A Brief History

David Marion Wilkinson is a novelist, nonfiction author, and screenwriter. His works have met with commercial and critical distinction. 

His first novel, Not Between Brothers, was a finalist for a Spur Award, won the Violet Crown Award from Barnes & Noble and the Writers’ League of Texas), and was selected “Editor’s Choice” by the Review of Texas Books, which called the book “the best historical novel about Texas published in more than a decade.” His other novels include The Empty Quarter, Oblivion’s Altar (winner of the 2003 Spur Award for Best Original Paperback Novel), and Where the Mountains Are Thieves. He co-authored One Ranger, the wildly successful memoir of legendary Texas Ranger Joaquin Jackson. Three out of his five books have been in development with major film concerns. 

A veteran screenwriter himself, David has has written, co-written, or helped develop a variety of feature-length films and limited series, including Texas Rising, the History Channel’s ten-partseries on the Texas Revolution, and Paramount’s upcoming The Gray House. He and helped create the concept for a biopic for the Discovery Channel based on the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane.

When he’s not writing, he’s a popular speaker and writing instructor, and a former writer-in-residence at Sul Ross State University.  

Wilkinson has been featured in numerous media outlets, including National Public Radio (Nashville, Austin, and Tulsa), Don Imus, the Dallas Morning News, San Antonio Express-News, Houston Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Memphis Commercial Appeal, Arkansas Gazette, Texas Monthly, Southern Living, and True West.