2010 Spur Awards Salute Best Westerns

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., March 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has won a 2010 Spur Award from Western Writers of America for "Finding Susie," her somewhat autobiographical children's book about growing up on a desert ranch.

Western Writers of America (www.westernwriters.org) announced the winners and finalists of its annual literary contest Saturday, March 20, during the National Festival of the West. O'Connor and illustrator Tom Pohrt won the Storyteller Spur for best illustrated children's book. "Finding Susie" was published by Knopf Books for Young Readers, a division of Random House.

Robert Flynn's "Echoes of Glory" (published by Texas Christian University Press) won for Best Western Long Novel -- more than 90,000 words -- and Robert Olmstead's "Far Bright Star" (Algonquin) won for Best Western Short Novel.

Since 1953, Western Writers of America has promoted and honored the best in Western literature with the annual Spur Awards, selected by panels of judges. Awards, for material published last year, are given for works whose inspiration, image, and literary excellence best represent the reality and spirit of the American West.

John D. Nesbitt won two Spurs, claiming his second consecutive Spur for Best Original Mass Market Paperback Novel with "Stranger in Thunder Basin" (Leisure Books) and for Best Western Short Fiction Story, "At the End of the Orchard" (Hardboiled Magazine).

WWA President Johnny D. Boggs won his fourth Spur Award, for "Hard Winter" (Five Star) in the Best Western Juvenile Fiction category.

Winners and finalists will be honored at the WWA Convention, June 22-26 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Knoxville, Tennessee.

    Other winners:
    * Nonfiction-Biography: David C. Humphrey, "Peg Leg" (Texas State
      Historical Society).
    * Nonfiction-Historical:  Douglas C. McChristian, "Fort Laramie" (Arthur
      H. Clark).
    * Nonfiction-Contemporary: Charles H. Harris III and Louis R. Sadler, "The
      Secret War in El Paso: Mexican Revolutionary Intrigue, 1906-1920"
      (University of New Mexico Press).
    * Short Nonfiction: Roger Di Silvestro, "Teddy's Ride to Recovery" (Wild
      West magazine).
    * Juvenile Nonfiction: Nancy Plain, "With One Sky Above Us"  (Mondo
      Publishing).
    * Documentary: Candy Moulton, "In Pursuit of a Dream" (Boston Productions
      Inc.).
    * Poem: Paul Zarzyski, "Bob Dylan Bronc Song" (Two Medicine).
    * Original Audiobook: Gary McCarthy, "River Thunder" (Books in Motion).
    * Song: Wylie Gustafson and Paul Zarzyski, "Hang-n-Rattle" (Two Medicine
      Music/Bucking Horse Moon Music).

SOURCE Western Writers of America