Name: Clark Fiction Prize: Rufi Thorpe
Start: 2026-04-08T15:30:00-05:00
Location: The Wittliff Collections

#TXSTEnglish is excited to announce that author Rufi Thorpe has been awarded the 2026 L.D. and LaVerne Harrell Clark Fiction Prize for her novel, MARGO'S GOT MONEY TROUBLES (William Morrow). Since 2016, the Clark Prize has honored exceptional recent works of fiction with a $25,000 award. The Clark Prize award ceremony, at which Thorpe will deliver a public reading, will be held in April.
Judge Kevin Brockmeier, who selected Thorpe’s novel from a shortlist of remarkable fiction, writes that MARGO'S GOT MONEY TROUBLES "claims the page with such warmth and humor that no matter how difficult its heroine's life becomes, you always feel the book embracing her—and therefore, in its way, embracing you, too."
EVENT DETAILS
Award ceremony + reading: April 8, 2026, 3 p.m.
The Wittliff Collections, Alkek Library, Texas State University
Rufi Thorpe is the author of The Knockout Queen, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner award; Dear Fang, with Love; and The Girls from Corona del Mar, which was long-listed for the International Dylan Thomas Prize and the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize. A native of California, she currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two sons.
Additional news: on April 15th, a week after the Clark Prize ceremony, Apple TV is releasing MARGO'S GOT MONEY TROUBLES as a mini-series starring Elle Fanning!
If you require accommodations due to a disability in order to participate, please contact (512) 245-2163 at least 72 hours in advance of the event.
For more info about the award, visit the department website: https://www.english.txst.edu/about/clark.html