Western Writers of America Announces 2026 Spur Award Winners & Finalists
TUCSON, Arizona – Historian Paul Andrew Hutton won two Spur Awards, giving him eight in his distinguished career, Western Writers of America announced.
Hutton’s The Undiscovered Country: Triumph, Tragedy, and the Shaping of the American West (published by Dutton) won for Best Historical Western Nonfiction Book, and his article “The Ghosts of Mountain Meadows” (True West, May-June 2025) won for Best Western Short Nonfiction.
Winners and finalists were announced Saturday, March 14, at the Tucson Festival of Books.
Since 1953, Western Writers of America (WesternWriters.org) has promoted and honored the best in Western literature with the annual Spur Awards, selected by panels of judges. Awards, for material published during the previous year, are given for works whose inspiration, image and literary excellence best represent the reality and spirit of the American West.
Hutton won his first Spur for his 1985 book Phil Sheridan and His Army. His other Spurs came for documentary script for Boone and Crockett: The Hunter Heroes (History Channel) in 2002; Carson and Cody: The Hunter Heroes (History Channel) in 2004; and Mountain Massacre (History Channel) in 2006; short nonfiction for “The Alamo: Well Remembered” (Wild West magazine) in 2012; and his book The Apache Wars: The Hunt for Geronimo, The Apache Kid, and the Captive Boy Who Started the Longest War in American History in 2017.
C.K. Crigger earned her fourth career Spur Award, with Last Laugh (Wolfpack Publishing) winning for Best Western Romance Novel, and Cyd Raschke’s Home of the Spirit Animals (Raven & Grace Press) won Spurs for Best First Novel and Best Juvenile Western Novel.
Presentations to winners and finalists are scheduled for WWA’s convention June 17-20 in St. Louis.
Other winners:
Biography: The Reel Thrilling Events of Bank Robber Henry Starr: From Gentleman Bandit to Movie Star and Back Again by Mark Archuleta (University of North Texas Press).
Children’s Picture Book: A Home for Steamboat by author Casey Rislov and illustrator Zachary Pullen (Book Bridge Press).
Contemporary Nonfiction Book: Saving the Big Sky: A Chronicle of Land Conservation in Montana by Bruce A. Bugbee, Robert J. Kiesling and John B. Wright (Oregon State University Press).
Contemporary Novel: Of Saints and Rivers by Jim Logan (Yorkshire Publishing).
Drama Script: Sarah’s Oil by Cyrus Nowrasteh and Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh (Amazon/MGM).
First Nonfiction Book: The Windows of His Heart: Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce by Louise Lenahan Wallace (Plain Sight Publishing).
Historical Novel: Arkansas Black by Alexander Blevens (Lost Meridian Press).
Juvenile Nonfiction Book: Carrie Ingalls: The Forgotten Sister by Clarissa Willis (Solander Press).
Poem: “The Old Ones” by Kye Rieff, published in Authentic, Or Something Like That (self-published).
Short Fiction: “Point of Impact” by Micki Fuhrman, writing as Vonn McKee, published in Silverado Press Presents Volume 1: Western Stories by Today’s Top Writers (Silverado Press and Crazy 8 Press).
Song: “Roads and Barbwire” by Joel White (self-published/Cribworks Digital Audio).
Traditional Western Novel: Lost and Broken Things by Linda Sandifer (Strathaven Books).
Spur finalists were:
Biography: Brothers of the Gun: Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and a Reckoning in Tombstone by Mark Lee Gardner (Dutton); Wakura’s America: The Life and Legacy of a Native Founder of the American West by Max Perry Mueller (Basic Books).
Children’s Picture Book: Badger Clark: Poetry Wrangler by author Nancy Bo Flood and illustrator Jeanne Bowman (South Dakota Historical Society Press); Winston’s First Rodeo! by author Linda Apple and illustrator Dylan Hale (Solander Press).
Contemporary Nonfiction Book: The Crazies: The Cattleman, the Wind Prospector, and a War Out West by Amy Gamerman (Simon & Schuster); Rooted at the Edge: Ranching Where the Old West and New West Collide by Donna L. Erickson (Bison Books/University of Nebraska Press).
Contemporary Novel: The Last Westerner by Chilton Williamson Jr. (St. Augustine’s Press); Well of Deception by Cynthia Leal Massey (Stoney Creek Publishing).
Historical Nonfiction Book: Chitto Harjo: Native Patriotism and the Medicine Way by Donald L. Fixico (Yale University Press); Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State by Caleb Gayle (Riverhead Books).
Historical Novel: Narrow the Road by James Wade (Blackstone Publishing); Tough Luck by Sandra Dallas (St. Martin’s Press).
Juvenile Nonfiction Book: How Colorado Became the Centennial State by Barbara Taylor (Filter Press); Pintsized Pioneers at Play: Homemade Frontier Fun and Danger by Preston Lewis and Harriet Kocher Lewis (Bariso Press).
Juvenile Novel: Never Curse the Rain: A Wilder Good Adventure by S.J. Dahlstrom (Paul Dry Books); Fire, Friendship & Fear: A Ruby and Maude Adventure by Nancy Oswald (Burro Books); Destined to Ride Alone by R.G. Yoho (Speaking Volumes).
Poem: “Inside Circle” by Kye Rieff, published in Authentic, Or Something Like That (self-published); “Leftovers” by Rod Miller, published in Buckoffs and Broken Barriers: Rodeo Poems (Speaking Volumes).
Romance Novel: Iron Horse Claim: On the Dakota Frontier by CK Van Dam (Pasque Publishing); Winter in the High Sierra: A Love Story by Robert Brighton (Ashwood Press).
Short Fiction: “Those Bereaved” by Candace Simar, published in An End of Troubles: An Anthology (History Through Fiction); “Rawhide Robinson Faces Fear” by Rod Miller, published in Shiny Spurs and Gold Medallions (Thorndike Press).
Short Nonfiction: “Angel of the Wild West” by Billie Holladay Skelley (Saddlebag Dispatches, Volume 11, Issue No. 2); “Earps V. Indians” by Janelle Molony (Wild West History Association Journal, September 2025).
Song: “Cowboy’s Legacy” by Doug Figgs and Floyd Beard (self-published/Slash DC Music); “Somewhere Green” by Jim Jones and Deanna Dickinson McCall (East Mountain Music/BMI).
Traditional Novel: One-Armed Bandit by Michael Knost
(Lawless Trails Press); Riven by Lincoln Valentine Mears (self-published); Eyes on the Horizon by Canyon Young (Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing).
No finalists were awarded for Drama Script. No awards were given for Documentary Script.
Information on Western Writers of America’s 2027 Spur Award competition, for works first published/released in 2026, will be announced at WesternWriters.org in August.
