2009 WILLA Literary Award Winners

Honoring books
published in 2008

The award is named in honor of Pulitzer Prize winner Willa Cather, one of the country's foremost novelists. Awarded annually for outstanding literature featuring women's stories set in the West, the WILLA Literary Awards are chosen by a distinguished panel of twenty-one professional librarians. The awards are presented at the WWW Fall Conference.

2010 WILLA Award Entry Form and Information

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE WINNERS AND FINALISTS!

Contemporary Fiction

WINNER: The Last Cowgirl, by Jana Richman (William Morrow / HarperCollins Publishers)

FINALIST: Hoodoo, by Susan Cummins Miller (Texas Tech University Press)

FINALIST: Wild Inferno, by Sandi Ault (Berkley Prime Crime/Penguin Group USA)

Creative Nonfiction

WINNER: Salt in Our Blood: The Memoir of a Fisherman’s Wife, by Michele Longo Eder (Dancing Moon Press)

FINALIST: Aurora: An American Experience in Quilt, Community, and Craft, by Jane Kirkpatrick (WaterBrook Press)

FINALIST: Trespass: Living at the Edge of the Promised Land, by Amy Irvine (North Point Press/Farrar, Straus, & Giroux)

Scholarly Nonfiction

WINNER: Full-Court Quest: The Girls from Fort Shaw Indian School, Basketball Champions of the World, by Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith (University of Oklahoma Press)

FINALIST: Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane: Authorship, Place, Time, and Culture, by John E. Miller (University of Missouri Press)

FINALIST: Staking Her Claim: Women Homesteading the West, by Marcia Meredith Hensley (High Plains Press)

Historical Fiction

WINNER: Charley’s Choice: The Life and Times of Charley Parkhurst, by Fern J. Hill (Infinity Publishing)

FINALIST: Chances, by Pamela Nowak (Five Star/Gale/Cengage Learning)

Poetry

WINNER: Between Desert Seasons, by Ellen Waterston (Wordcraft of Oregon, LLC)

Original Softcover Fiction (Trade or Mass Market)

WINNER: Buffalo Bill’s Defunct: A Latouche County Mystery, by Sheila Simonson (Perseverance Press/ John Daniel and Co.)

FINALIST: In the Shadow of Rebellion, by Gladys Smith (Llumina Press)

FINALIST: River of the Arms of God, by Irene Sandell (Eakin Press)

Children’s/Young Adult Fiction & Nonfiction

WINNER: Dreams on the Oregon Trail, by Barbara Linsley (Whitehall Publishing)

FINALIST: Chipeta: Ute Peacemaker, by Cynthia S. Becker (Filter Press, LLC)

2009 WILLA Winners Michele Longo Eder, Ellen Waterston,
Fern J. Hill and Barbara Linsley accepted their WILLA Awards
from Women Writing the West during its annual conference
held on the UCLA campus, September 11-13, 2009.


2009 WILLA Finalists Sandi Ault, Marcia Meredith Hensley,
Susan Cummins Miller and Irene "Cindy" Sandell received
their WILLA Awards from Women Writing the West during
its annual conference held on the UCLA campus,
September 11-14, 2009.

2010 WILLA Award Entries

The WILLA Literary Awards, celebrating the finest books published about the Women’s West during 2009, are sponsored by Women Writing the West. Awards will be presented at the annual conference held in Wickenburg, Arizona, October 15-17, 2010.

Guidelines & Application

Need help deciding what category your book belongs in or if it's a good fit for the WILLAs? Check out our rubrics for more details on what we're looking for in each category.

Fiction

Creative Nonfiction

Scholarly Nonfiction

Poetry

Children's/YA:
Overview, Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Picture Book


Previous Willa Award
winners and finalists