Mountains and Plains Book Awards

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Mountains & Plains - Reading the West Book Award Winners

2017
Adult non-fiction: Killers of the Flower Moon : the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI by David Grann
Adult fiction: The widow Nash : a novel by Jamie Harrison
Children's: Insignificant events in the life of a cactus by Dusti Bowling

2016
Adult non-fiction: The hour of land : a personal topography of America's national parks by Terry Tempest Williams
Adult fiction: News of the world : a novel by Paulette Jiles
Children's: Runs with courage by Joan M. Wolf

2015
Adult non-fiction: Ladies of the canyons : a league of extraordinary women and their adventures in the American Southwest by Lesley Poling-Kempes
Adult fiction: Black River : a novel by S. M. Hulse
Children's: A series of small maneuvers by Eliot Treichel

2014
Adult non-fiction: Badluck Way : a year on the ragged edge of the West by Bryce Andrews
Adult fiction: The painter : a novel by Peter Heller
Children's: Dirt bikes, drones, and other ways to fly by Conrad Wesselhoeft

2013
Adult non-fiction: The Emerald Mile : the epic story of the fastest ride in history through the heart of the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko
Adult fiction: The son by Philipp Meyer
Children's: The last ride of Caleb O'Toole by Eric Pierpoint

2012
Adult non-fiction: Full body burden : growing up in the nuclear shadow of Rocky Flats by Kristen Iversen
Adult fiction: Theft : a novel by BK Loren
Children's: Kepler's dream by Juliet Bell
Spirit of the West Award: Kent Haruf


2011
Adult non-fiction: Fire season : field notes from a wilderness lookout by Philip Connors
Adult fiction: The voice of the river : a novel by Melanie Rae Thon
Children's: Missing on Superstition Mountain by Elise Broach and Antonio Javier Caparo

2010
Adult Fiction: The wake of forgiveness by Bruce Machart
Children's Chapter Book: Starfish by James Crowley

Mountains & Plains - Regional Book Award Winners
2009

Fiction: Another man's moccasins : a Walt Longmire mystery by Craig Johnson
Nonfiction: American buffalo : in search of a lost icon by Steven Rinella
The Arts: Colorado's wild horses by Claude Steelman
Regional Reference: Staking her claim : women homesteading the West by Marcia Meredith Hensley
Children’s Chapter Book: Go big or go home by Will Hobbs
Children’s Picture Book: The illuminated desert ; text by Terry Tempest Williams, illustrations by Chloe Hedden

2008
Fiction: The god of animals : a novel by Aryn Kyle
Nonfiction: The day the world ended at Little Bighorn : a Lakota history by Joseph M. Marshall III
The Arts: Great ranches of the West by Jim Keen
Children’s Chapter Book: Wind rider by Susan Williams
Art/Poetry: Adobe odes by Pat Mora

2007
Fiction: Cottonwood saints by Gene Guerin
Nonfiction: Blood and thunder : an epic of the American West by Hampton Sides
The Arts: Mesa Verde National Park : the first 100 years by Rose Houk, Faith Marcovecchio, and Duane A. Smith
Children’s Chapter Book: The buffalo and the Indians : a shared destiny by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent; photographs by William Muñoz
Regional Reference: Pinedale, Wyoming : a centennial history, 1904-2004 by Ann Chambers Noble
Spirit of the West Award: Linda Hogan

2006
Fiction: A sudden country: A Novel by Karen Fisher
Nonfiction: 109 East Palace : Robert Oppenheimer and the secret city of Los Alamos by Jennet Conant
The Arts: William Henry Jackson's "The pioneer photographer" by William Henry Jackson, Howard R. Driggs, Bob Blair (Editor)
Children’s Chapter Book: Bear Dancer : the story of a Ute girl by Thelma Hatch Wyss; Margaret K. McElderry
Spirit of the West Award: Robert Utley


2005
Fiction: The work of wolves by Kent Meyers
Nonfiction: Little things in a big country : an artist and her dog on the Rocky Mountain front by Hannah Hinchman
Art/Poetry: The pueblo imagination by Lee Marmon
Children’s Chapter Book: Searching for Chipeta : the story of a Ute and her people by Vickie Leigh Krudwig
Children’s Picture Book: Old coyote by Nancy Wood, illustrated by Max Grafe
Regional Reference: Select Peaks of Greater Yellowstone: A Mountaineering History and Guide by Thomas Turiano
Spirit of the West Award: Leslie Marmon Silko


2004
Fiction: Land that moves, land that stands still by Kent Nelson
Nonfiction: Hawks rest : a season in the remote heart of Yellowstone by Gary Ferguson
The Arts: Birds of prey in the American West by Tom Vezo and Richard Glinski
Children's: Enduring wisdom : sayings from Native Americans, edited by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve; illustrated by Synthia Saint James
Regional Reference: Creation of the Teton landscape by David D. Love, John C. Reed, J.D. Love, edited by U S Games Systems, W.T. Pecara
Spirit of the West Award: Sandra Cisneros


2003
Fiction: Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling
Nonfiction: Breaking clean by Judy Blunt
The Arts: Drawn to Yellowstone : artists in America's first national park by Peter Hassrick
Children’s Chapter Book: Women artists of the West : five portraits in creativity and courage by Julie Danneberg

2002
Fiction: The miracle life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall
Nonfiction: A river running West by Donald Worster
Art/Poetry: Ansel Adams at 100 by John Szarkowski
Children’s Chapter Book: Daniel's Walk by Michael Spooner
Children’s Picture Book: Mountain men : tru grit and tall tales by Andrew Glass

2001
Fiction: Winter range by Claire Davis
Nonfiction: The blood runs like a river through my dreams : a memoir by Nasdijj
Art/Poetry: Painters and the American West : the Anschutz collection by Joan Carpenter Troccoli
Children's: Clarence goes out West and meets a purple horse by Jean Ekman Adams
Spirit of the West Award: Ann Haymond Zwinger


2000
Fiction: Plainsong by Kent Haruf
Nonfiction: Where rivers change direction by Mark Spragg
Nonfiction: Fire on the mountain by John Maclean
Children's: The wild Colorado by Richard Maurer
Spirit of the West Award: Jim Harrison


1999
Fiction: One thousand white women : the journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus
Nonfiction: Lasso the wind : away to the new West by Timothy Egan
Poetry: In Gravity National Park by C. L. Rawlins
Children's: Boss of the plains : the hat that won the West by Laurie Carlson, illustrated by Holly Meade
Spirit of the West Award: Terry Tempest Williams


1998
Fiction: The sky, the stars, the wilderness by Rick Bass
Nonfiction: Legends of the American desert : sojourns of the greater Southwest by Alex Shoumatoff
Poetry: Blue horses rush in : poems and stories by Luci Tapahonso
Children's: The serpent's tongue : prose, poetry, and art of the New Mexico pueblos, edited by Nancy Wood
Spirit of the West Award: Rudolfo Anaya


1997
Fiction: Sun dancer by David London
Nonfiction: Undaunted courage : Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the opening of the American West by Stephen E. Ambrose
Poetry: Mountains and rivers without end by Gary Snyder
Children's: Bill Pickett, rodeo ridin' cowboy by Brian & Andrea D. Pinkney
Spirit of the West Award: Ivan Doig


1996
Fiction: Stone song : a novel of the life of Crazy Horse by Win Blevins
Nonfiction: The Dull Knifes of Pine Ridge : a Lakota odyssey by Joe Starita
Poetry: My town by David Lee
Children's: A boy called Slow : the true story of Sitting Bull by Joseph Bruchac
Spirit of the West Award: Vine Deloria, Jr.


1995
Fiction: Stygo by Laura Hendrie
Nonfiction: Killing Custer : the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the fate of the Plains Indians by James Welch
Poetry: Loose woman : poems by Sandra Cisneros
Children's: Daily life in a covered wagon by Paul Erickson
Spirit of the West Award: Tony Hillerman


1994
Fiction: Pigs in heaven : a novel by Barbara Kingsolver
Fiction: The death of Bernadette Lefthand : a novel by Ronald B. Querry
Fiction: Montana 1948 : a novel by Larry Watson
Poetry: So far from God : a novel by Ana Castillo
Children's: I am Lavina Cumming by Susan Lowell
Spirit of the West Award: N. Scott Momaday


1993
Fiction: Cowboys are my weakness : stories by Pam Houston
Fiction: The meadow by James Galvin
Fiction: All the pretty horses by Cormac McCarthy
Nonfiction: Where the bluebird sings to the lemonade springs : living and writing in the West by Wallace Stegner
Spirit of the West Award: David Lavender


1992
Nonfiction: Land circle : writings collected from the land by Linda Hasselstrom
Nonfiction: PrairyErth : (a deep map) by William Least Heat-Moon
Nonfiction: Refuge : an unnatural history of family and place by Terry Tempest Williams
Nonfiction: Songs of the fluteplayer : seasons of life in the Southwest by Sharman Apt Russell
Spirit of the West Award: Frank Waters


1991
Fiction: Mean spirit : a novel by Linda Hogan
Nonfiction: Photographing Montana, 1894-1928 : the life and work of Evelyn Cameron by Donna M. Lucey
Poetry: In mad love and war by Joy Harjo
Children's: Canyons by Gary Paulsen

1990
Fiction: The testimony of Mr. Bones : stories by Olive Ghiselin
Nonfiction: Remote beyond compare : letters of don Diego de Vargas to his family from New Spain and New Mexico, 1675-1706, edited by John Kessell
Poetry: What we have to live with by Marilyn Krysl
Children's: Bearstone by Will Hobbs