The Spur Awards
For more information on
The Western Writers of America, sponsors of the Spur Awards, click
here.
2018
2018
Best Western Historical Novel: The Coming by David Osborne
Best Western Contemporary Novel: Double wide by Leo W. Banks
Best Western Mass Market Paperback Novel: Hell hath no fury : a
John Hawk western by Charles G. West
Best Western Romance Novel: The promise bride by Gina Welborn
and Becca Whitham
Traditional Novel: Silver City : a novel of the American West by
Jeff Guinn
Best Western Biography: Frank Little and the IWW : the blood
that stained an American family by Jane Little Botkin
Best Western Contemporary Nonfiction: A land apart : the
Southwest and the nation in the twentieth century by Flannery
Burke
Best Western Historical Nonfiction:
Killers of the Flower Moon : the Osage murders and the birth of
the FBI by David Grann
Best Western Juvenile Fiction: Stranded : a story of frontier
survival by Matthew P. Mayo
Best Western Juvenile Nonfiction: Glorious Fourth of July and
other stories from the Plains by Mary Gibson Sprague
Best Western Storyteller: Fergus and the greener grass by Jean
Abernethy
Best Western Short Fiction:
"Lost and found : a short story" by Rod Miller in
Saddlebag Dispatches, Spring 2017
Best Western Short Nonfiction: "States of decay : a journey
through America's nuclear heartland" by Ben Mauk in Harper's
magazine, October 2017
Best Western Poem:
"She saddles her own horse" Marleen Bussma self-published
Best First Western Novel: Double wide by Leo W. Banks
Best First Nonfiction Book: Frank Little and the IWW : the blood
that stained an American family by Jane Little Botkin
2017
Best Western Contemporary Novel:
Off the grid : a Joe Pickett novel by C. J. Box
Best Western Historical Novel:
No award given
Best Western Traditional Novel:
The mustanger and the lady by Dusty Richards
Best Original Mass-market Paperback Novel: Return to Red River
by Johnny D. Boggs
Best First Novel:
Jasper Spring by James T. Hughes
Best First Nonfiction:
The fire line : the story of the Granite
Mountain Hotshots and one of the deadliest days in American
firefighting by Fernanda Santos
Best Western Nonfiction Historical:
The Apache wars : the hunt for Geronimo, the Apache Kid, and the
captive boy who started the longest war in American history by
Paul Andrew Hutton
Best Western Nonfiction Contemporary:
New Deal cowboy : Gene
Autry and public diplomacy by Michael Duchemin
Best Western Biography:
Black
Elk : the life of an American visionary by Joe Jackson
Best Western Juvenile Fiction: Trouble returns : a Ruby & Maude
adventure by Nancy Oswald
Best Western Juvenile Nonfiction:
The
wolves of Currumpaw by William Grill
Storyteller:
Seasons of the Bear : a Yosemite story by Ginger Wadsworth ;
illustrated by Daniel San Souci
Best Western Short Fiction: "Odell's bones" by Troy D. Smith,
published in West of Sundown : selected Western stories
by Troy D. Smith
Best Western Short Nonfiction:
"'Master of ceremonies' : the world of Peter Biggs in Civil
War-era Los Angeles" by Kendra Field and Daniel Lynch published
in Western Historical Quarterly 47 (4) : 379-406
Best Western Poem:
“Ain't a hermit” by Floyd Beard
2016
Best Western Historical Novel: Paradise sky by Joe R. Lansdale
Best Western Contemporary Novel: Crazy Mountain kiss : a Sean
Stranahan mystery by Keith McCafferty
Best Western Traditional Novel:
The
last midwife by Sandra Dallas
Best Mass-Market Paperback Novel: Lords of an empty land by
Randy Denmon
Best Western Biography:
Custer's trials : a life on the frontier of a new America by
T.J. Stiles
Best Western Historical Nonfiction:
William Wells and the
struggle for the old northwest by William Heath
Best Western Contemporary Nonfiction: The size of the risk :
histories of multiple use in the Great Basin by Leisl Carr
Childers
Best Western Juvenile Nonfiction:
This
strange wilderness : the life and art of John James Audubon
by Nancy Plain
Best Western Juvenile Fiction:
Walk on
Earth a stranger by Rae Carson
Best Western Storyteller (illustrated children's book): Buckaroo
Bobbie Sue by JoJo Thoreau ; illustrated by Kristina Zack Young
Best Western Short Nonfiction: "Cowboys and capitalists : the
XIT Ranch in Texas and Montana, 1885-1912" by Michael M. Miller,
published in Montana : the magazine of western history,
vol. 65, no. 4, Winter 2015
Best Western Short Fiction Story: "The Scalper" by Richard
Prosch as part of the Western Trail Blazer series
Best First Novel: American copper by Shann Ray
Best First Nonfiction Book:
William Wells and the struggle for
the old northwest by William Heath
Owen Wister Award: Lucia St. Clair Robson
2015
Best Western Contemporary Novel:
Bad
country : a novel by C. B. McKenzie
Best Western Historical Novel:
Wild
ran the rivers : one family's Western odyssey by James D. Crownover
Best Western Traditional Novel:
The
big drift : a novel by Patrick Dearen
Best First Novel:
Wild
ran the rivers : one family's Western odyssey by James D. Crownover
Best Western Nonfiction Historical:
American carnage: Wounded Knee, 1890 by Jerome A. Greene
Best Western Nonfiction Contemporary: Red light to starboard :
recalling the Exxon Valdez disaster by Angela Day
Best Western Nonfiction Biography:
Song
of Dewey Beard : last survivor of the Little Bighorn by
Philip Burnham
Best First Nonfiction Book:
Reshaw : the life and times of John Baptiste Richard :
extraordinary entrepreneur and scoundrel of the western frontier by Jefferson Glass
Best Western Juvenile Fiction: Rawhide Robinson rides the range
: true adventures of bravery and daring in the Wild West by Rod
Miller
Best Western Juvenile Nonfiction: Edward Wynkoop : soldier and
Indian agent by Nancy Oswald
Storyteller:
Tasunka : a Lakota horse legend by Donald F. Montileaux
Best Western Short Fiction: "Fingers" by Andrew Geyer, published
in Texas 5X5 : twenty-five stories from
Texas, edited by Laurie Champion
Best Western Short Nonfiction:
"Calamity Jane : a life and legends" by Richard W. Etulain,
published in Montana, the magazine of Western history
Best Western Poem:
"A little longer than the moment" by Alan Birkelbach
Owen Wister Award: Win Blevins
2014
Best Western Contemporary Novel:
Light of the world : a Dave Robicheaux novel by James Lee Burke
Best Western Historical Novel:
Silent we stood by Henry Chappell
Best Western Traditional Novel:
Crossing Purgatory by Gary Schanbacher
Best First Novel:
Spider Woman's daughter by Anne Hillerman
Best Western Nonfiction Historical:
Shot
all to hell : Jesse James, the Northfield Raid, and the wild
west's greatest escape /Mark Lee Gardner
by Mark Lee Gardner
Best Western Nonfiction Contemporary: Vacationland : tourism and
environment in the Colorado high country by William Philpott
Best Western Nonfiction Biography:
Jack
London : an American life by Earle Labor
Best Western Juvenile Fiction: Papa's gold by Ellen Gray Massey
Best Western Juvenile Nonfiction: Eagle of Delight : portrait of
the Plains Indian girl in the White House by Jean A. Lukesh
Storyteller: Yosemite's songster : one coyote's story by Ginger
Wadsworth and Daniel San Souci
Best Western Short Fiction: "Cabin Fever" by Brett Cogburn,
published in Cactus Country anthology,
Volume 3
Best Western Short Nonfiction:
"The other James Brother" by Mark Lee Gardner, published in
Wild West Magazine
Best Western Poem: "Chamise"
by Amy Glynn Greacen, published in Orion Magazine
Owen Wister Award: Robert J. Conley
2013
Best Western Short Novel:
Tucker's reckoning : a Ralph Compton novel by Matthew Mayo
Best Western Long Novel:
With blood in their eyes by Thomas Cobb
Best Original Mass Market Paperback:
The
coyote tracker : a Josiah Wolfe, Texas Ranger novel by Larry Sweazy
Best First Novel:
Panhandle by Brett Cogburn
Best Western Nonfiction Biography:
Geronimo by Robert M. Utley
Best Western Nonfiction Historical: With golden visions bright
before them : trails to the mining West, 1849-1852 by Will
Bagley
Best Western Nonfiction Contemporary:
Desert reckoning : a town
sheriff, a Mojave hermit and the biggest manhunt in modern
California history by Deanne Stillman
Best Western Short Fiction Story: "The hog whisperer" by John
Mort, published in Flint Hills Review
Best Western Short Nonfiction:
"Marathoner Louis Tewanima and the continuity of Hopi running,
1908-1912" by Matthew Sakiestewa Gilbert, published in
Western Historical Quarterly
Best Western Juvenile Fiction:
Wide open by Larry Bjornson
Best Western Juvenile Nonfiction:
Light on the prairie : Solomon
D. Butcher, photographer of Nebraska’s pioneer days by Nancy
Plain
Storyteller Award: Pecos Bill invents the ten-gallon hat by
Kevin Strauss, illustrated by David Harrington
Owen Wister Award: Jory T. Sherman
2012
Best Western Short Novel:
Legacy of a lawman by Johnny D. Boggs
Best Western Long Novel:
Remember Ben Clayton : a novel by Stephen Harrigan
Best Original Mass Market Paperback:
West Texas Kill by Johnny
D. Boggs
Best First Novel: Double Crossing by Meg Mims
Best Western Nonfiction Biography:
George Crook : from the redwoods to Appomattox by Paul Magid
Best Western Nonfiction Historical:
The Mormon Rebellion: America's first civil war, 1857-1858 by
David L. Bigler and Will Bagley
Best Western Nonfiction Contemporary:
The Bitterroot and Mr. Brandborg : clearcutting and the struggle for sustainable
forestry in the northern Rockies by Frederick H. Swanson
Best Western Short Fiction Story: "The death of Delgado" by Rod
Miller in "The traditional West"; "The deacon's horse" by Clay
Reynolds in Texas soundtrack : Texas
stories inspired by Texas music
Best Western Short Nonfiction: "The Alamo, well remembered" by
Paul Andrew Hutton, published in Wild West Magazine
Best Western Juvenile Fiction:
Birdie by Candace Simar
Best Western Juvenile Nonfiction:
Migrant mother : how a photograph defined the Great Depression
by Don Nardo
Storyteller Award:
Tornado Slim and the magic cowboy hat, written and
illustrated by Bryan Langdo
Owen Wister Award:
Loren D. Estleman
2011
Best Western Short Novel:
Snowbound by Richard S. Wheeler
Best Western Long Novel:
Last train from Cuernavaca by Lucia St.
Clair Robson
Best Original Mass Market Paperback: Damnation Road by Max McCoy
Best First Novel: Galveston by Nick Pizolatto
Best Western Nonfiction Biography:
Wolf : the lives of Jack
London by James Haley
Best Western Nonfiction Historical:
The killing of Crazy Horse by Thomas Powers
Best Western Nonfiction Contemporary: The frontier of leisure :
Southern California and the shaping of modern America by
Lawrence Culver
Best Western Short Fiction Story: "Bonnie and Clyde in the
backyard" by K. L. Cook in Glimmer Train #73
Best Western Short Nonfiction: "The N Bar N ranch : a legend of
the open-range cattle industry, 1885-99" by Lee Niedringhaus
Montana: The Magazine of Western History
Best Western Juvenile Fiction:
Moon over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool
Best Western Juvenile Nonfiction:
Buffalo Bill Cody by Ronald A.
Reis
Storyteller Award:
A night on the range by Aaron Frisch; Chris Sheban, illustrator
Owen Wister Award:
James A. Crutchfield
2010
Best Western Short Novel: Far bright star : a novel by Robert Olmstead
Best Western Long Novel:
Echoes of glory by Robert Flynn
Best Original Mass Market Paperback: Stranger in Thunder Basin by
John D. Nesbitt
Best First Novel: No award
Best Western Nonfiction Biography: Peg Leg : the improbable life
of a Texas Hero, Thomas William Ward, 1807-1872 by David C. Humphrey
Best Western Nonfiction: Historical Fort Laramie by Douglas C. McChristian
Best Western Nonfiction Contemporary:
The secret war in El Paso : Mexican revolutionary intrigue,
1906-1920 by Charles H. Harris
III & Louis R. Sadler
Best Western Short Fiction Story: "At the end of the orchard" by
John D. Nesbitt, published in Hardboiled Magazine
Best Western Short Nonfiction: "Teddy's Ride to Recovery" by
Roger Di Silvestro, published in Wild West Magazine
Best Western Juvenile Fiction:
Hard winter by Johnny D. Boggs
Best Western Juvenile Nonfiction: With one sky above us by Nancy
Plain
Storyteller Award: Finding Susie by Sandra Day O'Connor & Tom Pohrt
Owen Wister Award:
N. Scott Momaday
2009
Best Western Short Novel: Another man's moccasins by Craig Johnson
Best Western Long Novel: Shavetail by Thomas Cobb
Best Original Mass Market Paperback: Trouble at the Redstone by
John D. Nesbitt
Best First Novel: God's Thunderbolt : the vigilantes of Montana by
Carol A. Buchanan
Best Western Nonfiction Biography:
Frontiersman : Daniel Boone and
the making of America by Meredith Mason Brown
Best Western Nonfiction Historical:
Hunting the American West :
the pursuit of big game for life, profit, and sport, 1800-1900
by Richard C. Rattenbury
Best Western Nonfiction Contemporary:
Full-court quest : the girls from Fort Shaw Indian School,
basketball champions of the world
by Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith
Best Western Short Fiction Story: "Cornflower Blue" by Susan K. Salzer,
published in Untamed Ink
Best Western Short Nonfiction: "Owen Wister’s Paladin of the
Plains : The Virginian as a cultural hero" by David A. Smith,
published in South Dakota History
Best Western Juvenile Fiction: I am Apache by Tanya Landman
Best Western Juvenile Nonfiction: The trial of Standing Bear by
Frank Keating, Mike Wimmer (artist)
Storyteller Award:
The wheat doll by Alison L. Randall and Bill
Farnsworth (artist)
Owen Wister Award:
Elmore Leonard
2008
Best Western Long Novel:
The god of animals : a novel
by Aryn Kyle
Best Western Short Novel:
Tallgrass
by Sandra Dallas
Best Original Mass Market Paperback: Hellfire Canyon by Max McCoy
Best First Novel: The night birds by Thomas Maltman
Best Western Nonfiction Biography:
Gall : Lakota war chief
by Robert W.
Larson
Best Western Nonfiction Historical:
Creating Minnesota : a history from the inside out by Annette Atkins
Best Western Nonfiction Contemporary: Lone Star lawmen : the second century
of the Texas Rangers By Robert M. Utley
Best Western Short Fiction Story: Crucifixion River, published in
Crucifixion River by Marcia Muller & Bill Pronzini
Best Western Short Nonfiction: "Selling the 'Noble Savage' myth : George
Catlin and the Iowa Indians in Europe, 1843-1845" By Joseph B. Herring,
published in Kansas History (Winter 2007)
Best Western Juvenile Fiction:
Doubtful Cañon : a western story by Johnny D. Boggs
Best Western Juvenile Nonfiction:
Sagebrush and paintbrush : the story of
Charlie Russell, the cowboy artist by Nancy Plain
Storyteller Award (best illustrated children's book): No award given
Owen Wister Award:
Tony Hillerman
2007
Best Western Long Novel:
The night journal by Elizabeth Crook
Best Western Short Novel:
The shape shifter by Tony Hillerman
Best Original Paperback Novel: The Horse Creek incident by Dusty Richards
Best First Novel: Broken trail by Alan Geoffrion
Best Western Nonfiction, Historical:
Blood and thunder : an epic of the
American West by Hampton Sides
Best Western Nonfiction, Contemporary:
Copper chorus : mining, politics and
the Montana press, 1889-1959 by Dennis L. Swibold
Best Western Nonfiction, Biography:
Crazy Horse : a Lakota life by Kingsley
M. Bray
Best Western Juvenile Fiction: Geronimo by Joseph Bruchac
Best Western Juvenile Nonfiction: Bleeding Kansas and the violent clash over
slavery in the heartland by Jeff C. Young
Storyteller Award (best illustrated children's book): Tatanka and the Lakota people : a creation story, illustrated by Donald F. Montileaux
Poetry:
Across the high divide : new poems by Laurie Wagner Buyer
Owen Wister Award:
John Jakes
2006
Novel of the West:
High country : a novel by Willard Wyman
Best First Novel:
High country : a novel by Willard Wyman
Western Novel: Tie for Spur Winner:
Camp Ford : a western story by Johnny D.
Boggs; and The undertaker's wife by Loren D. Estleman
Original Paperback Novel:
Dakota by Matt Braun
Short Fiction: "Pecker's Revenge" by Lori Van Pelt, in
Pecker's
revenge and other stories from the frontier's edge by Lori Van Pelt
Contemporary Nonfiction:
Ringside seat to a revolution : an underground
cultural history of El Paso and Juarez, 1893-1923 by David Dorado Romo
Historical Nonfiction:
Buffalo Bill's America : William Cody and the Wild
West Show by Louis S. Warren
Biography:
Chief Joseph : guardian of the people by Candy Moulton
Storyteller Award (best illustrated children's book):
Klondike gold by Alice Provensen
Juvenile Nonfiction:
The
first Americans : the story of where they came from and who they became by Anthony Aveni
Juvenile Fiction:
Black storm comin' by Diane Lee Wilson
Poetry:
The voice of the Borderlands by Drum Hadley
Owen Wister Award: Andrew J. Fenady
2005
Best Western Novel:
Buy the chief a Cadillac : a novel by Rick Steber
Best Novel Of The West: People of the raven by Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W.
Michael Gear
Best Original Mass Market Paperback Novel: Vengeance Valley by Richard S.
Wheeler
Best First Novel: Field of honor by D. L. Birchfield
Best Western Nonfiction - Biography:
Black Kettle : the Cheyenne chief who
sought peace but found war by Thom Hatch
Best Western Nonfiction - Historical:
Beasts of the field : a narrative history of California farm workers,
1769-1913 by Richard Steven
Street
Best Western Nonfiction - Contemporary: The Texas Rangers and the Mexican
Revolution by Charles H. Harris III and Louis R. Sadler
Best Western Short Fiction: "The Promotion" by Larry D. Sweazy, in
Texas Rangers, edited by Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg
Best Western Short Nonfiction: "Blood for oil" by Jim Doherty, in
Just the facts : true tales of cops and criminals by Jim Doherty
Best Western Juvenile Fiction: Fire in the hole! By Mary Cronk Farrell
Best Western Juvenile Nonfiction:
Rattlesnake Mesa : stories from a Native American childhood by EdNah New Rider Weber
Poetry: A thousand miles of stars by Walt McDonald
Storyteller Award (best illustrated children's book):
Apples to Oregon : being the (slightly) true narrative . . . by Deborah Hopkinson
; illustrated by Nancy Carpenter
Owen Wister Award: Judy Alter
2004
Best Western Novel:
I should be
extremely happy in your company : a novel of Lewis and Clark by Brian Hall
Novel of the West:
So wild a dream
by Win Blevins
Medicine Pipe Bearer Award (best first novel): The sergeant’s
lady by Miles Hood Swarthout
Storyteller Award (best illustrated children’s
book):
The Star People : a Lakota story written and illustrated by S.D. Nelson
Original Paperback Novel: Plain
language : a novel by Barbara Wright
Nonfiction Biography:
On a silver desert : the life of Ernest Haycox by Ernest Haycox Jr.
Nonfiction Contemporary:
River
of shadows : Eadweard Muybridge and the technological wild west by
Rebecca Solnit
Nonfiction Historical:
One
vast winter count : the Native American West before Lewis and Clark
by Colin G. Calloway
Short Fiction: "Second Coming" by Andrew Geyer, in
Whispers in dust
and bone by Andrew Geyer
Juvenile Fiction: In the eye of
the storm by E. Cody Kimmel; illustrated by Scott Snow
Juvenile Nonfiction: Words west : voices of young pioneers by Ginger Wadsworth
Poetry: Wolf tracks on the welcome
mat by Paul Zarzyski
Owen Wister Award: Matt Braun
2003
Best Western Novel: The chili
queen by Sandra Dallas
Best Original Paperback Novel:
Oblivion's altar : a novel of courage by David Marion Wilkinson
Best Novel of the West:
Perma
Red by Debra Magpie Earling
Nonfiction Historical:
Blood
of the prophets : Brigham Young and the massacre at Mountain Meadows
by Will Bagley
Nonfiction Contemporary:
Diné
: a history of the Navajos by Peter Iverson
Nonfiction Biography:
Sam Houston
by James L. Haley
Best Western Short Fiction: "The Old Man" by Jimbo Brewer, in
Hot
biscuits : eighteen stories by women and men of the ranching West,
edited by Candy Vyvey Moulton and Max Evans
Best Western Short Nonfiction: "Winter in the Rockies: Winter Quarters
of the Mountain Men," by Kerry R. Oman, in Montana : the magazine of
Western history
Best Western Juvenile Fiction: The
big burn by Jeanette Ingold
Best Western Juvenile Nonfiction:
Raising La Belle by Mark G. Mitchell
Storyteller Award (best illustrated children’s book):
Will Rogers : an American legend by Frank Keating, illustrated by Mike
Wimmer
Medicine Pipe Bearer Award (best first novel):
Perma
Red by Debra Magpie Earling
Owen Wister Award:
Don Coldsmith
2002
Best Western Novel: (under 90,000
words)
The way of the coyote by Elmer Kelton
Best Novel of the West: (over 90,000
words)
The miracle life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall
Original Western Paperback: Drum's
ring by Richard S. Wheeler
Medicine Pipe Bearer Award (best first
novel):
Corps of Discovery : a novel based on the Lewis and Clark Expedition of
1803-1806 by Jeffrey W. Tenney
Nonfiction: Historical:
Andrew Jackson and his Indian wars by Robert Remini
Nonfiction: Contemporary:
Bone wars
: the excavation and celebrity of Andrew Carnegie's dinosaur by Tom Rea
Nonfiction: Biography:
American character : the curious life of Charles Fletcher Lummis and the
rediscovery of the Southwest by Mark Thompson
Juvenile Fiction: Rockbuster by
Gloria Skurzynski
Juvenile Nonfiction:
In
the days of the vaqueros : America's first true cowboys by Russell
Freedman
Short Fiction: "A piano at Dead
Man's Crossing" by Johnny D. Boggs, in American West : twenty new
stories from the Western Writers of America, edited by Loren D. Estleman
Short Nonfiction: "Killer of Pain's
Transcontinental Journey" by Dale L. Walker, in Wild West
Storyteller Award (best illustrated
children's book): The legend of Strap Buckner : a Texas tale, retold by Connie Nordhielm
Wooldridge; illustrated by Andrew Glass
Poetry:
Blood sister, I am to these fields : new and selected poems by Linda Hussa
Owen Wister Award: David Dary
2001
Best Western Novel: Summer of pearls
by Mike Blakely
Best Novel of the West:
The
gates of the Alamo : a novel by Stephen Harrigan
Best Original Paperback: Bound for
the promise-land by Troy D. Smith
Medicine Pipe Bearer Award (best first novel): The chivalry of crime : a novel by Desmond Barry
Best Western Nonfiction - Contemporary:
What
you see in clear water : life on the Wind River Reservation by Geoffrey
O'Gara
Best Western Nonfiction - Biography:
A
river running west : the life of John Wesley Powell by Donald Worster
Best Western Nonfiction - Historical:
Pacific
destiny : the three-century journey to the Oregon country by Dale Walker
Best Western Short Fiction: “All
or nothing” by Gary Svee, in Tales of the American West : the best of
Spur Award-winning authors, edited by Richard S. Wheeler
Best Western Juvenile Fiction:
The
midnight train home by Erika Tamar
Best Western Juvenile Nonfiction:
Stories
of young pioneers in their own words by Violet T. Kimball
Storyteller Award (best illustrated
children's book): Cindy Ellen
: a wild western Cinderella by Susan Lowell and Jane Manning
Poetry:
Western
settings : poems by Red Shuttleworth
Owen Wister Award: Richard S. Wheeler
2000
Western Novel: Masterson by Richard
S. Wheeler
Novel of the West: Prophet Annie
by Ellen Recknor
Paperback Original: Mine work : a novel by
Jim Davidson
Nonfiction-Contemporary:
The
real wild west : the 101 Ranch and the creation of the American West
by Michael Wallis
Nonfiction-Biography:
Knight without armor : Carlos Eduardo Castañeda, 1896-1958 by Felix
D. Almaraz, Jr.
Juvenile Fiction: Wrango by Brian
Burks
Juvenile Nonfiction: The wild Colorado
: the true adventures of Fred Dellenbaugh, age 17, on the second Powell
Expedition into the Grand Canyon by Richard Maurer
Storyteller Award (best illustrated children's book):
The prairie train by Antoine O'Flatharta, illustrated by Eric Rohmann
Medicine Pipe Bearer Award (best first novel): Mine
work by Jim Davidson
Owen Wister Award:
Dale L. Walker
1999
Western Novel: Journey of the dead
by Loren D. Estleman
Novel of the West:
The
all-true travels and adventures of Lidie Newton : a novel by Jane Smiley
Paperback Original: Dark trail by
Hiram King
Nonfiction-Contemporary:
Devil's bargains : tourism in the twentieth-century American West by Hal K.
Rothman
Nonfiction-Biography:
Duke : the life and image of John Wayne by Ronald L. Davis
Juvenile Fiction:
Petey
by Ben Mikaelsen
Juvenile Nonfiction: Cowboy with a camera : Erwin E. Smith, cowboy photographer by Don Worcester
Storyteller Award (best illustrated children's book): Slim & Miss Prim
by Robert Kinerk, illustrations by Jim Harris
Medicine Pipe Bearer Award (best first novel): The
Spanish Peaks by Jon Chandler
Owen Wister Award:
Norman Zollinger
1998
Western Novel: The Kiowa verdict
by Cynthia Haseloff
Novel of the West:
Comanche moon : a novel by Larry McMurtry
Paperback Original: Leaving Missouri
by Ellen Recknor
Nonfiction-Contemporary:
Big
trouble : a murder in a small western town sets off a struggle for the
soul of America by J. Anthony Lukas
Nonfiction-Biography: Death's deceiver
: the life of Joseph P. Machebeuf by Lynn Bridgers
Juvenile Fiction: Danger along the
Ohio by Patricia Willis
Juvenile Nonfiction:
Rattlesnake
dance : true tales, mysteries, and rattlesnake ceremonies by Jennifer
Owings Dewey
Storyteller Award (best illustrated children's book):
The bootmaker and the elves by Susan Lowell ; illustrated by Tom Curry
Medicine Pipe Bearer Award (best first novel): Keepers
of the Earth by LaVerne Harrell Clark
1997
For promotional purposes, the WWA
Executive Board in 1997 voted to redesignate the Spur Awards to reflect
the year the award is presented rather than the year the work was published.
Owen Wister Award:
José Cisneros
1996
Western Novel: Blood of Texas by
Preston Lewis writing as Will Camp
Novel of the West:
Sierra
: a novel of the California gold rush by Richard S. Wheeler
Paperback Original: Potter's fields
by Frank Roderus
Nonfiction-Historical:
Undaunted
courage : Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the opening of the American
West by Stephen Ambrose
Nonfiction-Contemporary:
New westers : the west in contemporary American culture by Michael L. Johnson
Nonfiction-Biography: John Wesley
Hardin : dark angel of Texas by Leon C. Metz
Nonfiction-Historical: El Llano
Estacado : exploration and imagination on the High Plains of Texas and
New Mexico, 1536-1860 by John Miller Morris
Juvenile Fiction:
Far
North by Will Hobbs
Juvenile Nonfiction:
The life and death of Crazy Horse by Russell Freedman ; drawings by Amos
Bad Heart Bull
Storyteller Award (best illustrated children's book):
The worry stone by Marianna Dengler ; illustrated by Sibyl Graber Gerig
Medicine Pipe Bearer Award (best first novel): Death
of a healing woman by Allana Martin
Owen Wister Award:
David Lavender
1995
Western Novel: The dark island by
Robert J. Conley
Novel of the West:
Stone song : a novel of the life of Crazy Horse by Win Blevins
Paperback Original: Thunder in the
valley by Jim R. Woolard
Nonfiction-Historical:
Seeking pleasure in the Old West by David Dary
Nonfiction-Contemporary:
We
are a people in this world : the Lakota Sioux and the massacre at Wounded
Knee by Conger Beasley Jr.
Nonfiction-Biography: General M.
G. Vallejo and the advent of the Americans : a biography by Alan Rosenus
Juvenile Fiction:
Indio by Sherry
Garland
Juvenile Nonfiction: Camels for
Uncle Sam by Diane Yancey
Storyteller Award (best illustrated children's book):
Dandelions by Eve Bunting
; illustrated by Greg Shed
Medicine Pipe Bearer Award (best first novel): Thunder
in the valley by Jim R. Woolard
Owen Wister Award: Gordon D. Shirreffs
1994
Western Novel:
St. Agnes' stand by Tom Eidson
Novel of the West: The far canyon
by Elmer Kelton
Paperback Original: Survival by K.C. McKenna
Nonfiction-Historical:
Precious
dust : the American gold rush era, 1848-1900 by Paula Mitchell Marks
Nonfiction-Contemporary: Raven's
exile : a season on the Green River by Ellen Meloy
Nonfiction-Biography: Hero of Beecher
Island : life & military career of George A. Forsyth by David Dixon
Juvenile: The trail of tears by David K. Fremon
Medicine Pipe Bearer Award
(best first novel):
St. Agnes' stand by Tom Eidson
Owen Wister Award:
Robert
M. Utley
1993
Western Novel: Friends by Charles
Hackenberry
Novel of the West: Empire of bones
: a novel of Sam Houston and the Texas Revolution by Jeff Long
Paperback Original: The Gila River
by Gary McCarthy
Nonfiction-Historical:
The
lance and the shield : the life and times of Sitting Bull by Robert
M. Utley
Nonfiction-Contemporary: Rivers
in the desert : William Mulholland and the inventing of Los Angeles by
Margaret Leslie Davis
Juvenile Fiction: Leaving Eldorado
by Joann Mazzio
Juvenile Nonfiction:
Cowboys,
Indians, and gunfighters : the story of the cattle kingdom by Albert
Marrin
Medicine Pipe Bearer Award
(best first novel): People
of the Whistling Waters by Mardi Oakley Medawar
Owen Wister Award:
Douglas
C. Jones
1992
Western Novel: Nickajack by Robert
J. Conley
Novel of the West: Slaughter by
Elmer Kelton
Paperback Original: The golden chance
by Theodore V. Olsen
Nonfiction:
Let
me be free : the Nez Perce tragedy by David Lavender
Juvenile Fiction:
The haymeadow by Gary Paulsen ; illustrated by Ruth Wright Paulsen.
Juvenile Nonfiction:
Children
of the Dust Bowl : the true story of the school at Weedpatch Camp by
Jerry Stanley
Short Fiction: "The Face," in The best western stories of Ed Gorman by Ed
Gorman
Medicine Pipe Bearer Award
(best first novel): John
Stone and the Choctaw Kid by Wayne Davis
Owen Wister Award:
Tom Lea
1991
Western Novel: Journal of the gun
years by Richard Matheson
Novel of the West: The medicine
horn by Jory Sherman
Paperback Original: Rage in Chupadera
by Norman Zollinger
Nonfiction:
Custer's
last campaign : Mitch Boyer and the Little Bighorn reconstructed by
John S. Gray
Juvenile Fiction:
Rescue
Josh McGuire by Ben Mikaelsen
Short Fiction: "Cimarrron, the killer"
in
Tales of the Southwest
by Benjamin Capps
Medicine Pipe Bearer Award (best first novel): The
sixth rider by Max McCoy
Owen Wister Award:
Glendon Swarthout
1990
Western Novel:
Sanctuary
by Gary Svee
Novel of the West: Home Mountain
by Jeanne Williams
Paperback Original: The changing
wind by Don Coldsmith
Nonfiction:
Helen
Hunt Jackson and her Indian reform legacy by Valerie S. Mathes
Juvenile Fiction:
Honey girl by Madge Harrah
Juvenile Nonfiction:
Woodsong
by Gary Paulsen ; illustrated by Ruth Wright Paulsen
Medicine Pipe Bearer Award (best first novel): Caesar
of Santa Fe by Tim MacCurdy
1989
Western Novel: Fool's coach by Richard
Wheeler
Novel of the West:
Panther in the sky by James Alexander Thom
Paperback Original: Among the eagles
by C. Clifton Wisler
Nonfiction:
Great plains by Ian Frazier
Juvenile:
My
Daniel by Pam Conrad
Medicine Pipe Bearer Award (best first novel): South
Texas by Ann Gabriel
1988
Western Novel: Mattie by Judy Alter
Novel of the West: The homesman
by Glendon Swarthout
Nonfiction:
Hoover Dam : an American adventure by Joseph Stevens
Juvenile:
In
the face of danger by Joan Lowery Nixon
Medicine Pipe Bearer Award (best first novel): Spirit
of the hills by Dan O'Brien
1987
Western Novel:
Skinwalkers
by Tony Hillerman
Historical Novel:
Wanderer Springs : a novel by Robert Flynn
Nonfiction:
Jessie
Benton Frémont : a biography by Pamela Herr
Juvenile: The orphan train by Joan
Lowery Nixon
Medicine Pipe Bearer Award (best first novel): Jenny's
Mountain by Elaine Long
1986
Western Novel:
The blind corral by Ralph Robert Beer
Historical Novel: Roman by Douglas
C. Jones
Nonfiction: Paper medicine man :
John Gregory Bourke and his American West by Joseph C. Porter
Juvenile:
Make way for Sam Houston by Jean Fritz
Medicine Pipe Bearer Award (best first novel):
Come spring by Charlotte Hinger
1985
Western Novel:
Lonesome Dove : a novel by Larry McMurtry
Historical Novel: The snowblind moon : a novel of the West by John Byrne Cooke
Nonfiction:
Phil Sheridan and his army by Paul Andrew Hutton
Juvenile:
Prairie songs by Pam Conrad ; illustrated by by Darryl S. Zudeck
Medicine Pipe Bearer Award (best first novel): The snowblind moon
: a novel of the West by John Byrne Cooke
1984
Historical Novel:
Gone the dreams and dancing by Douglas C. Jones
Nonfiction:
Hashknife cowboy : recollections of Mack Hughes by Stella Hughes
Juvenile: Trapped in the slickrock canyon
by Gloria Skurzynski
Medicine Pipe Bearer Award (best first novel): Winterkill
by Craig Lesley
1983
Novel: Leaving Kansas by Frank Roderus
Historical Novel:
Sam Bass : a novel by Bryan Woolley
Nonfiction: Quarterdeck and saddlehorn
: the story of Edward F. Beale, 1822-1893 by Carl Briggs and Clyde Trudell
Juvenile: Thunder on the Tennessee
by Gary Clifton Wisler
1982
Novel: Match race by Fred Grove
Historical Novel:
Ride the wind : the story of Cynthia Ann Parker and the last days of the
Comanche
by Lucia St. Clair Robson
Nonfiction:
Albuquerque : a narrative history by Marc Simmons
Juvenile: Before the lark by Irene
Bennett Brown
Medicine Pipe Bearer Award (best first novel):
Carry the wind by Terry C. Johnston
1981
Novel: (tie) Eye of the hawk by
Elmer Kelton; and Horizon by Lee Head
Historical Novel: Aces and eights
by Loren D. Estleman
Nonfiction: Cowboy culture : a saga
of five centuries by David Dary
Juvenile: The last run by Mark Jonathan
Harris
Medicine Pipe Bearer Award (Best
First Novel): Ride down the wind by Wayne Barton
1980
Novel: The valiant women by Jeanne
Williams
Nonfiction:
The peace chiefs of the Cheyennes by Stan Hoig
Juvenile: Getting there : frontier
travel without power by Suzanne Hilton
1979
Novel: The holdouts by William Decker
Nonfiction:
The Apaches : Eagles of the Southwest by Donald Worcester
1978
Novel: Riders to Cibola by Norman
Zollinger
Nonfiction:
Pueblo,
Hardscrabble, Greenhorn : the Upper Arkansas, 1832-1856 by Janet Lecompte
Juvenile:
The no-return trail by Sonia Levitin
1977
Novel: The great horse race by Fred
Grove
Historical Novel: Swimming man burning
: a rip-roaring novel of the American West by Terrence Kilpatrick
Nonfiction: The cowgirls by Joyce
Gibson Roach
Juvenile: A shepherd watches, a shepherd sings by Louis Irigaray and Theodore Taylor
1976
Novel: (tie) The spirit horses by
Lou Cameron; and
The court martial of George Armstrong Custer by Douglas C. Jones
Historical Novel: The Kincaids by
Matt Braun
Nonfiction:
The vanishing white man by Stan Steiner
Juvenile:
"All aboard!" : the story of passenger trains in America by Phillip Ault
1975
Novel: The shootist by Glendon Swarthout
Nonfiction:
Lamy of Santa Fe, his life and times by Paul Horgan
Juvenile Fiction:
Dust of the earth by Vera and Bill Cleaver
Juvenile Nonfiction: Ride 'em cowgirl
by Lynn Haney
1974
Novel: A hanging in Sweetwater by
Stephen Overholser
Nonfiction: Colonel Green and the
copper skyrocket by C. L. Sonnichsen
Juvenile:
Susy's scoundrel by Harold Keith ; illustrated by John Schoenherr.
1973
Novel: The time it never rained
by Elmer Kelton
Nonfiction:
Burnt-out fires by Richard Dillon
Juvenile Fiction: Freedom trail
by Jeanne Williams
Juvenile Nonfiction:
Red
Power on the Rio Grande; the native American revolution of 1680 by
Franklin Folsom ; jacket and symbol illustrations by J. D. Roybal
1972
Novel: A killing in Kiowa by Lewis
B. Patten
Historical Novel:
Chiricahua
by Will Henry
Nonfiction:
The time of the buffalo by Tom McHugh
Juvenile Fiction:
Only earth and sky last forever by Nathaniel Benchley
Juvenile Nonfiction: The Tiguas : the last tribe of city Indians
by Stan Steiner
1971
Novel:
The day the cowboys quit by Elmer Kelton
Nonfiction: Western life and adventures
by Elliott Barker
Juvenile Fiction:
The black mustanger by Richard Wormser ; illustrated by Don Bolognese
Juvenile Nonfiction: Lords of the
earth : a history of the Navajo Indians by Jules Loh
1970
Novel: The Last days of Wolf Garnett
by Clifton Adams
Nonfiction:
The buffalo by Francis Haines
Juvenile Fiction:
Cayuse courage by Evelyn Lampman
Juvenile Nonfiction: (tie) Retreat
to the Bear Paw : the story of the Nez Percé by Marion T. Place; and Search for the Seven Cities by John
Upton Terrell
1969
Novel: Tragg's choice by Clifton
Adams
Historical Novel: The white man's
road by Benjamin Capps
Nonfiction:
Boss
cowman; the recollections of Ed Lemmon, 1857-1946. Edited by Nellie
Snyder Yost
Juvenile Fiction: The Meeker Massacre
by Wayne Overholser and Lewis Patten
Juvenile Nonfiction:
Conquistadors and pueblos; the story of the American Southwest, 1540-1848 by Olga
Hall-Quest ; illustrated by Marian Ebert.
First Western Novel: Big with vengeance
by Cecil Snyder
1968
Novel: Down the long hills by Louis L'Amour
Historical Novel: The red Sabbath
by Lewis Patten
Nonfiction:
Gold rushes and mining camps of the early American West by Vardis Fisher
and Opal Laurel Holmes
Juvenile Fiction: Middl'un by Elizabeth
Burleson ; illustrated by George Roth.
Juvenile Nonfiction: Rifles and
war bonnets by Marion T. Place
1967
Novel: The Valdez horses by
Lee Hoffman
Historical Novel: The wolf is my
brother by Chad Oliver
Nonfiction:
America's western frontiers : the exploration and settlement of the
Trans-Mississippi West by John Hawgood
Juvenile Fiction: (tie)
Half-breed by Evelyn Lampman ; illustrated by Ann Grifalconi.; and
The dunderhead war : a novel by Betty Baker
Juvenile Nonfiction:
To the Pacific with Lewis and Clark by Ralph Andrist
1966
Novel: My brother John by Herbert
R. Purdum
Historical Novel: Hellfire Jackson
by Garland Roark and Charles Thomas
Nonfiction:
America's frontier heritage by Ray Billington
Juvenile Fiction:
The burning glass by Annabel and Edgar Johnson
Juvenile Nonfiction:
Valley of the smallest; the life story of a shrew by Aileen Fisher ;
illustrated by Jean Zallinger.
1965
Novel: Sam Chance : a novel by Benjamin
Capps
Historical Novel: (tie) Gold in
California! by Willis Todhunter Ballard and
Mountain man; a novel of male and female in the early American West by Vardis Fisher
Nonfiction:
The Nez Perce Indians and the opening of the Northwest by Alvin M. Josephy
Juvenile: The stubborn one by Rutherford
Montgomery
1964
Novel: The trail to Ogallala by
Benjamin Capps
Historical Novel: Indian Fighter
by E. E. Halleran
Nonfiction:
Field notes of Captain William Clark, 1803-1805 by E.S. Osgood
Juvenile: Ride a northbound horse
by Richard Wormser
1963
Novel: Follow the free wind by Leigh
Brackett
Historical Novel:
The gates of the mountains by Will Henry
Nonfiction:
The
Bonanza West; the story of the Western mining rushes, 1848-1900 by
William S. Greever
Juvenile: (tie)
The story catcher by Mari Sandoz, illustrated by Elsie J. McCorkell; and
By the great horn spoon! by Sid Fleischman ; illustrated by Eric von
Schmidt
1962
Novel: Comanche captives by Fred
Grove
Historical Novel: Moontrap : a novel
by Don Berry
Nonfiction:
Great surveys of the American West by R.A. Bartlett
Juvenile: The western horse; a handbook
by Natlee Kenoyer
1961
Novel: The honyocker by Giles A. Lutz
Historical Novel: The winter war
by William Wister Haines
Nonfiction:
The lives and legends of Buffalo Bill by Don Russell
1960
Novel: The nameless breed by Will
C. Brown
Historical Novel: From where the
sun now stands by Will Henry
Nonfiction:
South
Pass, 1868. James Chisholm's journal of the Wyoming gold rush, ed.
by Lola M. Homsher
Juvenile: The horse talker by Jeanne
Williams
1959
Novel: Long run by Nelson Nye
Historical Novel: The buffalo soldiers
by John Prebble
Nonfiction: The day of San Jacinto
by Frank X. Tolbert
Juvenile Fiction: Their shining
hour : a novel based on events in the life of Susanna Dickenson at the
siege of the Alamo by Ramona Maher
Juvenile Nonfiction: Hold back the hunter : a novel by Dale White
1958
Novel: Short cut to Red River by
Noel Loomis
Historical Novel: The Fancher Train
by Amelia Bean
Nonfiction:
Cripple Creek days by Mabel Barbee Lee
Juvenile: Steamboat up the Missouri
by Dale White
1957
Novel: Buffalo wagons by Elmer Kelton
Historical Novel: Silver Mountain
by Dan Cushman
Nonfiction:
This
is the West, ed. by Robert West Howard
Juvenile:
Wolf
Brother by Jim Kjelgaard
1956
Novel: High gun by Leslie Ernenwein
Historical Novel: Generations of
men : a novel by John Clinton Hunt
Nonfiction:
Men to match my mountains : the opening of the far West, 1840-1900 by Irving Stone
Juvenile: Trapping the silver beaver
by Charley Niehuis ; illustrated by Chris Kenyon
1955
Novel: Somewhere they die by L.
P. Holmes
Nonfiction:
Whoop-up
country: the Canadian-American West, 1865-1885 by Paul F. Sharp
1954
Novel: The violent land by Wayne
D. Overholser
Historical Novel: Journey by the
river by John Prescott
Juvenile: Young hero of the range
by Stephen Payne
Nonfiction:
Bent's
Fort by David Lavender
1953
Novel: Lawman by Lee Leighton
Historical novel: The wheel and
the hearth by Lucia Moore
Juvenile: Sagebrush sorrel by Frank
C. Robertson