bans, which has a Texas chapter.

2.  Members of the Texas Institute of Letters honor society as well as recent recipients of TIL literary awards:

3. Authors honored by the annual Writers’ League of Texas Book Awards, including the winners and honorees for books published in 2024 and in previous years dating back to 2015.

4. Texas authors and illustrators represented by booking agents specializing in school visits, including How Now Booking (search for “TX”), The Booking Biz, The Author Village, and Authors and More.

5. Members of Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators chapters in Austin, the Brazos Valley, Houston, North Texas, and Southwest Texas.

6. Texas authors and illustrators recommended by booksellers collected on Lone Star Literary Life’s list of Texas Bookstores, which may not only be familiar with these creators’ work but might also have hosted them for in-store events.

7. The Texas Education Agency’s 20 regional Education Service Centers may have staff members or consultants who are focused on providing library, literacy, and/or language arts services and who might be acquainted with nearby authors and illustrators of books for young readers.

8. And perhaps the best resource of all: Texas librarians! (We especially recommend using the community engagement tools available to members of the Texas Library Association.) Who better to ask for recommendations of Texas authors and illustrators than the librarians who have bought and displayed their books and invited these creators themselves into their libraries?

If there’s an avenue that I’ve overlooked, please just let me know in the comments, and I’ll consider including that when I update this list. Thank you for supporting — and engaging with — Texas authors!