Five Wyoming authors were honored by the Western Writers of America for their 2024 contributions to the Western genre. Three of the authors were awarded 2024 Spur Awards by the organization and another was a finalist for the award.
J.B. Zielke received two 2024 Spur Awards: Best Contemporary Nonfiction Book and Best First Nonfiction Book, both for The Lost Cowboy, a memoir of Zielke’s own ranching experiences. These are Zielke’s first Spur awards.
Candy Moulton won the 2024 Spur Award in the Biography category for Sacajawea: Mystery, Myth, and Legend, published by South Dakota Historical Society Press. Moulton is the recipient of three previous Spur awards.
Craig Johnson, author of the Longmire series, won the 2024 Spur Award for Best Contemporary Western Novel for the nineteenth book in the Longmire series, The Longmire Defense, published by Viking Books. This is Johnson’s second Spur Award.
M. Michael Gear was awarded the 2024 Spur Award for Best Western Short Fiction for Bad Choices: A Wyoming Chronicles Story. Gear has authored three novels in the story’s related series. This is Gear’s first Spur Award.
Rod Miller‘s poem, “Even the Birds”, from his poetry collection, The Dog’s Pancake, published by High Plains Press, was a finalist in the Best Poem category.
Winners of the 2024 Spur Awards will be recognized at the Western Writers of America Convention, which will be held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in June.