Five Star Publishing

Western Writers of America has selected Five Star Publishing to receive the 2013 Lariat Award. This special award is given to those who have achieved distinction in their support of Western Writers of America and the literature of the West.

Waterville, Maine-based Five Star, an imprint of Gale, part of Cengage Learning, debuted in 1995 with four original Western titles published in hardcover format. Five Star’s Westerns have earned rave reviews in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist, with hundreds of titles reviewed to date. Western Writers of America has honored multiple Five Star Western titles with [...]

Jory T. Sherman is the 2013 recipient of the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Contributions to Western Literature. The award is given by Western Writers of America (WWA) as its highest honor and will be presented during the organization’s annual convention in June in Las Vegas, NV.

From his early years as a Beatnik era poet in San Francisco to the present, when he is still writing at age 80, Sherman has been putting words to paper. His body of work — an amazing number of books, poems, articles, and essays including well more than 400 novels — includes the [...]

2013 Spur Award Contest Rules Entries Now Accepted

Western Writers of America has released the rules for 2013 Spur Awards and entries are now being accepted by judges. There are some changes to rules from prior contest years, so please read each are of the rules carefully. Also, we have co-chairs for this year’s contest, so be certain to submit your entries to the correct judges in each category, and to the proper co-chair of the program.

Entries must be for publications first released and first copyrighted in 2012. The deadline is a postmark by Jan. 4, 2013. The Award [...]

The 2013 Convention will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, June 24-28, at the Riviera Resort & Casino. The program will include sessions related to the history of the region, the business of writing, publishing, and marketing books, and much more.

Loren D. Estleman, recognized for both his Western and mystery novels, is the 2012 recipient of the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Contributions to Western Literature. The award is given by Western Writers of America (WWA) as its highest honor and will be presented during the organization’s annual convention in June in Albuquerque, NM.

The Michigan resident, a past president of Western Writers of America, has already received Spur Awards for his novels The Undertaker’s Wife, Journey of the Dead, Aces & Eights, and his short stories, “The Bandit,” and “The Alchemist.”

He has received Western Heritage Wrangler Awards for [...]

High Plains Press – Nancy Curtis, Publisher

Western Writers of America has selected High Plains Press, to receive the 2012 Lariat Award. This special award is given to those who have achieved distinction in their support of Western Writers of America and the literature of the West.

Proving that neither location nor size affects good work, High Plains Press, which operates on a cattle ranch near Glendo, Wyoming, has won five Wrangler Awards from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum for poetry, a Willa award and several Willa finalist awards from Women Writing the West, several finalist awards [...]