Draft:Scott Semegran

• Comment: Not enough WP:SIGCOV here, unfortunately. The Austin Chronicle piece is an interview, which can't be used to establish notability, and the review of his books is good but notability is WP:NOTINHERITED from books to author. The rest of the coverage regarding awards might indicate notability (although the notability of the awards is dubious) but without any SIGCOV there's nothing to base an article on currently. I also suggest you read WP:BOSS given your disclosed paid editing status. Athanelar (talk) 11:45, 14 January 2026 (UTC)

• Comment: In accordance with the Wikimedia Foundation's Terms of Use, I disclose that I have been paid by my employer for my contributions to this article. Ronseybold (talk) 18:01, 22 December 2025 (UTC)

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Scott Semegran at BookPeople / Credit: Jeff Loftin

Scott Semegran is an American author of fiction. His works include the novels Starman After Midnight, The Codger and the Sparrow, The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island, and To Squeeze a Prairie Dog. In 2025, The Writers’ League of Texas announced Semegran as the winner of its Discovery Prize for Fiction. The League chose Semegran's 2024 novel The Codger and the Sparrow as the basis for its award.

Early Life and Education

The son of parents who served in the US military, Semegran graduated from Winston Churchill High School in San Antonio, Texas in 1989. He then moved to Austin, Texas immediately afterwards to attend the University of Texas at Austin, where he received a B.A. in English.

Career

Semegran remained in Austin after graduating from the University of Texas to pursue his career as a writer and a cartoonist. . Semegran's short fiction has appeared in The Next One Literary Journal (Texas Tech University Honors College 2003) and The Sun (2017).

Semegran's comic strips have appeared in the Austin American-Statesman, The Austin Student, Funny Times, Rocky Mountain Bullhorn, and Seven Days. Semegran has written ten published books whose stories are set in Texas. The books are classified by their distributor IngramSpark as titles published with Humor and Literary BISAC subjects.

Starting in 2025, Semegran became the co-ambassador for the Austin, Texas chapter of the Authors Guild, an organization representing AG members in the area.

Influences and Themes

Semegran was influenced early in his writing career by Charles Bukowski, Kurt Vonnegut, and Tom Robbins. Themes that run through his work include the healing power of friendship and thorny yet amusing odd-couple dynamics.

Awards

In 2019, To Squeeze a Prairie Dog won the Texas Author Project for Adult Fiction, selected by Library Journal and public librarians of Texas. After a ceremony for Project authors at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission in Austin, the book was added to the permanent collection at the Texas Center for the Book.

In 2020, To Squeeze a Prairie Dog won the Gold Medal for Humor in the Benjamin Franklin Book Awards. In 2021, The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island was named as the First Place book in the Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards for Middle-Grade/Young Adult Fiction. In 2024, The Codger and the Sparrow won the Writers’ League of Texas Discovery Prize for Fiction.

Bibliography

Novels

• Starman After Midnight (2025)
• The Codger and the Sparrow (2024)
• The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island (2020)
• To Squeeze a Prairie Dog (2019)
• Sammie & Budgie (2017)
• The Spectacular Simon Burchwood (2011)
• The Meteoric Rise of Simon Burchwood (2008)

Story Collections

• Boys (2015)
• Modicum (2010)

Comic Strip Compilation

• Mr. Grieves (2010)

Syndicated Comic Strips

• Near Oltorf (1999 – 2000)
• Mr. Grieves (2004 – 2008)