Past WILLA Award
Winners and Finalists

2006 WILLA Literary Award Winners and Finalists

Contemporary Fiction

WINNER: Sky Bridge: Laura Pritchett, author; Milkweed Editions

FINALIST: Crazy Quilt: Paula Paul, author; University of New Mexico Press

FINALIST: Return to Abo: Sharon Niederman, author; University of New Mexico Press

Historical Fiction

WINNER: New Mercies: Sandra Dallas, author; St. Martin’s Press

FINALIST: Apache Lance, Franciscan Cross: Florence Byham Weinberg, author; Twilight Times Books

FINALIST: Sarah’s Quilt: Nancy E. Turner, author; St. Martin’s Press

Original Softcover Fiction

WINNER: Summer of Fire: Linda Jacobs, author; Medallion Press

FINALIST: Loving Mercy: Teresa Bodwell, author; Kensington Publishing

FINALIST: Loving Miranda: Teresa Bodwell, author; Kensington Publishing

Children’s/Young Adult Fiction and Nonfiction

WINNER: A Heart for Any Fate: Westward to Oregon - 1845: Linda Crew, author; Oregon Historical Society Press

FINALIST: Anna’s Blizzard: Alison Hart, author; Peachtree Publishers

FINALIST: Under A Stand Still Moon: Ann Howard Creel, author; Brown Barn Books

Memoir/Essay

WINNER: The Lady Rode Bucking Horses: Dee Marvine, author; Globe Pequot Press—Two Dot Imprint

FINALIST: Child of Many Rivers: Lucy Fischer-West, author; Texas Tech University Press

FINALIST: If You Lived Here I’d Know Your Name: Heather Lende, author; Algonquin Books

Other Nonfiction

WINNER: Impertinences, Selected Writings of Elia Peattie: Susanne Bloomfield, editor; University of Nebraska Press

FINALIST: Pioneer Doctor: The Story of a Woman’s Work: Mari Graña:, author; Globe-Pequot Press

FINALIST: More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Nevada Women: Jan Cleere, author; Globe-Pequot Press

Poetry

WINNER: Beasts In Snow: Jane Elkington Wohl, author; High Plains Press

FINALIST: Refuge of Whirling Light: Mary Beath, author; University of New Mexico Press

FINALIST: Hill Country & Other Poems: Renee Walker, author; Fixin' To Press

 

2005 WILLA Literary Award Winners and Finalists

Memoir/Essay

WINNER: Into The Canyon: Seven Years In Navajo Country by Lucy Moore
FINALIST: Above The Clearwater: Living On Stolen Land by Bette Lynch Husted
FINALIST: Grace Stone Coates: Her Life In Letters by Lee Rostad

Nonfiction

WINNER: Isabella Greenway: An Enterprising Woman by Kristie Miller
FINALIST: The Quilt That Walked To Golden: Women and Quilts in the Mountain West-From the Overland Trail to Contemporary Colorado by Sandra Dallas
FINALIST: The Montana Frontier: One Woman’s West by Joyce Litz

Contemporary Fiction

WINNER: The Real Minerva: A Novel by Mary Sharratt
FINALIST: Last Lullaby by Denise Hamilton
FINALIST: Useful Girl by Marcus Stevens

Historical Fiction

WINNER: Tombstone Travesty: Allie Earp Remembers by Jane Candia Coleman
FINALIST: Where Heaven Begins by Rosanne Bittner
FINALIST: Four Souls by Louise Erdrich

Children's and Young Adult Fiction and Nonfiction

WINNER: Nothing Here But Stones by Nancy Oswald
FINALIST: E is for Enchantment: A New Mexico Alphabet by Helen Foster James
FINALIST: Justina Ford: Medical Pioneer by Joyce B. Lohse

Original Softcover Fiction

WINNER: Echoes by Erin Grady
FINALIST: Moon In The Water by Elizabeth Grayson
FINALIST: Higher Ground by Gladys Smith

Poetry

WINNER: I am Madagascar by Ellen Waterston
FINALIST: The Northwest Rainforest Pioneers by Claudia Harper
FINALIST: Cowboy Poetry: Turning to Face the Wind by Jane Ambrose Morton

 

2004 WILLA Literary Award Winners and Finalists

Contemporary Fiction

WINNER: All Over Creation by Ruth Ozeki (Penguin Group USA)
FINALIST: Desert Wives by Betty Webb (Poisoned Pen Press)
FINALIST: Unpaid Dues by Barbara Seranella (Scribner)

Historical Fiction

WINNER: Silver Lies by Ann Parker (Poisoned Pen Press)
FINALIST: Fireweed: A Woman's Saga in Gold Rush America by Carolyn Evans Campbell (Georgetown Editions)
FINALIST: Matchless by Jane Candia Coleman (Five Star/Gale Publishing)

Memoir/Essay

WINNER: Predators, Prey and Other Kinfolk by Dorothy Allred Solomon (W.W. Norton)
FINALIST: Girl from the Gulches: The Story of Mary Ronan by Ellen Baumler, Editor (Montana Historical Society Press)
FINALIST: Then There Was No Mountain by Ellen Waterston (Roberts Rinehart Books)

Nonfiction

WINNER: Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America by Linda Lawrence Hunt (University of Idaho Press)
FINALIST: A Widow's Tale: The 1884-1896 Diary of Helen Mar Kimball Whitney by Charles M. Hatch and Todd M. Compton, editors (Utah State University Press)
FINALIST: One Woman's Political Journey by Lynn Musslewhite and Suzanne Jones Crawford (University of Oklahoma Press)

Original Softcover

WINNER: Deliverance Valley by Gladys Smith (Stoneydale Press)
FINALIST: The Scout by Lynna Banning (Harlequin Historicals)

Poetry

WINNER: Original Fire by Louise Erdrich (HarperCollins)
FINALIST: Time Not Measured By A Clock by Carole Jarvis (Cowboy Miner Productions)

Children's/Young Adult

WINNER: Rodzina by Karen Cushman (Clarion Books)
FINALIST: Meadow Lark by Mary Peace Finley (Filter Press)
FINALIST: Words West: Voices of Young Pioneers by Ginger Wadsworth (Clarion Books)

 

2003 WILLA Literary Award Winners and Finalists

Contemporary Fiction

WINNER: Perma Red, Debra Magpie Earling (Blue Hen/Penguin)
FINALIST: Bad Faith, Aimée and David Thurlo (St. Martin's Minotaur)
FINALIST: No Man Standing, Barbara Seranella (Scribner)

Historical Fiction

WINNER: Enemy Women, Paulette Jiles (William Morrow)
FINALIST: Strength of Stone, Dianne Elliott (Two Dot/Globe Pequot)
FINALIST: The Chili Queen, Sandra Dallas (St. Martin's Press)

Memoir/Essay

WINNER: Breaking Clean, Judy Blunt (Alfred A. Knopf)
FINALIST: Between Grass and Sky, Linda M. Hasselstrom (University of Nevada Press)
FINALIST: When Montana and I Were Young, Margaret Bell; Mary Clear Blew, Editor (University of Nebraska Press)

Nonfiction

WINNER: Mary Colter: Architect of the Southwest, Arnold Berke (Princeton Architectural Press)
FINALIST:  Mary Hallock Foote, Darlis A. Miller (University of Oklahoma Press)
FINALIST: Woman Walking Ahead, Eileen Pollack (University of New Mexico Press)

Original Paperback

WINNER: Small Rocks Rising, Susan Lang (University of Nevada Press)
FINALIST: The Caballeros of Ruby, Texas, Cynthia Leal Massey (Panther Creek Press)
FINALIST: Flight from Fear, Sarah Byrn Rickman (Disc-Us Books)

Poetry

WINNER: Miracles of Sainted Earth, Victoria Edwards Tester (University of New Mexico Press)
FINALIST: The Widow's Burden, Robert Cooperman (Western Reflections)

Children's/Young Adult

WINNER: Circle of Time, Marisa Montes (Harcourt)
FINALIST: Together Apart, Dianne E. Gray (Houghton Mifflin)
FINALIST: Whistler in the Dark, Kathleen Ernst (Pleasant Company Publishers)

2002 WILLA Award Winners and Finalists

Contemporary Fiction

WINNER: This House of Women, Paul Scott Malone (Texas Tech Univ. Press)
FINALIST: Heart of the Beast, Joyce Weatherford (Scribner)
FINALIST: The Jasmine Trade, Denise Hamilton (Scribner)

Historical Fiction

WINNER: The Good Journey, Micaela Gilchrist (Simon & Schuster)
FINALIST: The Water and the Blood, Nancy Turner (HarperCollins)
FINALIST: The Magic of Ordinary Days, Ann Howard Creel (Penguin Putnam)

Nonfiction

WINNER: Eye of the Blackbird, Holly Skinner (Johnson Books)
FINALIST: Sarah Winnemucca, Sally Zanjani (Univ. of Nebraska Press)
FINALIST: I'll Go and Do More, Carolyn Niethammer (Univ. of Nebraska Press)

Memoir/Essay

WINNER: She Flies Without Wings, Mary D. Midkiff (Bantam Dell)
FINALIST: Mountain Time, Jane Candia Coleman (Five Star)
FINALIST: Standing Up to the Rock, T. Louise Freeman-Toole (Univ. of Nebraska Press)

Poetry

WINNER: Blood Sister I Am To These Fields, Linda Hussa (Black Rock Press)

Children's/Young Adult

WINNER: Cissy Funk, Kim Taylor (HarperCollins)
FINALIST: Walk Across the Sea, Susan Fletcher (Simon & Schuster)
FINALIST: Boston Jane, Jennifer Holm (HarperCollins)

Original Paperback

WINNER: Across the Sweet Grass Hills, Gail Jenner (Creative Arts Book Co.)
FINALIST: Fragile Treaties, Faye Roberts (Western Reflections)
FINALIST: Death of a Songbird, Christine Goff (Berkley)

2001 WILLA Award Finalists and Winners

Contemporary Fiction

WINNER: The Spirit Woman, Margaret Coel (Berkley)
FINALIST: Smoke Eaters, Christine Andreae (Thomas Dunne Books)
FINALIST: Catching Heaven, Sands Hall (Ballantine)

Historical Fiction

WINNER: For California's Gold, JoAnn Levy (University Press of Colorado)
FINALIST: Alice's Tulips, Sandra Dallas (St. Martin's Press)
FINALIST: Soul of the Sacred Earth, Vella Munn (Tor/Forge)

Best Original Paperback

WINNER: Dead Man Falls, Paula Boyd (Diomo Books)
FINALIST: Painted by the Sun, Eliz abethth Grayson aka Karen Witmer-Gow (Bantam/Random House)
FINALIST: A Rant of Ravens, Christine Goff (Berkley)

Memoir/Essay

WINNER: One Degree West: Reflections of a Plainsdaughter, Julene Bair (Mid List Press)
FINALIST: Scrapbook of a Taos Hippie, Iris Keltz (Cinco Punto Press}
FINALIST: Naming the Winds: A High Plains Apprenticeship, Caroline Marwitz (High Plains Press)

Children's

WINNER: Horned Toad Prince, Jackie Mims Hopkins (Peachtree Publishers)
FINALIST: Ghost Towns: Seven Ghostly Stories, Joan Lowery Nixon (Random House)