Award-winning journalist, author and School of Journalism Clinical Professor Bill Minutaglio has won the Writers’ League of Texas (WLT) 2010 outstanding book award in the nonfiction category for the biography “Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life.”
He will receive the award at 7 p.m. today at BookPeople.
“Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life,” written with W. Michael Smith, reveals the person behind the public persona of the political commentator and bestselling author through interviews with Ivins’ family, friends and colleagues, and information from her personal papers.
The WLT Book Awards are presented annually to authors in four categories: fiction, nonfiction, literary prose and poetry, and children’s books. The winners receive a commemorative award and a prize of $1,000. The Writers’ League of Texas Book Awards contest is sponsored by the University Co-op.
The other finalists in the nonfiction category were “Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America,” written by Douglas Brinkley, and “Lit,” written by Mary Karr.
The other winners are “Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories” by Lorraine M. Lopez, Nashville, Tenn., in the fiction category; “Quiver” by Susan B.A. Somers-Willett, Montclair, N.J., in the poetry and literary prose category; and “Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice” by Phillip Hoose, Portland, Maine, in the children’s books category.
Minutaglio is the author and co-author of several nonfiction books, most recently “In Search of the Blues: A Journey to the Soul of Black Texas,” the February selection for the Bob Bullock State History Museum’s Book It, Texas! Club. He is author of biographies of President George W. Bush and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, as well as “City on Fire,” a narrative nonfiction book about the greatest industrial disaster in American history. His books have been published in China, optioned by actor Tom Cruise and excerpted by Esquire and other publications. He teaches narrative nonfiction book writing, investigative reporting and writing and reporting for master’s degree candidates.
