Western Writers of America announces 2019 Spur Award winners

TUCSON, Ariz., March 4, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Johnny D. Boggs won his eighth Spur Award – becoming the all-time leader in Western Writers of America's 66-year history – and Francisco Cantú won two Spurs, the nonprofit association announced.

John D. Nesbitt and Mike Blakely won their fourth and third Spurs.

Winners and finalists, announced Saturday during the Tucson Festival of Books, will be honored June 19-22 in Tucson during WWA's annual convention.

WWA (WesternWriters.org) promotes and honors 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.

Boggs' "Taos Lightning" (Center Point) won for juvenile fiction. He tied Elmer Kelton (1926-2009) with seven Spurs in 2017. Richard S. Wheeler (1935-2019) and Paul Andrew Hutton have six.

Cantú's "The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border" (Riverhead) won for contemporary nonfiction and best first nonfiction book. Nesbitt's "Prairie Center" (R.R. Productions) won for poem. Blakely's "The Outside Circle" (Quien Sabe Music) won for song.

Other winners:
Contemporary Novel: "The Flicker of Old Dreams" by Susan Henderson (HarperCollins).
Historical Novel: "River of Porcupines" by G.K. Aalborg (Five Star Publishing).
Mass-Market Paperback Novel: "Hawke's War" by Reavis Z. Wortham (Pinnacle).
Romance Novel: "The Woman Who Built a Bridge" by C.K. Crigger (Wolfpack).
Traditional Novel: "The Return of Kid Cooper" by Brad Smith (Arcade).
First Novel: "The River by Starlight" by Ellen Notbohm (She Writes Press).
Biography: "White Hat: The Military Career of Captain William Philo Clark" by Mark J. Nelson (University of Oklahoma Press).
Historical Nonfiction: "Native but Foreign: Indigenous Immigrants and Refugees in the North American Borderlands" by Brenden W. Rensink (Texas A&M University Press).
Juvenile Nonfiction: "Buffalo Heartbeats Across the Plains: The Last Great Hunts and Saving the Buffalo" by Francie M. Berg (Dakota Buttes Visitors Council).
Storyteller (Illustrated Children's Book): "Montana for Kids: The Story of Our State" by Allen Morris Jones (Bangtail Press).
Short Fiction: "Buck's Last Ride" by Therese Greenwood (Coffin Hop Press).
Short Nonfiction: "Art, Agency, and Conservation: A Fresh Look at Albert Bierstadt's Vision of the West" by Peter H. Hassrick (Montana the Magazine of Western History).
Drama Script: "The Rider" by Chloe Zhao (Sony).

SOURCE Western Writers of America

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