Past tense | LearnEnglish
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/.../past-tenseThe past tense is used here not because the action is no longer true - Cormack McCarthy is still writing novels, after all. However, we have a closed (finished) time reference and so the action is complete in that sense. When the time reference is not closed, we use a present tense: Cormack McCarthy has been writing novels since his 20s.