Thomas Zigal is an American writer.

Early life

Zigal was born in

Galveston, Texas Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

. He grew up in Texas City. He attended high school in

Lafayette, Louisiana Lafayette (, ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and the most populous city and parish seat of Lafayette Parish, located along the Vermilion River. It is Louisiana's fourth largest incorporated municipality by population and the 234th- ...

and lived in New Orleans for four years in the 1980s and 1990s. Zigal was a victim of Hurricane Carla, which destroyed the family home in Texas City when he was a child.

Career

As of 2014, he lived in Austin, Texas.

Recognition

In 2014 Zigal won the ''Jesse Jones Award'' given by the Texas Institute of Letters in the fiction category for his 2013 novel, ''Many Rivers to Cross''. Judges cited his "keen ear for the language of

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

victims, most of whom were African-Americans." ''Many Rivers to Cross'' is the story of two grandfathers trying to find their common grandchildren in the aftermath of

. Zigal is the author of the Kurt Muller Mysteries, a series of crime novels set in Aspen, Colorado, and of a literary thriller, ''The White League.'' ''The White League'' is the first of his projected series of New Orleans novels. ''Many Rivers to Cross'' is the second novel in the series.

Books

* ''Many Rivers to Cross'' (TCU Press, 2013)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zigal, Thomas Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American male novelists 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American male writers People from Galveston, Texas Novelists from Texas American mystery novelists People from Texas City, Texas