A $50,000 scholarship award in the name of TCU alumna and author Sandra Brown will start taking applications this November, said the chair of the English department.

Dan Williams, English department chair, said the scholarship is intended to award one incoming junior each year by paying his or her full two-year tuition at TCU. English majors or minors interested in fiction writing and active in the English literary club at TCU will be eligible to apply for this award.

Brown, a life-long Texan who was born in Waco and raised in Fort Worth, has published more than 70 novels, including 56 New York Times Best Sellers such as “Play Dirty,” “White Hot” and “The Crush.” She attended TCU majoring in English, and in February 2008 she received an honorary doctorate of humane letters.

Williams said the Sandra Brown Excellence in Literary Fiction Award was created last year as a surprise birthday gift to Brown from her husband, Michael Brown, to honor her achievement. The English department will choose students to receive this award based on students’ writing portfolios, which should include 50 pages of fiction, short stories and a piece of reflective introduction of the student, he said.

“We’re very honored that Sandra Brown and her husband would support TCU in this way,” said Curt Rode, instructor of rhetoric and composition.

Sarah Dozier, a senior writing major and copresident of the TCU Bryson Literary Society, said she encouraged students in her organization to apply for the award.

Emily Stanislaw, a junior education major and also copresident of the Bryson Literary Society, said some students will be meeting Brown before the event to talk to her.

Brown is bringing her latest release “Smoke Screen: A Novel” to the TCU Bookstore Tuesday for a book-signing event.

“Sandra has already had great impact on English majors at TCU,” Stanislaw said. “It is just a great opportunity to get all the writers out there to see what it is to be a successful writer.”