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NEWS & HIGHLIGHTS

 

 
 

WWA HEADLINES:

FACTS & HIGHLIGHTS:

  • WWA began in 1953, at the advent of the golden era of TV western programming.  For over a half century, the WWA Spur Award has stood for the finest in literature about the American West.  It is one of the oldest and most prestigious honors in American literature, given annually by the Western Writers of America.

 

  • One of WWA's illustrious members -- Natlee Kenoyer -- and a past president just celebrated her 100th birthday.  She was born the same year as John Wayne.  Her birthday was celebrated by all WWAers in attendance at the national convention this past June.

 

  • One of the more fascinating WWA developments is the new partnership with the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, to house the WWA Hall of Fame and become a major depository for all western literature.  Look for this to become a significant presentation of western literature in the years to come.

 

  • Although traditional “westerns” have become to a small portion of the book market, overall western literature is growing with new authors, new publishers, and new approaches to the West, both in fiction and nonfiction.  This is dramatically demonstrated in the quantity of just-published works in our catalog -- and the growth in Spur Award entries. 

 

  • WWA has members in forty-six states. Canada and several foreign countries.  Texas and California are the two states with the greatest number of WWA members.

 

  • WWA is producing a television show built on the role of the land in writing about the West.   Watch for scheduling details.

 

  • WWA's home office is located on the campus of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

 

  • An anthology of short stories and poetry from WWA members is scheduled for publication in 2009.  This follows a proud line of anthologies so produced over the years.

 

  • At WWA's Springfield, Missouri national convention, the 100th anniversary of John Wayne's birth was celebrated with a special trivia competition.  An Arizona, two-hour radio show celebrating John Wayne's life and legend included WWA President (and Duke fan) Cotton Smith.

 

  • Look for a Youth Writing competition in conjunction with the WWA Scottsdale national convention.

 

  • WWA's 2009 national convention will be held in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, home of the Cowboy Hall of Fame.

 

  • Student Subscription

    High school and college students will now have the opportunity to receive the Round-Up magazine for only $20, about the cost of postage. 

     

    If they so choose, they may also attend our conventions at the regular price.

     

     This participation has no bearing on their possible future WWA membership, but we certainly hope it inspires many of them to write about the West.

     

 

NEWS LINKS:

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Natlee Kenoyer at the 2007  Awards banquet in Springfield, Missouri. During the summer Natlee celebrated her 100th birthday.


WWA Executive Director Paul Hutton addresses the audience at the 2007 Awards Banquet in Springfield, Missouri.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

2008 Spur Award Results: Winners and Finalists

 
Best Western Short Novel
Winner: Tallgrass  Sandra Dallas  St. Martin’s Press
Finalist: Northfield Johnny D. Boggs Five Star
Finalist: The Canyon of Bones Richard S. Wheeler Forge Books
 
     
  Best Western Long Novel  
 
Winner: The God of Animals Aryn Kyle Scribner
Finalist: The Night Birds Thomas Maltman Soho Press
Finalist: Stormy Weather Paulette Jiles HarperCollins Publishers
 
     
  Best Original Mass Market Paperback  
 
Winner: Hellfire Canyon Max McCoy Kensington/Pinnacle Books
Finalist: Raven Springs John D. Nesbitt Dorchester Publishing
Finalist: Lake of Fire Linda Jacobs Medallion Press
 
     
  Best First Novel  
 
Winner: The Night Birds Thomas Maltman Soho Press
Finalist: Turpentine Spring Warren Black Cat, Grove/Atlantic

Finalist: Shadows in the Rain: A Tale of Old Klamath, California

R. Joe King

 

Blue Traveler Press

 

 
     
  Best Western Nonfiction Biography  
 
Winner: Gall: Lakota War Chief Robert W. Larson Univ. of Oklahoma Press
Finalist: Boone: A Biography Robert Morgan Algonquin Books

Finalist: William Dunbar: Scientific Pioneer of the Old Southwest

Arthur H. DeRosier Jr.

 

The University Press of Kentucky

 

 
     
  Best Western Nonfiction Historical  
 

Winner: Creating Minnesota

Annette Atkins

MN Historical Society Press

Finalist: William F. Cody’s Wyoming Empire

Robert E. Bonner

 

Univ. of Oklahoma Press

 

Finalist: Texian Macabre: The Melancholy Tale of a Hanging in Early Houston

Stephen L. Hardin

 

 

State House Press

 

 

 
     
  Best Western Nonfiction Contemporary  
 

Winner: Lone Star Lawmen: The Second Century of the Texas Rangers

Robert M. Utley

 

 

Oxford University Press

 

 

Finalist: Hunger for the Wild: America’s Obsession with the Untamed West

Michael L. Johnson 

 

 

University Press of Kansas

 

 

Finalist: The Country in the City: The Greening of the San Francisco Bay Area

Richard A. Walker

 

 

Univ. of Washington Press

 

 

 
     
  Best Western Short Fiction Story  
 

Winner: “Crucifixion River” (Crucifixion River)  

Marcia Muller & Bill Pronzini

 

Five Star

 

Finalist: “The Cody War” (antho: Lost Trails)

Johnny D. Boggs

 

Kensington/Pinnacle Books

 

Finalist: “The Wild-Eyed Witness” (antho: Lost Trails)

Lori Van Pelt

 

Kensington/Pinnacle Books

 

 
     
  Best Western Short Nonfiction  
 

Winner: “Selling the ‘Noble Savage’ Myth: George Catlin and the Iowa Indians in Europe, 1843-1845”

Joseph B. Herring

 

 

Kansas History (Winter 2007)

 

Finalist: “Dreamscape Desperado”                                         

Paul Hutton

 

True West (May 2007)

 

Finalist: “The Man Who Saved

the West”

Jana Bommersbach

True West (July 2007)

 
     
  Best Western Juvenile Fiction  
 

Winner: Doubtful Cańon

Johnny D. Boggs

Five Star

Finalist: Ambush at Mustang Canyon

Mike Kearby

 

Trails End Books

 

Finalist: Pedrito’s World

Arturo O. Martinez

Texas Tech Univ. Press

 
     
  Best Western Juvenile Nonfiction  
 

Winner: Sagebrush and Paintbrush: The Story of Charlie Russell, The Cowboy Artist

Nancy Plain 

 

 

 

Mondo Publishing

 

 

 

Finalist: River Roads West

Peter & Connie Roop

Calkins Creek

Finalist: Sequoyah: Inventor of Written Cherokee

Roberta Basel

 

Compass Point Books

 

 
     
  Storyteller Award  
  No Award Given  
     
  Best Western Drama  
 

Winner: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Andrew Dominik

 

 

Warner Bros. Pictures

 

 

Finalist: No Country for Old Men

Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

Miramax Films

Finalist: 3:10 to Yuma

 

Halsted Welles and Michael Brandt & Derek Haas

Lionsgate/Tree Line Films/Relativity Media

 
     
  Best Western Documentary  
 

Winner: Maynard Dixon: Art and Spirit

Jayne McKay & Daniel Dixon

 

Cloud World LLC

 

Finalist: The Mormons: Part 1

Helen Whitney & Jane Barnes

WGBH

Finalist: The Guns of Billy the Kid

Tim Evans

Varmint Media

 
     
  Best Western Poem  
 

Winner: “El Corrido de Antonio Beltran” from Open Range: Poetry of the Reimagined West

John Duncklee

 

 

 

Ghost Road Press

 

 

 

Finalist: “The White Dove”

Jane Candia Coleman

High Plains Press

Finalist: “Minneola, Kansas, 1916”

Red Shuttleworth

 

Zone 3

 

 
     
  Best Western Audiobook  
  No Award Given  
     
  Best Western Song  
 

Winner: “The Last Wild White Buffalo”

Mike Blakely

 

Quien Sabe Music/Swing Rider Records

Finalist: “Where Horses are Heroes”

Wylie Gustafson

 

Western Jubilee Recording Co.

 

Finalist: “Keepin’ Your Head Above the Water”

Devon Dawson

 

MD Bucket Head Music

 

 
     

                          


Western Writers of America to honor Tony Hillerman for lifetime contribution

 

      ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Best-selling novelist Tony Hillerman, author of the critically acclaimed mystery series set on the Navajo Nation, will receive the Owen Wister Award for lifetime contribution to Western literature, Western Writers of America has announced.

     Hillerman will be honored June 14 at Chaparral Suites in Scottsdale, Ariz., during the organization’s annual convention. The nonprofit Western Writers of America was founded in 1953 to promote and recognize literature of the American West.

     “Tony Hillerman is truly a national treasure, bringing all of us wonderful stories of the modern West while giving us memorable glimpses of the distinctive ways of the Navajo Nation,” WWA President Cotton Smith says. “Western Writers of America is proud to present him with the Owen Wister Award for lifetime achievement.”

     Hillerman, 82, is no stranger to Western Writers of America. He has won two Spur Awards from WWA for Best Western Novel, for SKINWALKERS in 1987 and THE SHAPE SHIFTER last year. A native of Oklahoma, Hillerman has also received the Edgar and Grand Master awards from Mystery Writers of America, the Los Angeles Times’ Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement, the Center for the American Indian's Ambassador Award and the Navajo Tribe’s Special Friend Award.

     “Of all the people I’d like to be recognized by, the Western writers are it because I’m a Western writer,” Hillerman says from his Albuquerque home.

     Past winners of the Owen Wister Award, previously called the Levi Strauss Saddleman Award, include Matt Braun, Don Coldsmith, Max Evans, A.B. Guthrie Jr., John Jakes, Dorothy M. Johnson, Elmer Kelton, Louis L’Amour, Mari Sandoz and Robert M. Utley.

     For convention and membership information on Western Writers of America, log on to www.westernwriters.org, or write WWA, MSC06 3770, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001. 

 


 

Western Writers of America Announces New Spur Award Category

 

            ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—Western Writers of America, a guild of 600 professional writers of Western literature, has added Best Western Song as the newest category to the Spur Awards.

            The Spur Awards, given annually for distinguished writing about the American West, are among the oldest and most prestigious in American literature. Spurs are awarded for novels, short stories, articles, juvenile books, poetry, nonfiction books and screenplays for dramas and documentaries.

         "When one thinks of the great American West, one naturally hears great music,” WWA President Cotton Smith says. “Memorable words and music that tell us of this special place in  America's heart. That is an important part of the Western experience and WWA wanted to honor it -- with the creation of the Songwriting Spur Award.”

            To qualify for Best Western Song, the song must be released for the first time (in 2007) and available to the public with lyrics dependent in whole or in part on setting, characters, or customs indigenous to the American West or early frontier. A copy of the lyric sheet and medium must be submitted. Entries must be postmarked by December 31, 2007.

            "It was an honor to serve on the team that created the rules for the Western Writers of America's Spur Award for songwriting,” says Bobby Bridger, composer of A Ballad of the West. “Until now this genre of interpreting the history and culture of the American West has sadly been overlooked, and I am pleased the WWA has taken the first step to acknowledge the important contributions of balladeers and troubadours."

            Winners and finalists will be announced in March and honored at the WWA convention, June 10-14, at the Chaparral Suites in Scottsdale, Ariz.

            Since 1953, Spur Awards have been given to writers such as Tony Hillerman, Larry McMurtry, Leon Metz and Elmer Kelton. Entries are open to WWA members and non-members. For further information contact Executive Director Paul Hutton, wwa@unm.edu or (505) 277-5234..

 


 

MEDIA RELEASE

NOVEMBER 20, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SOURCE: WESTERN WRITERS OF AMERICA

CONTACT (for media only): Melody Groves; 505-298-3022, melodygroves@comcast.net 

 

America's Soul: Western Writers of America Redefining "Western"

 

     "Western writing, to me," award-winning Navajo mystery writer Tony Hillerman says, "is when you're flying from the east and clouds block the view. You can't see a thing. Then, you're over west Texas. The clouds part and what do you see? Endless miles of sunshine and wide open spaces."

     Over the past few decades, Western literature had slid into an abyss of reader apathy. However, Westerns are seeing a promising future, according to the nonprofit Western Writers of America (www.westernwriters.org). The guild of more than 600 professional writers continues to bring Western moments to the public through movies, novels, short stories, poems and nonfiction books. Nilsen BookScan, which covers about 70 percent of the U.S. book sales, says purchases of Westerns have increased 9 percent in 2005 and 10 percent thus far in 2006.

     In addition, Books in Print reports Western titles produced has increased from 543 in 1995 to 901 in 2005.Why such an upsurge in Westerns? Publishers representative Larry Yoder says today's Westerns aren't what your grandfather read or some TV show with a predictable plot created to construct the predicable ending. The genre comprises many forms, he says.

     "I feel honored to be called a Western writer," says Spur Award winner Max Evans, author of THE HI LO COUNTRY and THE ROUNDERS.

     "It's what I write and I'm proud of it. The Southwest is in the air I breathe, the water I drink; it's what I write."Adds WWA President Cotton Smith: "Western literature is of the spirit, our spirit, the spirit of America. Western literature is the motivation of people to succeed in lands greater than themselves. The Western is full of souls filled with concern, fear, joy and desire. In a phrase, it is the literature of America's soul."

     The popularity surge isn't limited to fiction. Hampton Sides's narrative history BLOOD AND THUNDER debuted at No. 14 on The New York Times bestseller list, and Ron Hansen's novel THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD has been turned into a Brad Pitt movie scheduled for release next year.

     "Western literature is about honesty, truth and a strange dignity," Evans says. "Good writing is something to admire."


 
 

 
 

Longtime WWA Member Phillip Steele, 73, Dies

 

 

Phillip W. Steele, a longtime member of Western Writers of America and noted historian and folklorist, died November 8, 2007, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, after a brief illness. He was 73.

His books include “The Many Faces of Jesse James,” “Starr Tracks: Belle and Pearl Starr,” “The Last Cherokee Warriors,” “Outlaws and Gunfighters of the Old West” and “Civil War in the Ozarks.”

            As an author, he was nationally recognized for accuracy and an ability to separate the volumes of fiction from facts in exploring subjects. His Heritage Productions produced many documentaries, video productions and cassette albums on folklore, Old West and regional Ozark music.

He served on the board of directors of the National Outlaw and Lawman History Association and Shiloh Museum in Springdale, was an honorary Deputy U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Arkansas, past president of the Arts Center of the Ozarks, past president of the Friends of the James Farm in Missouri, and founder and past president of the James-Younger Gang, which in September presented him, and colleague Wilbur Zink, the Milton F. Perry Award for lifetime contributions.

He also served as chairman of Arkansas History Commission after an appointment by President Clinton.

            Steele is survived by his wife, Charlotte, two children, seven grandchildren and two sisters.

Memorials may be made to First United Methodist Church of Springdale, 

206 W. Johnson Ave., Springdale, AR, 72764 and the Shiloh Museum, 118 W. 

Johnson Ave., Springdale, AR, 72764. 

 
 
     
     
     
     
     
     
 

 

Many thanks to our upcoming sponsor for the 2008 WWA book signing in Scottsdale, Arizona

 

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