The Western Writers of America have announced the winners and finalists of its annual Spur Awards, given for distinguished writing about the American West. The awards presentations will be made during the organization’s Annual Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, June 24-28, 2013.
The categories, along with the winners and finalists are as follow:
Best Western Short Novel
| Winner: | Tucker’s Reckoning | Matthew Mayo | New American Library |
| Finalist: | Lonesome Animals | Bruce Holbert | Counterpoint Press |
| Finalist: | City of Rocks | Michael Zimmer | Five Star Publishing |
Best Western Long Novel
| Winner: | With Blood in Their Eyes | Thomas Cobb | University of Arizona Press |
| Finalist: | The Orchardist | Amandan Coplin | HarperCollins |
| Finalist: | Country of the Bad Wolfes | James Carlos Blake | Cinco Puntos Press |
Best Original Mass Market Paperback
| Winner: | The Coyote Tracker | Larry Sweazy | Berkley |
| Finalist: | Redemption: Hunters | James Reasoner | Berkley |
| Finalist: | The Secret of Lodestar | Tim Champlin | Berkley |
Best First Novel
| Winner: | Panhandle | Brett Cogburn | Pinnacle |
| Finalist: | Wide Open | Larry Bjornson | Penguin Group/AWOC |
| Finalist: | The Orchardist | Amanda Coplin | HarperCollins |
Best Western Nonfiction Biography
| Winner: | Geronimo | Robert M. Utley | Yale University Press |
| Finalist: | Ho! For the Black Hills: Captain Jack Crawford Reports the Black Hills Gold Rush and Great Sioux War | Paul L. Hedren | South Dakota State Historical Society Press |
| Finalist: | “That Fiend in Hell”: Soapy Smith in Legend | Catherine Holder Spude | University of Oklahoma Press |
Best Western Nonfiction Historical
| Winner: | With Golden Visions Bright Before Them: Trails to the Mining West, 1849-1852 | Will Bagley | University of Oklahoma Press |
| Finalist: | Terrible Justice: Sioux Chiefs and U.S. Soldiers on the Upper Missouri, 1954-1868 | Doreen Chaky | The Arthur H. Clark Company |
| Finalist: | Deliverance from the Little Big Horn: Doctor Henry Porter and Custer’s Seventh Cavalry | Joan Nabseth Stevenson | University of Oklahoma Press |
Best Western Nonfiction Contemporary
| Winner: | Desert Reckoning: A Town Sheriff, A Mojave Hermit and the Biggest Manhunt in Modern California History | Deanne Stillman | Nation Books |
| Finalist: | Colorado Powder Keg: Ski Resorts and the Environmental Movement | Michael W. Childers | University Press of Kansas |
| Finalist: | Desert America: Boom and Bust in the New Old West | Ruben Martinez | Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company |
Best Western Short Fiction Story
| Winner: | “The Hog Whisperer” | John Mort | Flint Hills Review |
| Finalist | “The Saint of Pox Island” | Susan K. Salzer | Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine |
| Finalist: | “The Day Delgado Rode In” | Lori Van Pelt | Outlaws and Lawmen/La Frontera Publishing |
Best Western Short Nonfiction
| Winner: | “Marathoner Louis Tewanima and the Continuity of Hopi Running, 1908-1912″ | Matthew Sakiestewa Gilbert | Western Historical Quarterly |
| Finalist: | “Libbie Custer: ‘A Wounded Thing Must Hide’” | Paul Andrew Hutton | Wild West |
| Finalist | “‘Wearing the Hempen Neck-Tie’: Lynching in Nebraska 1858-1919″ | James E. Potter | Nebraska History |
Best Western Juvenile Fiction
| Winner: | Wide Open | Larry Bjornson | Penguin Group |
| Finalist: | Blooming Prairie | Candace Simar | North Star Press of St. Cloud |
| Finalist: | And There I’ll Be A Soldier | Johnny D. Boggs | Five Star Publishing/Gale |
Best Western Juvenile Nonfiction
| Winner: | Light on the Prairie: Solomon D. Butcher, Photographer of Nebraska’s Pioneer Days | Nancy Plain | University of Nebraska Press |
| Finalist: | The Great Bicycle Experiment: The Army’s Historic Black Bicycle Corps, 1896-97 | Kay Moore | Mountain Press Publishing Company |
| Finalist: | Strike!: Mother Jones & the Colorado Coal Field War | Lois Ruby | Filter Press |
Storyteller Award
| Winner: | Pecos Bill Invents the Ten-Gallon Hat | Kevin Strauss, illustrated by David Harrington | Pelican Publishing |
| Finalist: | The Adventures of Buffalo Joe and The Blackbird With the Broken Wing | Jamie Anne Blake | Homestead Publishing |
| Finalist: | Big Buckaroo and Moose, The Cow Dog | Rachelle “Rocky” Gibbons, illustrated by Jason Hutton | Tate Publishing |
Best Western Drama Script (Fiction)
| Winner: | Django Unchained | Quentin Tarantino | The Weinstein Company |
| Finalist: | Hatfields & McCoys | Bill Kerby, Ted Mann, Ronald Parker | Thinkfactory Media/History Channel |
| Finalist: | Justified | Graham Yost, Elmore Leonard, Dave Andron, Fred Golan, Benjamin Cavell, Taylor Elmore, Jon Worley, Nichelle D. Tramble, Ryan Farley, Ingrid Escajeda, V.J. Boyd | FX Network |
Best Western Documentary Script (Nonfiction)
| Winner: | The Dust Bowl | Dayton Duncan | Florentine Films |
| Finalist: | No Winner | ||
Best Western Poem
| Winner: | “Johnny Ringo” | Red Shuttleworth | Riverhouse |
| Finalist: | “Night Singer, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico” | Steve Fieffenbacher | Wordcraft of Oregon |
| Finalist: | “Nat Maringo” | Robert Brown | Brave New Genre Inc. |
Best Western Audiobook
| Winner: | Ring of Fire | Cotton Smith | Books In Motion |
| Finalist: | Trouble in Texas | Tom Nichols | Books in Motion |
Best Western Song
| Winner: | “Texas Is Burnin’” | Jim Jones | Jim Jones Music |
| Winner: | “Any Name Will Do” | Mary Kaye | Knaphus Enterprises |
| Finalist: | “The Last Real Cowboy in Old Santa Fe” | Jerry Faires | Silversmith Records |
blogwest.org 
Congratulations, Mike! You’re in some good company that’s for sure.