NEWS & HIGHLIGHTS

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2008 Spur Award Results: Winners and Finalists

                          

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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. 

 

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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..

 

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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."

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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. 

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