High Plains Book Award

For more information about the High Plains Book Award, click here.

2018
Art & Photography: Theodore Waddell : my Montana by Rick Newby
Children's Book: What I saw in Glacier by Ellen Horowitz
Creative Nonfiction: A darkness lit by heroes : the Granite Mountain-Speculator Mine disaster of 1917 by Doug Ammons
Fiction: Days without end : a novel by Sebastian Barry
First Book: Bad Kansas by Becky Mandelbaum
Indigenous Writer: Strangers : Book 1, The Reckoner Trilogy by David A. Robertson
Medicine & Science: The patch : the people, pipelines, and politics of the oil sands by Chris Turner
Nonfiction: Wonderlandscape : Yellowstone National Park and the evolution of an American cultural icon by John Clayton
Poetry: Throwing the Diamond Hitch by Emily Ursuliak
Short Stories: Maple & lead by Aaron Parrett
Woman Writer: The Last Chance Ladies' Book Club by Marlis Wesseler
Young Adult: Stranded: A Story of Frontier Survival by Matthew P. Mayo

2017
Fiction: The bones of paradise by Jonis Agee
Nonfiction: The immortal Irishman : the Irish revolutionary who became an American hero by Timothy Egan
First Book: Hurt people by Cote Smith
Poetry: Poems across the Big Sky II : an anthology of Montana poets, edited by Lowell Jaeger
Woman Writer: Mortal fall : a novel of suspense by Christine Carbo
Art & Photography: Frederic Remington : a catalogue raissonné II by Peter Hassrick
Short Stories: For a little while : new and selected stories by Rick Bass
Young Adult: The pain eater by Beth Goobie
Children's Book: Runs with courage by Joan Wolf
Medicine & Science: Hopping ahead of climate change : snowshoe hares, science, and survival by Sneed B. Collard III
Creative Nonfiction: Temperance Creek : a memoir by Pamela Royes
Indigenous Writer: Burning in this midnight dream by Louise Halfe

2016
Fiction: Madder Carmine : a novel by Tyler Enfield
Nonfiction: Colorado : a historical atlas by Thomas J. Noel
First Book: The actor by Beth Hunter McHugh
Poetry: Red Canyon falling on churches by Juliana Aragon Fatula
Woman Writer: Wolf winter by Cecelia Ekback
Art & Photography: Grizzlies of Pilgrim Creek : an intimate portrait of 399, the most famous bear of Greater Yellowstone ; photography by Thomas D. Mangelsen ; text by Todd Wilkinson
Short Stories: Far enough : a Western in fragments by Joe Wilkins
Young Adult: Am I the only one? : struggling being a teen by Treena Wynes
Children's Book: Cub's journey home by Georgia Graham
Medicine & Science: Glacier National Park after dark : sunrise to sunset in a beloved Montana wilderness by John Ashley
Creative Nonfiction: Canoeing the Great Plains : a Missouri River summer by Patrick Dobson

2015
Fiction: Stars go blue : a novel by Laura Pritchett
Nonfiction: Badluck Way : a year on the ragged edge of the West by Bryce Andrews
First book: Badluck Way : a year on the ragged edge of the West by Bryce Andrews
Poetry: Balefire by Shann Ray
Art & Photography: Charles M. Russell : photographing the legend : a biography in words and pictures by Larry Len Peterson
Short stories: The widow Smalls and other stories by Jamie Lisa Forbes
Young adult: Camp Outlook by Brenda Baker
Children's book: Back to Batoche by Cheryl Chad
Culinary: A taste of Montana : favorite recipes from Big Sky Country by Seabring Davis

2014
Fiction: Let him go : a novel by Larry Watson
Nonfiction: Rough breaks : a Wyoming high country memoir by Laurie Wagner Buyer
First book: Montana by Gwen Florio
Poetry: Grey dog big sky by Sheryl Noethe
Woman writer: Clearwater by Kim McCullough
Art & Photography: Karl Bodmer's America revisited : landscape views across time photography by Robert M. Lindholm ; introduction and annotations by W. Raymond Wood and Robert M. Lindholm
Short stories: Cowboys and East Indians : stories by Nino McConigley
Young adult: Black helicopters by Blythe Woolston
Children's book: Baba's babushka : a magical Ukrainian wedding by Marion Mutala ; illustrated by Amber Rees
Medicine and science book: In the shadow of the sabertooth : a renegade naturalist considers global warming, the first Americans, and the terrible beasts of the Pleistocene by Doug Peacock

2013
Fiction: The round house by Louise Erdrich
Nonfiction: Deliverance from the Little Big Horn : Doctor Henry Porter and Custer's Seventh Cavalry by Joan Nabseth Stevenson
First book: The anatomy of Édouard Beaupré : a story by Sarah Kathryn York
Poetry: Notes from the journey westward by Joe Wilkins
Woman writer: The miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth
Art & Photography: Montana : real place, real people, essay by Alan S. Kesselheim; photography by Thomas Lee
Short stories: What you get at home by Dora Dueck
Culinary book: Foodshed : an edible Alberta alphabet by Dee Hobsbawn-Smith
Young adult: The miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth

2012
Emeritus: Thomas McGuane
Fiction: The ringer by Jenny Shank
Nonfiction: Hand raised: the barns of Montana by Chere Jiusto & Christine W. Brown; photographs by Tom Ferris
First book: American masculine : stories by Shann Ray
Poetry: Songs of unreason by Jim Harrison
Woman writer: Married into it by Patricia Frolander
Art & Photography: Arapaho journeys : photographs and stories from the Wind River Reservation by Sara Wiles
Short stories: American masculine : stories by Shann Ray

2011
Emeritus: Larry Woiwode
Fiction: Ghosts of Wyoming by Alyson Hagy
Nonfiction: Bloodshed at Little Bighorn : Sitting Bull, Custer, and the destinies of nations by Tim Lehman
First Book: Bound like grass : a memoir from the western high plains by Ruth McLaughlin
Poetry: Horse tracks by Henry Real Bird
Woman Writer: Goodbye wifes and daughters by Susan Kushner Resnick
Art & Photography: Visions of the Big Sky : painting and photographing the Northern Rocky Mountain West by Dan Flores

2010
Emeritus: Margaret Coel
Fiction: Twisted tree by Kent Meyers
Nonfiction: Lanterns on the prairie : the Blackfeet photographs of Walter McClintock, edited by Steven L. Grafe
First Book: 600 hours of Edward by Craig Lancaster
Poetry: Holding everything down by William Notter
Woman Writer: No place like home : notes from a Western life by Linda Hasselstrom

2009
Emeritus: Louise Erdrich
Fiction: So brave, young, and handsome by Leif Enger
Nonfiction: In contemporary rhythm : the art of Ernest L. Blumenschein by Peter H. Hassrick and Elizabeth J. Cunningham
First Book: Horses that buck : the story of champion bronc rider Bill Smith by Margot Kahn
Poetry: Made flesh by Craig Arnold
Woman Writer: Road map to Holland : how I found my way through my son's first two years with Down Syndrome by Jennifer Graf Groneberg

2008
Emeritus: Gary Ferguson
Fiction: A feast of longing by Sarah Klassen
Nonfiction: Charles M. Russell : a catalogue raisonné, edited by B. Byron Price
First Book: Migration patterns : stories by Gary Schanbacher

2007
Emeritus: Larry Watson
Book of the Year: Indians and emigrants : encounters on the overland trails by Michael L. Tate
Best New Book: Jay Cooke's gamble : the Northern Pacific Railroad, the Sioux, and the Panic of 1873 by M. John Lubetkin