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 [...]]]> 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 Spur Awards for their superior quality.

Five Star has published several Spur Award-winning books, including The Kiowa Verdict by Cynthia Haselhoff, Doubtful Cañon, Hard Winter, and Legacy of a Lawman by Johnny D. Boggs, and the Spur Award-winning Short Story “Crucifixion River” in the anthology of the same name by Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini.

Max Brand, Bill Brooks, Zane Grey, Fred Grove, Ray Hogan, L. P. Holmes, Louis L’Amour, Wayne D. Overholser, Stephen Overholser, Lauren Paine, Joanne Sundell, and Michael Zimmer have also been published by Five Star. In July, Five Star launches a new line of original Frontier Fiction with initial titles by John D. Nesbitt, Monty McCord, Tim Champlin and Pam Nowak.

The publications under the new program, offered in hardcover library bindings, will consist of a range of subgenres including, but not limited to, mystery, romance, and women’s fiction, all taking place in a frontier setting. They are written by well-known authors as well as emerging voices in Frontier Fiction.

The Lariat Award has been bestowed seven times. Previous awards have been presented to the University of Oklahoma Press, True West Magazine, Tom Doherty/Forge Books, Caxton Press, Dorchester Publishing/Leisure Books, Luther Wilson University Press Director, and High Plains Press.

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 [...]]]> 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 Spur Award-winning novel Medicine Horn, a fur-trade story that was the first of a series he called The Buckskinners.

The publication of Grass Kingdom proved to be a turning point in his writing life. It was a major historical novel, the first in Sherman’s epic Barons of Texas series of novels dealing with the ranching Baron family of Texas through several generations. That series cemented his reputation as a distinguished storyteller of the American West.

“Jory Sherman has inspired many writers throughout the years,” said novelist Matt Braun. “He writes novels of excellence and his work ethic has made him one of the most prolific authors of all time. He ranks among the top Western writers of any generation, and his lifetime contribution to the literature of the American West clearly deserves the honor of the Owen Wister Award.”

But writing fiction is only one facet of a varied career. He is also a book packager, and at one point his Taneycomo packaging company was generating 52 titles a year for various paperback houses. The most notable of these was the Rivers West series, published by Bantam, with stories set upon the great rivers of the American West.

“Jory generously gave of himself in encouraging other writers,” WWA President Dusty Richards said, adding, “He showed many of us better ways to express ourselves.”

His writings are largely prose poems, the poet in him shaping his stories and often giving them a lyrical quality. He has the gift of language, and can paint vivid portraits not only of his characters, but the surrounding world in which their stories play out.

The Wister Award is a bronze statue of a buffalo created especially for Western Writers of America by artist Robert Duffie. It will be presented June 29.

Entries must be for publications first released and first copyrighted in 2012. The deadline is a postmark by Jan. 4, 2013. The Award [...]]]> 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 Winners and Finalists will be announced in March 2013, with the presentations to be made at the Annual Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, June 24-28, 2013.

For a PDF of the rules, click on “Spur Award Rules” on the menu bar to the left of this page.

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 [...]]]> 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 Journey of the Dead, The Master Executioner, and his short story, “Iron Dollar.” Among his other publications are the novels Roy & Lillie: A Love Story (2010); The Branch and the Scaffold (2009); The Adventures of Johnny Vermillion (2006), and Black Power, White Smoke (2002).

“Loren’s contributions to the literature will endure for generations,” said Owen Wister Award recipient and Spur Award-winning writer Richard S. Wheeler. “He is the master of understatement, the quiet phrase that opens up whole worlds of character, or throws and arc light on the event he is portraying.”

Tom Doherty, president and publisher at Tom Doherty Associates, Tor/Forge Books, noted that Estleman is a master storyteller. “I’ve had the privilege of publishing Loren’s work for over 20 years and as I begin each book, I know I’m in for a new and special treat,” Doherty said.

The Wister Award is a bronze statue of a buffalo created especially for Western Writers of America by artist Robert Duffie. It will be presented June 16.

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 [...]]]> 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 in the Western Writers of America Spur Awards, and finalists in the Ben Franklin Awards competitions. Publisher Nancy Curtis has also published several winners for book awards from the Wyoming Historical Society.

Among the authors Curtis has published are Larry K. Brown, Gaydell Collier, Laurie Wagner Buyer, Lori Van Pelt, Diana Kouris, Robert Roripaugh, a past Wyoming Poet Laureate, Tom Lindmier, Mary Alice Gunderson, Peggy Simpson Curry, Candy Moulton, Charles Levendosky, Chip Carlson, W. C. Jameson, Gladys B. Beery, Linda Hasselstrom, and Jane Candia Coleman.

Curtis received the 2010 Wyoming Governor’s Arts Award for her contribution to writing. She is also the co-editor with Linda Hasselstrom and Gaydell Collier of three collections of writing by plainswomen published by Houghton Mifflin: Leaning into the Wind, Woven on the Wind, and Crazy Woman Creek.

This honor has only been bestowed six times. Previous awards have been presented to the University of Oklahoma Press, True West Magazine, Tom Doherty/Forge Books, Caxton Press, Dorchester Publishing/Leisure Books, and Luther Wilson University Press Director.