Elizabeth Crook

This week we visit with Elizabeth Crook in Austin, Texas. 

Elizabeth Crook is the author of six novels: The Raven’s Bride and Promised Lands, The Night Journal, Monday, Monday, The Which Way Tree, and The Madstone. In 2023 Elizabeth received the prestigious Texas Writer Award from the Texas Book Festival and in 2025 the Texas Medal of Arts in Literary Arts and the Texas Institute of Letters' prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award.

Elizabeth lived in Nacogdoches, Texas and then San Marcos, Texas with her parents and brother and sister until age seven when the family moved to Washington D.C., where her father was director of Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) for Lyndon Johnson. Two years later her father was appointed Ambassador to Australia and the family moved to Canberra. When they returned to Texas Elizabeth attended public schools in San Marcos, graduating from San Marcos High School. She attended Baylor University for two years and graduated from Rice University in 1982.

Elizabeth's Books on the Bed:

Silver Pennies (and More Silver Pennies) by Blanche Jennings Thompson 

Precious Bane by Mary Webb

A Tale of Two Cities and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

True Grit by Charles Portis

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

Now You Hear My Horn: The Journal of James Wilson Nichols, 1820-1887 by James Wilson Nichols

Matt's Gifts for Elizabeth:

The House Is on Fire by Rachel Beanland

Gorilla by Lee Stockdale

Call It Horses by Jessie van Eerden