Western is a genre of fiction set primarily in the latter half of the 19th and early 20th century in the Western United States, which is styled the "Old West". Its stories commonly center on the life of a nomadic cowboy or gunfighter who rides a horse and is armed with a revolver and/or a rifle. Cowboys and gunslingers typically wear broad-brimmed and high-crowned Stetson hats, neckerchief bandannas, vests, spurs, cowboy boots, and buckskins. Recurring characters include the aforementioned cowboys, Indians, Spaniards, Mexicans, bandits, lawmen, prostitutes, bounty hunters, outlaws, gamblers, soldiers, and settlers. The ambience is usually punctuated with a Western music score, including American folk music and Spanish/Mexican folk music such as country, Native American music, New Mexico music, and rancheras.
Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine (AHMM) is a bi-monthly digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime and detective fiction. AHMM is named for Alfred Hitchcock, the famed director of suspense films and television.
Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West frontier and typically set from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. Well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey from the early 20th century and Louis L'Amour from the mid-20th century. The genre peaked around the early 1960s, largely due to the popularity of televised Westerns such as Bonanza. Readership began to drop off in the mid- to late 1970s and reached a new low in the 2000s. Most bookstores, outside a few west American states, only carry a small number of Western fiction books.
Loren D. Estleman is an American writer of detective and Western fiction. He is known for a series of crime novels featuring the investigator Amos Walker.
Glendon Fred Swarthout was an American writer and novelist.
James Raymond Frenkel is an American editor and agent of science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, thrillers, historical fiction, and other books, formerly for Tom Doherty Associates. He has edited numerous prominent authors such as Vernor Vinge, Joan D. Vinge, Frederik Pohl, Andre Norton, Loren D. Estleman, Dan Simmons, Jack Williamson, Timothy Zahn, Marie Jakober and Greg Bear. His agency clients include John C. Wright and L. Jagi Lamplighter. He and his wife, author Joan D. Vinge lived in Madison, Wisconsin for many years, but have moved to Green Valley, Arizona.
John Edward Ames is an American writer of novels and short stories from Toledo, Ohio. A critically acclaimed writer of western fiction, Ames began his career writing for pulp magazines before penning horror novels and stories. In 1995, Ames' historical novel The Unwritten Order was a finalist for a Western Writers of America Spur Award.
Loren L. Coleman is a science-fiction writer, born and grew up in Longview, Washington. He is known for having written many books for series such as Star Trek, Battletech/Mechwarrior, Age of Conan, Crimson Skies, Magic: The Gathering and others. He has also written game fiction and source material for such companies as FASA Corporation, TSR, Inc. and Wizards of the Coast. He resides in Washington with his wife Heather and three children.
Dorothy Marie Johnson was an American author best known for her Western fiction.
Fred Grove was a Native American author and winner of five prestigious "Spur Awards" from Western Writers of America for his western novels. He was born in Hominy, Oklahoma.
Carla Sue Kelly is an American writer in the Regency romance genre. She is the author of over forty books and short stories. Her books are what romance readers call "keepers," i.e. books they keep in their private collections, and accordingly they can be hard to find. Renowned for what she calls "dukeless" regencies, her stories often revolve around ordinary people solving their own problems. While many Regency romances feature soldiers returned from the Napoleonic Wars, several of Kelly's books include soldiers and sailors actively involved in the Peninsular campaign and in the naval blockade that prevented France from invading England, bringing this war to life in an unforgettable way. However, her regencies only reflect a part of her writing interests. She also has a strong interest in the American West, which is reflected in her earliest published works and in her non-fiction. Since 2011, Kelly, who has a Mormon background, has written four historical romance novels that focus on the lives of young Mormon women: Borrowed Light, Enduring Light, My Loving Vigil Keeping, and Safe Passage.
Pulphouse Publishing was an American small press publisher based in Eugene, Oregon, and specializing in science fiction and fantasy. It was founded by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch in 1988. The press was active until 1996. Over that period, Pulphouse published 244 different titles.
Owen Wister Award is an annual award from the Western Writers of America given to lifelong contributions to the field of Western literature. Named for writer Owen Wister, it is given for "Outstanding Contributions to the American West".
S. Omar Barker, was an American cowboy poet, politician rancher, and teacher in New Mexico. He published many books, including Vientos de las Sierras (1924), Buckaroo Ballads (1928) and Rawhide Rhymes: Singing Poems of the Old West.
This is a list of the works of fiction which have won the Spur Award for Best Western Novel:
This is a list of the works of fiction which have won the Spur Award for Best Novel of the West:
The Barry Award is a crime literary prize awarded annually since 1997 by the editors of Deadly Pleasures, an American quarterly publication for crime fiction readers. From 2007 to 2009 the award was jointly presented with the publication Mystery News. The prize is named after Barry Gardner, an American critic.
Grover C. "Bill" Gulick was an American writer and historian from Walla Walla, Washington.
Mike Blakely is an American novelist and singer/songwriter, focusing on Western subjects. He lives in, and is closely associated with, the U.S. state of Texas.
Matthew P. Mayo is an American author of novels and non-fiction books for children and adults, as well as poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews. He writes about the American West as well as New England, and in the Western, humor, crime, and horror genres.