The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The National Book Awards were established in 1936 by the American Booksellers Association, abandoned during World War II, and re-established by three book industry organizations in 1950. Non-U.S. authors and publishers were eligible for the pre-war awards. Since then they are presented to U.S. authors for books published in the United States roughly during the award year.
Western Writers of America (WWA), founded 1953, promotes literature, both fictional and nonfictional, pertaining to the American West. Although its founders wrote traditional Western fiction, the more than 600 current members also include historians and other nonfiction writers, as well as authors from other genres.
Joe Richard Lansdale is an American writer and martial arts instructor. A prose writer in a variety of genres, including Western, horror, science fiction, mystery, and suspense, he has also written comic books and screenplays. Several of his novels have been adapted for film and television. He is the winner of the British Fantasy Award, the American Horror Award, the Edgar Award, and eleven Bram Stoker Awards.
Rilla Askew is an American novelist and short story writer who was born in Poteau, in the Sans Bois Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma, and grew up in the town of Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
David Ebershoff is an American writer, editor, and teacher. His debut novel, The Danish Girl, was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film of the same name in 2015, while his third novel, The 19th Wife, was adapted into a television movie of the same name in 2010.
Jean Guttery Fritz was an American children's writer best known for American biography and history. She won the Children's Legacy Literature Award for her career contribution to American children's literature in 1986. She turned 100 in November 2015 and died in May 2017 at the age of 101.
William Michael Gear, better known as W. Michael Gear, is an American writer and archaeologist. He is the author of North America's Forgotten Past series, co-written with Kathleen O'Neal Gear. In 2021 he won the Owen Wister Award for lifetime contributions to western literature, and was inducted into the Western Writers Hall of Fame. In 2023 he received the Frank Waters Award for "a body of work representing excellence in writing and storytelling that embodies the spirit of the American West." His novels have been published in 29 languages.
Kathleen O'Neal Gear is an American archaeologist, historian, and New York Times bestselling author or co-author of 57 books and over 200 non-fiction publications. The United States Department of the Interior awarded her two Special Achievement Awards for outstanding contributions to the protection of America's archaeological, historical, and cultural resources. In 2015, she was honored by the United States Congress with a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition. In 2021 she won the Owen Wister Award for lifetime contributions to western literature, and was inducted into the Western Writers Hall of Fame. In 2023 she received the Frank Waters Award for "a body of work representing excellence in writing and storytelling that embodies the spirit of the American West." Her novels have been published in 29 languages.
Gregg Olsen is a New York Times, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal bestselling author of nonfiction books and novels, most of which are crime-related. The subjects of his true crime books include convicted child rapist and school teacher Mary Kay Letourneau, product tampering killer Stella Nickell, fasting specialist Linda Burfield Hazzard, and former Amishman and convicted murderer Eli Stutzman.
William Grant Bagley was a historian specializing in the history of the Western United States and the American Old West. Bagley wrote about the fur trade, overland emigration, American Indians, military history, frontier violence, railroads, mining, and Utah and the Mormons.
The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA), a nonprofit association of professional science fiction and fantasy writers. They were first given in 1966 at a ceremony created for the awards, and are given in four categories for different lengths of literary works. A fifth category for film and television episode scripts was given 1974–78 and 2000–09, and a sixth category for game writing was begun in 2018. In 2019 SFWA announced that two awards that were previously run under the same rules but not considered Nebula awards—the Andre Norton Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction and the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation—were to be considered official Nebula awards. The rules governing the Nebula Awards have changed several times during the awards' history, most recently in 2010. The SFWA Nebula Conference, at which the awards are announced and presented, is held each spring in the United States. Locations vary from year to year.
Jane K. Cleland is a contemporary American author of mystery fiction. She is the author of the Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries, a traditional mystery series set in New Hampshire and featuring antiques appraiser Josie Prescott, as well as books and articles about the craft of writing. Cleland has been nominated for and has won numerous awards for her writing.
The National Book Award for Nonfiction is one of five U.S. annual National Book Awards, which are given by the National Book Foundation to recognize outstanding literary work by U.S. citizens. They are awards "by writers to writers". The panelists are five "writers who are known to be doing great work in their genre or field".
Winfred Blevins was an American author of fiction and non-fiction. He wrote many books about the western mountain trappers, and is known for his "mastery of western lore." His notable works include Stone Song, So Wild a Dream, and Dictionary of the American West. According to WorldCat, the Dictionary of the American West is held in 728 libraries. Blevins won numerous awards, including being named winner of the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Achievement in writing literature of the West, being selected for the Western Writers Hall of Fame, being twice named 'Writer of the Year' by Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers, and winning two Spur Awards for Novel of the West.
The Independent Publisher Book Awards, also styled the IPPY Awards, are a set of annual book awards for independently published titles. They are the longest-running unaffiliated contest open exclusively to independent presses. The IPPY Awards are open to authors and publishers worldwide who produce books written in English and intended for the North American market. According to the IPPY website, the awards "reward those who exhibit the courage, innovation, and creativity to bring about change in the world of publishing."
Sofia Samatar is an American scholar, novelist and educator from Indiana.
Rudy Ruiz is an American writer, advocate, and social entrepreneur. Ruiz is known for writing The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez and Valley of Shadows, magical realism novels which received critical acclaim and literary awards. In 2014, Ruiz authored Seven for the Revolution, a book that explores the "hard lives of Latinos and the fraught relations between their native and adoptive countries." The book won Best Popular Fiction–English and Best First Book in Fiction at the 2014 International Latino Book Awards. Ruiz is also a regular special contributor to CNN and co-founder of Interlex, an advertising and marketing agency whose work is focused on "public sector, non-profit, and socially conscientious marketing for multicultural audiences." Interlex is one of the 50 largest U.S. Hispanic advertising agencies, according to AdAge.
Matthew P. Mayo is an American author of novels and non-fiction books, poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews. He writes about the American West, New England, and in the Western, humor, crime, and horror genres.
John Dunville Nesbitt is an American educator and writer of Northern Irish and Hungarian descent, known for his fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and song lyrics about the American West. He is best known for his traditional western novels, and has also published in retro/noir fiction set in California, memoirs set in California, contemporary fiction set in Wyoming, and poetry set in the West. His work is noted for its realism, sense of place, characterization, prose style, and blending of popular and literary styles
