Women Writing the West announces
2016 WILLA Literary Award Winners and Finalists
(Denver, Colorado) – Women Writing the West (WWW) is proud to announce the 2016 WILLA Literary Award competition Winners and Finalists, representing the best of 2015 published literature for women’s or girl’s stories set in the American West. WWW is the underwriter and annual presenter of this nationally recognized award.
Chosen by professional librarians, historians and university affiliated educators, the winning authors and their books will be honored in Santa Fe, New Mexico, October 13-16, 2016, during the 22nd Annual Conference.
The 2016 honorees are listed with the designation of Winner and Finalist in each category.
2016 WILLA Winners
CONTEMPORARY FICTION
WINNER: Firebreak by Tricia Fields (Minetaur Books/St Martin’s Press)
FINALIST: Ana of California by Andi Teran (Penguin Random House)
FINALIST: Chasm by Susan Cummins Miller (Texas Tech Univ Press)
HISTORICAL
WINNER: The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson (HarperCollins)
FINALIST: The Last Midwife by Sandra Dallas (St. Martin’s Press)
FINALIST: Shelterbelts by Candace Simar (NorthStar Press)
ORIGINAL SOFTCOVER (TRADE OR MASS MARKET)
WINNER: Hidden Shadows by Linda Lucretia Shuler (Twilight Times Books)
FINALIST: Women and Thieves of Two Pan by B.K. Froman (Morning West Publishing)
FINALIST: Rough Patches by Deanna Dickenson McCall (The Frontier Project, INC)
CREATIVE NONFICTION
WINNER: American Ghost: A Families Haunted Past in the Desert Southwest by Hannah Nordhaus (Harper/Harper Collins)
FINALIST: HOWL of Woman and Wolf by Susan Imhoff Bird (Torrey House Press)
FINALIST: Mysteries of Love and Grief: Reflections of a Plainswoman’s Life by Sandra Scofield ( Texas Tech Univ Press)
SCHOLARLY NONFICTION
WINNER: Ladies of the Canyons: A League of Extraordinary Women and Their Adventures in the American Southwest by Lesley Poling-Kempes (University of Arizona Press)
FINALIST: Shaping the Public Good: Women Making History in the Pacific Northwest by Sue Armitage (Oregon State University Press)
FINALIST: Amada’s Blessing from the Peyote Gardens of South Texas by Stacy B. Schaefer (University of New Mexico Press)
CHILDREN’S/YOUNG ADULT FICTION AND NONFICTION
WINNER: Shadow of the Hawk by K.S. Jones (Clean Reads)
FINALIST: Anywhere but Paradise by Anne Bustard (Egmont USA)
FINALIST: Teresa of the New World by Sharman Apt Russell (Yucca Publishing/Skyhouse Publishing)
POETRY
WINNER:Winner Report to the Department of the Interior by Diane Claney (University of New Mexico Press)
FINALIST: Skeena by Sarah de Leeuw (Caitlin Press)
WWW will be seeking entries for the 2017 WILLA Literary Awards, honoring books published in 2016. The entry period begins December 1, 2016. The deadline for submission is February 1, 2017.
WWW is a non-profit association of writers and other literature oriented professionals, writing and promoting the Women’s West. Membership is open to any person worldwide who shares these interests.
For more information about the WILLA Awards, Women Writing the West, or the 22nd Annual Conference, please write c/o Joyce Lohse, WWW Administrator, 8547 E. Arapahoe Road #J541, Greenwood Village, CO 80112-1236 or visit our website at WomenWrtitingtheWest.org .