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Spur Awards
Spur Awards
"Western Writers of America annually honors writers for distinguished writing about the American West with the Spur Awards. Since 1953 the Spur Awards have been considered one of the most prestigious awards in American literature." Click here to visit the official website.
Spur Awards
Best Contemporary Novel
Double Wide by After fastball phenom Prospero Stark’s baseball career craters in a Mexican jail, he retreats to a trailer park in the scorching Arizona desert. He lives in peaceful anonymity with a collection of colorful outcasts until someone leaves his former catcher’s severed hand on his doorstep. Beautiful, hard-living reporter Roxanne Santa Cruz, who keeps a .380 Colt and a bottle of Chivas in her car, joins Stark to help him uncover his friend’s fate, a dangerous pursuit that pits them against a ruthless gang of drug-dealing killers.
Finalists
- Murder on the Red River by Marcie R. Rendon
- The Stone Place by Randy Lee Eickhoff
Best Historical Novel
The Coming by The Coming is an epic novel of native-white relations in North America, intimately told through the life of Daytime Smoke—the real-life red-haired son of William Clark and a Nez Perce woman. In 1805, Lewis and Clark stumble out of the Rockies on the edge of starvation. The Nez Perce help the explorers build canoes and navigate the rapids of the Columbia, then spend two months hosting them the following spring before leading them back across the snowbound mountains. Daytime Smoke is born not long after, and the tribe of his youth continues a deep friendship with white Americans, from fur trappers to missionaries, even aiding the United States government in wars with neighboring tribes. But when gold is discovered on Nez Perce land in 1860, it sets an inevitable tragedy in motion.
Finalists
- Moon Hunt: People of Cahokia by W. Michael Gear & Kathleen O'Neal Gear
- Copper Sky by Milana Marsenich
Best Mass Market Paperback Novel
Hell Hath No Fury by Call Number: FICTION WESTWhen his brother and his young bride disappear deep into Sioux territory, Monroe Pratt convinces the legendary Indian scout John Hawk, who is known for delivering swift justice to anyone who stands in his way, to come out of retirement and rescue them.
Best Romance Novel
The Promise Bride by Determined to save her father and siblings from a crumbling Chicago tenement, Emilia Stanek becomes the long-distance bride of a Montana rancher. But when she arrives in Helena, a rugged lawman shatters her plans with the news that her husband is dead—and deeply in debt. County sheriff Mac McCall can’t afford to be distracted by the pretty young widow, not with scandalous secrets emerging as he investigates his friend’s suspicious death. Mac’s gruff order that she leave town at once only spurs Emilia’s resolve to take ownership of her late husband’s ranch and face his debtors. But as her defenses soften, Emilia begins to accept Mac’s help, feel compassion for his own wounded heart—and learns that trust means taking a leap of faith . . .
Finalists
- Courting Carrie in Wonderland by Carla Kelly
- Willene: Jewel Of The West by Sally Harper Bates
Best Traditional Novel
Silver City by Cash McLendon, reluctant hero of the epic Indian battle at Adobe Walls, has journeyed to Mountain View in the Arizona Territory with one goal: to convince Gabrielle Tirrito that he’s a changed man and win her back from schoolteacher Joe Saint. As they’re about to depart by stage for their new life in San Francisco, Gabrielle is kidnapped by enforcer Killer Boots, who is working on orders from crooked St. Louis businessman Rupert Douglass. Cash, once married to Douglass’s troubled daughter, fled the city when she died of accidental overdose—and Douglass vowed he’d track Cash down and make him pay. Now McLendon, accompanied by Joe Saint and Major Mulkins, hits the trail in pursuit of Gabrielle and Killer Boots, hoping to make a trade before it’s too late.
Finalists
- Slate Creek: Journey to the White Clouds by Wallace J. Swenson
- Huck Out West by Robert Coover
Best Biography
Frank Little and the IWW: The Blood That Stained an American Family by Franklin Henry Little (1878–1917), an organizer for the Western Federation of Miners and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), fought in some of the early twentieth century’s most contentious labor and free-speech struggles. Following his lynching in Butte, Montana, his life and legacy became shrouded in tragedy and family secrets. In Frank Little and the IWW, author Jane Little Botkin chronicles her great-granduncle’s fascinating life and reveals its connections to the history of American labor and the first Red Scare.
Finalists
- Tom Jeffords, Friend of Cochise by Doug Hocking
- Tejano Tiger: José de los Santos Benavides and the Texas-Mexico Borderlands, 1823-1891 by Jerry Thompson
Best Contemporary Nonfiction
A Land Apart: The Southwest and the Nation in the Twentieth Century by A Land Apart is not just a cultural history of the modern Southwest—it is a complete rethinking and recentering of the key players and primary events marking the Southwest in the twentieth century. Historian Flannery Burke emphasizes how indigenous, Hispanic, and other non-white people negotiated their rightful place in the Southwest. Readers visit the region’s top tourist attractions and find out how they got there, listen to the debates of Native people as they sought to establish independence for themselves in the modern United States, and ponder the significance of the U.S.-Mexico border in a place that used to be Mexico. Burke emphasizes policy over politicians, communities over individuals, and stories over simple narratives.
Finalists
- Behind the Carbon Curtain: The Energy Industry, Political Censorship, and Free Speech by Jeffrey A. Lockwood
- Lakota Performers in Europe: Their Culture and the Artifacts They Left Behind by Steve Friesen with Francois Chladiuk
Best Historical Nonfiction
Killers of the Flower Moon by Call Number: 976.6004 GRANNPresents a true account of the early twentieth-century murders of dozens of wealthy Osage and law-enforcement officials, citing the contributions and missteps of a fledgling FBI that eventually uncovered one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.
Finalists
- Cattle Kingdom: The Hidden History of the Cowboy West by Christopher Knowlton
- Provisions of the Fur Trade: The Encyclopedia of Trade Goods, Vol. 6 by James A. Hanson
Best Juvenile Fiction
Stranded by In autumn, 1849, 14-year-old Janette Riker travels westward to Oregon Territory with her father and two brothers. Before crossing the Rockies, they stop briefly to hunt buffalo. The men leave camp early on the second day ... and never return. Based on actual events, and told in diary format, is the harrowing account of young Janette Riker's struggle to survive the long winter alone. Facing certain death, and with blizzards, frostbite, and gnawing hunger her only companions, she endures repeated attacks by grizzly bears, wolves, and mountain lions.
Finalists
- Viva, Rose! by Susan Krawitz
- Katrine: High Valley Home by Joseph Dorris
Best Juvenile Nonfiction
Glorious Fourth of July and Other Stories from the Plains by From the South Dakota Historical Society Press.
Finalists
- The True Story of Jim the Wonder Dog by Marty Rhodes Figley
- Lotta Crabtree: Gold Rush Fairy Star by Lois V. Harris
- Bold Women in Montana History by Beth Judy
Best Illustrated Children's Book
Fergus and the Greener Grass by "Everyone loves Fergus!" say reviewers, and now the opinionated cartoon horse and bona fide social media star is back in an all new comic adventure. In his third book, Fergus catches a glimpse of what could be, and leaving his life of comfort behind, sets off on a hilarious journey. His exploits lead him over, under, and through all manner of obstacles as he strives to reach the bigger, better prize that beckons, always just a little farther away...and on the other side.
Finalists
- Lexie the Word Wrangler by Rebecca Van Slyke and illustrator Jessie Hartland
- Abraham by Frank Keating and illustrator Mike Wimmer
Best First Novel
- Double Wide by After fastball phenom Prospero Stark’s baseball career craters in a Mexican jail, he retreats to a trailer park in the scorching Arizona desert. He lives in peaceful anonymity with a collection of colorful outcasts until someone leaves his former catcher’s severed hand on his doorstep. Beautiful, hard-living reporter Roxanne Santa Cruz, who keeps a .380 Colt and a bottle of Chivas in her car, joins Stark to help him uncover his friend’s fate, a dangerous pursuit that pits them against a ruthless gang of drug-dealing killers.
Best First Nonfiction
- Frank Little and the IWW: The Blood That Stained an American Family by Franklin Henry Little (1878–1917), an organizer for the Western Federation of Miners and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), fought in some of the early twentieth century’s most contentious labor and free-speech struggles. Following his lynching in Butte, Montana, his life and legacy became shrouded in tragedy and family secrets. In Frank Little and the IWW, author Jane Little Botkin chronicles her great-granduncle’s fascinating life and reveals its connections to the history of American labor and the first Red Scare.
Best Historical Nonfiction
The Apache Wars: The Hunt for Geronimo, the Apache Kid, and the Captive Boy Who Started the Longest War in American History by In this sprawling, monumental work, Paul Hutton unfolds over two decades of the last war for the West through the eyes of the men and women who lived it. This is Mickey Free's story, but also the story of his contemporaries: the great Apache leaders Mangas Coloradas, Cochise, and Victorio; the soldiers Kit Carson, O. O. Howard, George Crook, and Nelson Miles; the scouts and frontiersmen Al Sieber, Tom Horn, Tom Jeffords, and Texas John Slaughter; the great White Mountain scout Alchesay and the Apache female warrior Lozen; the fierce Apache warrior Geronimo; and the Apache Kid. These lives shaped the violent history of the deserts and mountains of the Southwestern borderlands--a bleak and unforgiving world where a people would make a final, bloody stand against an American war machine bent on their destruction
Finalists
- American Serengeti: The Last Big Animals of the Great Plains by Dan Flores
- The Earth is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West by Peter Cozzens
Best Biography
Black Elk: The Life of an American Visionary by Black Elk, the Native American holy man, is known to millions of readers around the world from his 1932 testimonial, Black Elk Speaks. Adapted by the poet John Neihardt from a series of interviews, it is one of the most widely read and admired works of American Indian literature. Cryptic and deeply personal, it has been read as a spiritual guide, a philosophical manifesto, and a text to be deconstructed--while the historical Black Elk has faded from view. In this sweeping book, Joe Jackson provides the definitive biographical account of a figure whose dramatic life converged with some of the most momentous events in the history of the American West.
Finalists
- Texas Ranger: The Epic Life of Frank Hamer, the Man Who Killed Bonnie and Clyde by John Bossenecker
- Nobody Rich or Famous: A Family Memoir by Richard Shelton
Best Contemporary Nonfiction
New Deal Cowboy: Gene Autry and Public Diplomacy by Best known to Americans as the “singing cowboy,” beloved entertainer Gene Autry (1907–1998) appeared in countless films, radio broadcasts, television shows, and other venues. While Autry’s name and a few of his hit songs are still widely known today, his commitment to political causes and public diplomacy deserves greater appreciation. In this innovative examination of Autry’s influence on public opinion, Michael Duchemin explores the various platforms this cowboy crooner used to support important causes, notably Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and foreign policy initiatives leading up to World War II.
Finalists
- The Fire Line: The Story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots and One of the Deadliest Days in American Firefighting by Fernanda Santos
- Stories From Afield: Adventures with Wild Things in Wild Places by Bruce L. Smith
Best Traditional Novel
The Mustanger and the Lady by Vince was a mustanger with a solitary camp high in the Hondo Mountains, where he worked his operation alone. He liked it that way. Then, on a trip back from selling some mustangs, he came across Julie, a saloon girl on the run from some pretty bad hombres. Before he knew it, her fight was his fight, and he was looking forward to a life with her. They just had to survive a small war first.
Finalists
- The Contractor by James C. Work
- News of the World by Paulette Jiles
Best Contemporary Novel
Off the Grid by Call Number: MYSTERY BOXJoe Pickett's old friend Nate Romanowski is off the grid, recuperating from wounds and lying low while the FBI search for him. But they are not the only ones looking for him and Nate finds himself confronting an elite team of special forces soldiers. They're not there to take him in - they say - but to make a deal. They need his help destroying a domestic terror cell in Wyoming's Red Desert, and in return they'll make Nate's criminal record disappear. But Joe's not sure they can be trusted. And they can't. They have a very different plan in mind, and it just may be something that takes them all down -- Nate and Joe included.
Finalists
- Jasper Spring by James T. Hughes
- Hidden Star by Corinne Joy Brown
Best Mass Market Paperback Novel
Return to Red River by Call Number: FICTION BOGGSMatthew Garth was orphaned in a savage wagon train ambush and adopted by Red River hero Thomas Dunson. Twenty years later Matt has two strapping sons of his own and is undertaking a desperate cattle drive from Texas to Dodge City, the new queen of frontier cattle towns. While the deadly dangers of storms and rustlers gather around them, an act of passion and violence from within the drive--and from within the Garth family--leaves Matt fighting for his life, close to where his father was buried by the Red River. When Matt gets back up, he must finish the drive--and fight his worst enemies and even his own blood kin before it ends in a battle of guns, tears, and justice.
Finalists
- Widowmaker Jones by Brett Cogburn
- Frontier: Powder River by S.K. Salzer
Best Juvenile Nonfiction
The Wolves of Currumpaw by The Wolves of Currumpaw is a beautifully illustrated modern re-telling of Ernest Thompson Seton's epic wilderness drama Lobo, the King of Currumpaw, originally published in 1898. Set in the dying days of the old west, Seton's drama unfolds in the vast planes of New Mexico, at a time when man's relationship with nature was often marked by exploitations and misunderstanding. This is the first graphic adaptation of a massively influential piece of writing by one of the men who went on to form the Boy Scouts of America.
Finalists
- Entertaining Women: Actresses, Dancers, and Singers in the Old West by Chris Enss
- Sissy Bear at the Fort by Holly Arnold Kinney
Best Juvenile Fiction
Trouble Returns by Eleven- year- old Ruby is in an unbelievable amount of trouble. Trouble in school, trouble with the Sisters of Mercy, trouble with her cat named Trouble, and trouble with Pa after he proposes to the school principal. In this 1896 Cripple Creek adventure Ruby narrowly escapes death, and her donkey, Maude, steals the story with an unexpected surprise.
Finalists
- The Green Colt: The Adventures of Wilder Good by S.J. Dahlstrom
- Saddle Up! by Donna Alice Patton & Emily Chase Smith
Best Illustrated Children's Book
Seasons of the Bear: A Yosemite Story by This lovely picture book opens on a mother bear and her newborn cubs in their cozy den as a blanket of snow settles over Yosemite National Park. Her newborn cubs grow quickly and soon three furry, hungry black bears set out to experience their world. Spring turns to summer, and the bears roam Tuolumne Meadows, munching tall grasses and keeping a safe distance from park visitors. But not all of the bears’ time is spent searching for food: Mama bear must remain on alert for danger and rush her cubs to safety when a forest fire rages close by or another bear threatens them. In the fall, they will fatten up on acorns before returning to their den for the winter. Ginger Wadsworth and Daniel San Souci give readers the bear’s eye view and a tour of the seasons in Yosemite’s high country with these fascinating and mighty creatures.
Finalists
- Voices of the Western Frontier by Sherry Garland; illustrated by Julie Dupré Buckner
- Big Buckaroo Goes to the Special Olympics by Rachelle "Rocky" Gibbons; illustrated by Jason Hutton
Best First Nonfiction Book
The Fire Line: The Story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots and One of the Deadliest Days in American Firefighting by When a bolt of lightning ignited a hilltop in the sleepy town of Yarnell, Arizona, in June of 2013, setting off a blaze that would grow into one of the deadliest fires in American history, the twenty men who made up the Granite Mountain Hotshots sprang into action. Impeccably researched, drawing upon more than a hundred hours of interviews with the firefighters’ families, colleagues, state and federal officials, and fire historians and researchers, New York Times Phoenix Bureau Chief Fernanda Santos has written a riveting, pulse-pounding narrative of an unthinkable disaster, a remarkable group of men and the raging wildfires that threaten our country’s treasured wild lands.
Best First Novel
Jasper Spring by Young Alice and Tucker are burdened and blessed with a legacy: the care of Jasper Spring, a remarkable valley and still an unspoiled wonder when it comes into their hands. Following two miscarriages, their partnership wavers, then balances on the edge of collapse. Alice's confidence is deeply wounded, yet she still yearns for children, and the unraveling of their love and commitment is mirrored in the eyes of their devoted border collie, Tommie. Alice, Tucker, Ray, and Tommie soon find themselves in a battle for survival as suffocating drought descends and the threat of fire looms. But the greatest threat to all is the boy's young, sultry, and impetuous mother...
Best Historical Novel
Paradise Sky by Call Number: FICTION LANSDALEOn the run after an infamous landowner murders his father, Willie becomes an expert marksman before turning Buffalo Soldier, befriending Wild Bill Hickok and earning the nickname "Deadwood Dick."
Finalists
- The Memory Weaver by Jane K irkpatrick
- Custer by Gerald Duff
Best Contemporary Novel
Crazy Mountain Kiss by It’s April, but there’s still snow on the Montana mountains the day a member of the Madison River Liar and Fly Tiers club finds a Santa hat in the chimney of his rented cabin. With the flue clogged and desperate to make a fire, he climbs up to the roof, only to find the body of a teenage girl wedged into the chimney. When Sheriff Martha Ettinger and her team arrive to extract the body they identify the victim as Cinderella “Cindy” Huntingdon, a promising young rodeo star, missing since November. Was Cindy murdered? Or running for her life—and if so, from whom? Cindy’s mother, Etta, hires private detective Sean Stranahan to find out.
Finalists
- The Canyon by Stanley Crawford
- The Darkness Rolling by Win Blevins and Meredith Blevins
Best Traditional Novel
The Last Midwife by Call Number: MYSTERY DALLASIt is 1880 and Gracy Brookens is the only midwife in a small Colorado mining town where she has delivered hundreds, maybe thousands, of babies in her lifetime. The women of Swandyke trust and depend on Gracy, and most couldn't imagine getting through pregnancy and labor without her by their sides. But everything changes when a baby is found dead...and the evidence points to Gracy as the murderer.
Finalists
- The Long High Noon by Loren D. Estleman
- Buell: Journey to the White Clouds by Wallace J. Swenson
Best Mass Market Paperback Novel
Lords of an Empty Land by In the days of reconstruction after the Civil War, a wild strip of land in northern Louisiana remained unconquered by troops and untamed by the law. This is the story of the fearless veterans--Union and Confederate--who dared to enter this beautiful but hellish valley. . .and finish what the war started.
Best Western Biography
Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of New America by Call Number: B CUSFrom the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes and a National Book Award, a brilliant biography of Gen. George Armstrong Custer that radically changes our view of the man and his turbulent times.
Finalists
- The Gray Fox: George Crook and the Indian Wars by Paul Magid
- Juan Bautista De Anza: The King’s Governor in New Mexico by Carlos R. Herrera
Best Historical Nonfiction
William Wells and the Struggle for the Old Northwest by Born to Anglo-American parents on the Appalachian frontier, captured by the Miami Indians at the age of thirteen, and adopted into the tribe, William Wells (1770–1812) moved between two cultures all his life but was comfortable in neither. Vilified by some historians for his divided loyalties, he remains relatively unknown even though he is worthy of comparison with such famous frontiersmen as Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett. William Heath’s thoroughly researched book is the first biography of this man-in-the-middle.
Finalists
- The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey by Rinker Buck
- Ladies of the Canyons: A League of Extraordinary Women and Their Adventures in the American Southwest by Leslie Poling-Kempes
Best Contemporary Nonfiction
The Size of the Risk: Histories of Multiple Use in the Great Basin by The Great Basin, a stark and beautiful desert filled with sagebrush deserts and mountain ranges, is the epicenter for public lands conflicts. Arising out of the multiple, often incompatible uses created throughout the twentieth century, these struggles reveal the tension inherent within the multiple use concept, a management philosophy that promises equitable access to the region’s resources and economic gain to those who live there.
Finalists
- Unbranded by Ben Masters
- Unruly Waters: A Social and Environmental History of the Brazos River by Kenna Lang Archer
Best Juvenile Fiction
Walk on Earth a Stranger by Call Number: TEEN CARSONLee Westfall, a young woman with the magical ability to sense the presence of gold, must flee her home to avoid people who would abuse her powers, so when her best friend Jefferson heads out across Gold Rush-era America to stake his claim, she disguises herself as a boy and sets out on her own dangerous journey.
Finalists
- Chili Queen: Mi Historia by Marian L. Martinello
- Rawhide Robinson Rides the Tabby Trail: The True Tale of a Wild West CATastrophe by Rod Miller
Best Juvenile Nonfiction
This Strange Wilderness: The Life and Art of John James Audubon by Call Number: J508.092 AUDUBONDescribes how the writer and naturalist set about recording in both word and image the birds of North America, and details the legacy his work has left behind.
Finalists
Best Illustrated Children's Book
Buckaroo Bobbie Sue by Buckaroo Bobbie Sue is a heartfelt story of courage, determination, and the love of horses, sure to please all ages with its fun rhyming style in the vein of Dr. Seuss.
Finalists
- Ol’ Jimmy Dollar by Slim Randles & Jerry Montoya (illustrator)
- The Hero Twins: A Navajo-English Story of the Monster Slayers by Jim Kristofic & Nolan Karras James (illustrator)
Best First Novel
American Copper by As Evelynne Lowry, the daughter of a copper baron, comes of age in early 20th century Montana, the lives of horses dovetail with the lives of people and her own quest for womanhood becomes inextricably intertwined with the future of two men who face nearly insurmountable losses—a lonely steer wrestler named Zion from the Montana highline, and a Cheyenne team roper named William Black Kettle, the descendant of peace chiefs.
Best First Nonfiction Book
- William Wells and the Struggle for the Old Northwest by Born to Anglo-American parents on the Appalachian frontier, captured by the Miami Indians at the age of thirteen, and adopted into the tribe, William Wells (1770–1812) moved between two cultures all his life but was comfortable in neither. Vilified by some historians for his divided loyalties, he remains relatively unknown even though he is worthy of comparison with such famous frontiersmen as Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett. William Heath’s thoroughly researched book is the first biography of this man-in-the-middle.
Best Contemporary Novel
Bad Country by A debut mystery set in the Southwest starring a former rodeo cowboy turned private investigator, told in a transfixingly original style.
Finalists
- Any Other Name by Craig Johnson
- The Red Bird All-Indian Traveling Band by Frances Washburn
Best Historical Novel
Wild Ran the Rivers by Ruth Harris‚ barely 16 years old‚ captured by river pirates‚ is sold to and forced to marry a pirate; her brother Jerry is given to the widow of one of the pirates. They are held prisoner on Pirate Island until the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812 provide them a way of escape from the island. They flee from the quakes through trackless wilderness and Jerry comes of age during their sojourn at Flee’s Settlement when he experiences his first gunfight and helps rescue an Osage family from their captors.
Finalists
- A Light in the Wilderness by Jane Kirkpatrick
- Backlands by Michael McGarrity
Best Traditional Novel
The Big Drift by Will Brite is a Slash Five cowboy working in the Middle Concho region of Texas in the winter of 1884 when a blizzard descends upon him—the likes of which he has never seen. Trapped under his horse and entangled in a barbed wire fence, Will finds an unexpected (and unwelcome) savior in the form of Zeke Boles, a former slave on the run from a bloody, guilt-filled past. In Zeke’s dark features Will sees a reflection of the haunting memories he has been trying to escape for so long, but he reluctantly offers him shelter for the night at the Slash Five camp. Little does he know that their lives will be inexorably linked in the spring of ’85 through what will be one of the most brutal roundups of the nineteenth century.
Finalists
- The Poacher's Daughter by Michael Zimmer
- Dance With the Devil by J.D. March
Best Western Biography
Song of Dewey Beard: Last Survivor of Little Bighorn by Beard was not only a witness to two major battles against the Lakota; he also traveled with William “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s Wild West show, worked as a Hollywood Indian, and witnessed the grand transformation of the Black Hills into a tourism mecca. Beard spent most of his later life fighting to reclaim his homeland and acting as “old Dewey Beard,” a living relic of the “old West” for the tourists.
Finalists
- Tom Horn in Life and Legend by Larry D. Bull
- The Life and Legends of Calamity Jane by Richard W. Etulain
Best Historical Nonfiction
American Carnage: Wounded Knee, 1890 by In this gripping tale, Jerome A. Greene—renowned specialist on the Indian wars—explores why the bloody engagement happened and demonstrates how it became a brutal massacre. Drawing on a wealth of sources, including previously unknown testimonies, Greene examines the events from both Native and non-Native perspectives, explaining the significance of treaties, white settlement, political disputes, and the Ghost Dance as influential factors in what eventually took place.
Finalists
- Chasing the Santa Fe Ring: Power and Privilege in Territorial New Mexico by David L. Caffey
- South Pass: Gateway to a Continent by Will Bagley
Best Contemporary Nonfiction
Red Light to Starboard: Recalling the "Exxon-Valdez" Disaster by "Red Light to Starboard" documents an event that stunned the world-- recounting how futile warnings, regional and national history, as well as failed governmental and public policy decisions led to the Exxon-Valdez disaster and disastrous environmental consequences for a spectacular, fragile ecosystem.
Finalists
- Wilderburbs: Communities on Nature’s Edge by Lincoln Bramwell
- Wild Idea: Buffalo and Family in a Difficult Land by Dan O'Brien
Best Juvenile Fiction
Rawhide Robinson Rides the Range: True Adventures of Bravery and Daring in the Wild West by Was Rawhide Robinson really there when the Grand Canyon came to be? Is he responsible for Pikes Peak? And how about riding horseback to Hawaii? Although an ordinary cowboy in every respect, Rawhide Robinson lays claim to these extraordinary accomplishments, and more. While on a trail drive from Texas to Dodge City, he regales his cowboy companions with campfire tales that entertain and amuse, inspire awe, and invite skepticism. Saddle up and ride along. Then, at the end of the day, after a cowboy supper of beans, bacon, biscuits, and scalding coffee, sit back and relax around the campfire while Rawhide Robinson launches into another extraordinary--and true--adventure of bravery and daring in the Wild West.
Best Juvenile Nonfiction
Edward Wynkoop: Soldier and Indian Agent by Raised in Pennsylvania, Edward Wynkoop hung up his city clothes and headed West at the onset of the Colorado gold rush. He was instrumental in founding the city of Denver and turned soldier and fought for the Union cause at Glorietta pass. From the beginning Wynkoop distinguished himself as a leader, never afraid to take action or to stand up for his beliefs. In a bold move, Wynkoop rode into a camp of Cheyenne Indians to exchange hostages with Chief Black Kettle and became a spokesman for the Cheyenne in the wake of the Sand Creek Massacre. During years of conflict between the settlers and the Indians, Wynkoop walked a line between two cultures. He never gave up on the idea that peace between the whites and Indians was possible.
Finalists
- Battle of Little Bighorn by John Hamilton
- How the West Was Drawn: Women’s Art by LInda L. Osmundson
Best Illustrated Children's Book
Tasunka: A Lakota Horse Legend by Written in both English and Lakota, Donald F. Montileaux retells the legend of Tasunka from the traditional stories of the Lakota people. Using the ledger-art style of his forefathers he adds colorful detail. His beautiful images enhance our understanding of the horse and its importance in Lakota culture.
Finalists
- Alice From Dallas by Marilyn Sadler & Ard Hoyt (illustrator)
- Tumbleweed Baby by Anna Myers & Charles Vess (illustrator)
Best First Novel
- Wild Ran the Rivers by Ruth Harris‚ barely 16 years old‚ captured by river pirates‚ is sold to and forced to marry a pirate; her brother Jerry is given to the widow of one of the pirates. They are held prisoner on Pirate Island until the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812 provide them a way of escape from the island. They flee from the quakes through trackless wilderness and Jerry comes of age during their sojourn at Flee’s Settlement when he experiences his first gunfight and helps rescue an Osage family from their captors.
Best First Nonfiction Book
Reshaw: The Life and Times of John Baptiste Richard: Extraordinary Entrepreneur and Scoundrel of the Western Frontier by John Baptiste Richard was both an adventurer and an opportunist. The early American West was changing fast, and Richard jumped on opportunities before most men even realized they existed. Despite his failure to build the first bridge to span the North Platte River, Richard continued to see the money-making possibilities of a toll bridge and rebuilt near present day Casper. From there he had a front row seat for the Westward migration.
Best Historical Novel
Silent We Stood by On July 8, 1860, Dallas, Texas burned. Three slaves were accused of arson and hanged without a trial. Today, most historians attribute the fire to carelessness. Silent We Stood weaves the tale of a small band of abolitionists working in secrecy within Dallas’s close-knit society, including a near-mythical one-armed runaway who haunts area slavers and brings hope to those dreaming of freedom.
Finalists
- The Promise by Ann Weisgarber
- Greasy Grass: A Story of the Little Big Horn by Johnny D. Boggs
Best Contemporary Novel
Light of the World by Call Number: MYSTERY BURKEA summer getaway in Montana for Dave Robicheaux's family and friends is violently shattered by the arrival of serial killer and prison escapee Asa Surrette. He avoids the death penalty for murders he committed while capital punishment was banned in his home state of Kansas. But when Robicheaux's daughter Alafair writes a series of articles implicating Surrette in other murders which could get him death, he decides to escape prison and make her pay. Can Robicheaux save his daughter?
Finalists
- Kind of Kin by Rilla Askew
- The Old Man's Love Story by Rudolfo Anaya
Best Traditional Novel
Crossing Purgatory by Call Number: EBOOKIn spring of 1858 Thompson Grey, a young farmer, travels to his father’s estate seeking funds to expand his holdings. Far overstaying his visit, he returns home to find that his absence has contributed to a devastating family tragedy. Haunted by remorse, Thompson abandons his farm and begins a westward exile in the attempt to outpace his grief.Unwittingly, he finds himself at journey’s end in the one place where his strongest temptations are able to over take him and once again put him to the test.
Finalists
- Destiny Made Them Brothers by Andrew J. Fenady
- The Hardest Ride by Gordon L. Rottman
Best Western Biography
Jack London by Call Number: B LONIn Jack London: An American Life, the noted Jack London scholar Earle Labor explores the brilliant and complicated novelist lost behind the myth—at once a hard-living globe-trotter and a man alive with ideas, whose passion for seeking new worlds to explore never waned until the day he died. Returning London to his proper place in the American pantheon, Labor resurrects a major American novelist in his full fire and glory.
Finalists
- Cowboy Stuntman: From Olympic Gold to the Silver Screen by Dean Smith, w/ Mike Cox
- In the Shadow of Billy the Kid: Susan McSween and the Lincoln County War by Kathleen P. Chamberlain
Best Historical Nonfiction
Shot All to Hell: Jesse James, the Northfield Raid, and the Wild West's Greatest Escape by It was the most famous bank robbery of all time, involving the legendary James-Younger gang's final shocking holdup—the infamous Northfield Raid—and the thrilling two-week chase that followed. Mark Lee Gardner, author of the critically acclaimed To Hell on a Fast Horse, takes us inside Northfield's First National Bank and outside to the streets as Jesse James and his band of outlaws square off against the heroic citizens who risked their lives to defeat America's most daring criminals.
Finalists
- Shooting Arrows and Slinging Mud: Custer, The Press and the Little Bighorn by James E. Mueller
- The Heart of Everything that Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend by Bob Drury & Tom Clavin
Best Contemporary Nonfiction
Vacationland: Tourism and Environment in the Colorado High Country by Mention the Colorado high country today and vacation imagery springs immediately to mind: mountain scenery, camping, hiking, skiing, and world-renowned resorts like Aspen and Vail. But not so long ago, the high country was isolated and little visited. "Vacationland" tells the story of the region's dramatic transformation in the decades after World War II, when a loose coalition of tourist boosters fashioned alluring images of nature in the high country and a multitude of local, state, and federal actors built the infrastructure for high-volume tourism: ski mountains, stocked trout streams, motels, resort villages, and highway improvements that culminated in an entirely new corridor through the Rockies, Interstate 70.
Finalists
- Trees in Paradise: A California History by Jared Farmer
- Bright Light City: Las Vegas in Popular Culture by Larry D. Gragg
Best Juvenile Fiction
Papa's Gold by George and Sarah Patterson, spirited young twins, set out with their parents to escape from Confederate Tennessee to a new home in Missouri.But when plans go wrong, they find themselves facing mysteries and mishaps, and they must use all their intelligence and bravery to keep their family safe and sound.
Finalists
- How I Became a Ghost by Tim Tingle
- Summer of the Star by Johnny D. Boggs
Best Juvenile Nonfiction
Eagle of Delight: Portrait of the Plains Indian Girl in the White House by In 1821, a teenage Otoe Indian girl with "the Mark of Honor" journeyed east with her husband and other Plains Indian chiefs. There, she became "the Darling of Washington D.C. Society." Then tragedy struck, and she and her story were nearly forgotten for 140 years--until a series of events brought her portrait home and her story to light.
Finalists
- Magnificent Sam: The Amazing Adventures of Sam Houston by Laurie Cockerell
- Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: Donner Dinner Party by Nathan Hale
Best Illustrated Children's Book
Yosemite's Songster by Coyote is separated from her mate by a rockfall and searches the park to find him. Sometimes silent, occasionally observed, always watchful, Coyote makes her way from one memorable site to another, singing a lonely song of yips and yowls. Gorgeous watercolor paintings of Yosemite illuminate this ultimately satisfying story, while the text closely observes one of the park's most familiar kind of wild resident.
Finalists
- May Finds Her Way by Betty Selakovich Casey
- Standing in for Lincoln Green by David Mackintosh
Best First Novel
Spider Woman's Daughter by Call Number: MYSTERY HILLERMANavajo Nation Police Officer Bernadette Manualito witnesses the cold-blooded shooting of someone very close to her. With the victim fighting for his life, the entire squad and the local FBI office are hell-bent on catching the gunman. Bernie, too, wants in on the investigation, despite regulations forbidding eyewitness involvement. But that doesn't mean she's going to sit idly by, especially when her husband, Sergeant Jim Chee, is in charge of finding the shooter. Bernie and Chee discover that a cold case involving his former boss and partner, retired Inspector Joe Leaphorn, may hold the key. Digging into the old investigation, husband and wife find themselves inching closer to the truth-- and closer to a killer determined to prevent justice from taking its course
Finalists
- Crossing Purgatory by Gary Schanbacher
- La Grulla by John R. Wright
Best Short Novel
Tucker's Reckoning by Call Number: FICTION MAYOAfter witnessing the murder of a well-liked rancher in Oregon, Samuel Tucker becomes a suspect and works with the rancher's niece to prove his innocence.
Finalists
- Lonesome Animals by Bruce Holbert
- City of Rocks by Michael Zimmer
Best Long Novel
With Blood in Their Eyes by Call Number: FICTION COBBOn February 10, 1918, John Power woke to the sound of bells and horses' hooves. He was sharing a cabin near the family mine with his brother Tom and their father Jeff; hired man Tom Sisson was also nearby. Then gunfire erupted, and so began the day when the Power brothers engaged the Graham County Sheriff's Department in the bloodiest shootout in Arizona history.
Finalists
- The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin
- Country of the Bad Wolfes by James Carlos Blake
Best Mass Market Paperback Novel
The Coyote Tracker by Call Number: FICTION SWEAZYAfter a prostitute is murdered at the Easy Nickel saloon, Texas Ranger Josiah Wolfe finds his best friend, Scrap Elliot, in jail and wrongly accused. A strangely familiar horse and a mysterious code are the only clues Josiah has to prove his friend's innocence and save him from execution. Once a Yankee reporter gets involved, Josiah is led to Blanche Dumont's House of Pleasures, where he learns of a thieving, jail-broken accountant with strange ties to both the Easy Nickel and the town's wealthiest banker. With a new railroad line blazing into town, everyone--especially the arrogant young sheriff--is determined to clean up Austin. Faced with the ticking clock of Scrap's impending trial, Josiah Wolfe must find out who it was that went one step too far.
Finalists
- Redemption: Hunters by James Reasoner
- The Secret of Lodestar by Tim Champlin
Best Western Biography
Geronimo by Renowned for ferocity in battle, legendary for an uncanny ability to elude capture, feared for the violence of his vengeful raids, the Apache fighter Geronimo captured the public imagination in his own time and remains a figure of mythical proportion today. This thoroughly researched biography by a renowned historian of the American West strips away the myths and rumors that have long obscured the real Geronimo and presents an authentic portrait of a man with unique strengths and weaknesses and a destiny that swept him into the fierce storms of history.
Finalists
- Ho! For the Black Hills: Captain Jack Crawford Reports the Black Hills Gold Rush and Great Sioux War by Paul L. Hedren
- “That Fiend in Hell”: Soapy Smith in Legend by Catherine Holder Spude
Best Historical Nonfiction
With Golden Visions Bright Before Them: Trails to the Mining West, 1849–1852 by During the mid-nineteenth century, a quarter of a million travelers followed the “road across the plains” to gold rush California. This magnificent chronicle captures the danger, excitement, and heartbreak of America’s first great rush for riches and its enduring consequences. With narrative scope and detail unmatched by earlier histories, With Golden Visions Bright Before Them retells this classic American saga through the voices of the people whose eyewitness testimonies vividly evoke the most dramatic era of westward migration.
Finalists
- Terrible Justice: Sioux Chiefs and U.S. Soldiers on the Upper Missouri, 1954-1868 by Doreen Chaky
- Deliverance from the Little Big Horn: Doctor Henry Porter and Custer’s Seventh Cavalry by Joan Nabseth Stevenson
Best Contemporary Nonfiction
Desert Reckoning: A Town Sheriff, a Mojave Hermit, and the Biggest Manhunt in Modern California History by North of Los Angeles lies a sparsely populated region that comprises fully one half of Los Angeles County. Ranchers, cowboys, dreamers, dropouts, bikers, hikers, and felons have settled here - those who have chosen solitude over the trappings of contemporary life or simply have nowhere else to go. But in recent years their lives have been encroached upon by the creeping spread of subdivisions, funded by the once easy money of subprime America. It is against the backdrop of these two competing visions of land and space that Donald Kueck - a desert hermit who loved animals and hated civilization - took his last stand, gunning down beloved deputy sheriff Steven Sorensen when he approached his trailer at high noon on a scorching summer day.
Finalists
- Colorado Powder Keg: Ski Resorts and the Environmental Movement by Michael W. Childers
- Desert America: Boom and Bust in the New Old West by Ruben Martinez
Best Juvenile Fiction
Wide Open by Abilene, 1871. Fifteen-year-old Will Merritt is fiercely protective of the cattle trade that made his father’s fortune. Idolizing the cowboys who flood the streets each summer, Will and his friends are drawn to Abilene’s exotic Texastown district—a powderkeg of saloons and brothels so notorious that the mayor has hired the West’s most famous gunman, Wild Bill Hickok, to police its streets. Yet even with Hickok as marshal, Abilene boils with deep divisions. The townsfolk resent the immigrant settlers whose new farms are slicing up the rangeland. And no one is more intolerant than Will’s best friend, Jasper, who delights in tormenting any farmer he encounters. But Will finds himself torn when he meets the beautiful and beguiling Anna, whose dignity and determination test his deepest beliefs.
Finalists
- Blooming Prairie by Candace Simar
- And There I'll Be a Soldier by Johnny D. Boggs
Best Juvenile Nonfiction
Light on the Prairie: Solomon D. Butcher, Photographer of Nebraska's Pioneer Days by Once President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act of 1862, which granted 160 acres of free land to anyone with the grit to farm it for five years, the rush to the Great Plains was on. Solomon D. Butcher was there to document it, amassing more than three thousand photographs and compiling the most complete record of the sod house era ever made.
Finalists
- The Great Bicycle Experiment: The Army’s Historic Black Bicycle Corps, 1896-97 by Kay Moore
- Strike!: Mother Jones & the Colorado Coal Field War by Lois Ruby
Best Illustrated Children's Book
Pecos Bill Invents the Ten-Gallon Hat by This tale takes readers on a romp into the Wild West and reveals how America's favorite cowboy invented the ten-gallon hat. In an attempt to cover his noggin, Pecos Bill wears a baseball cap, a firefighter's helmet, and even a tree branch, until he finally comes up with the right solution. Kids will laugh at his hilarious antics and enjoy searching for the armadillo and the salamander, hidden on each page.
Finalists
- The Adventures of Buffalo Joe and The Blackbird With the Broken Wing by Jamie Anne Blake
- Big Buckaroo and Moose, The Cow Dog by Rachelle “Rocky” Gibbons & Jason Hutton (illustrator)
Best First Novel
Panhandle by Call Number: FICTION COGBURNTwo young cowboys looking for adventure and gold in the Texas Panhandle of the late 1880s find their friendship tested when they fall for the same woman.
Finalists
- Wide Open by Larry Bjornson
- The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin