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The LAURA Award showcases Women Writing the West members’ writing talents and celebrates the short story form. Entries must feature a female protagonist and the story must be set in the American West in the present time, the past, or the future. Open only to WWW members.
For information on the 2025 LAURA Short Fiction Award, please contact LAURA Short Fiction Award Chair, Suzi Minor.
Congratulations to the
2024 LAURA Short Fiction Award Finalists.
Final placings were announced during the Friday Awards Luncheon at the
30th Annual WWW Conference, in Denver, October 10 – 12, 2024.
WINNER
B.K Froman
“River So Deep”
SECOND PLACE
Michelle Ferrer
“The Buffalo Singer”
THIRD PLACE
Kathleen O’Neal Gear
“Stalker”
Honorable Mentions:
Shanna Hatfield, “The Kidd”
Joyce Lohse, “Suit Yourself, Cowgirl”
2025 Final Judge Kate McCusker
Librarian, Wickenburg
Kate McCusker started her career as a public relations writer in Detroit before becoming an advertising copywriter for an international ad agency and finally, a television news writer and producer for a CBS affiliate. She then opened her own successful marketing consulting firm in Portland, OR, which she had for over 20 years. In 2001, she decided to make a major life change by moving from Portland to Wickenburg, AZ after falling in love with a cowboy.
In Arizona, and in conjunction with a major western museum, she created a show for western women artists now in its 20th year. She is also the creator of “Writing Wild,” a workshop first developed for middle-schoolers and now a monthly program for adults held at the Wickenburg Public Library.
Kate has won awards for screenplays and a poetry award. She is currently finalizing a contemporary women’s novel that takes place in the west. And is looking for a home for a modern-day western co-written with her husband. Neither of them are autobiographical, she says!
A frequent attendee of writers’ workshops including Arizona State University’s “Desert Nights, Rising Stars” and the summer program at the University of Iowa, she is honored to be a part of Women Writing the West.
The 2025 LAURA Short Fiction Awards entry period will open March 1, 2025.
The LAURA Short Fiction Award is open to members of WWW only.
Entries will be accepted between March 1 and April 30, 2025.
In 2007, President-Elect Kathleen Ernst presented a seed of an idea to the WWW Board of Directors. Her proposal, a short story contest, offered a threefold foundation: showcase WWW members’ writing talents, celebrate the short story form, and add another benefit to membership. Unlike the WILLA Literary Awards, only WWW members would be eligible to enter their previously unpublished story featuring a female protagonist, and set in the American West, past, present or future.
Approaching its second year, the WWW Short Story Contest gained a new name: the LAURA Award. Mirroring a part of the traditions of our WILLA Literary Award, which is named after one of America’s foremost authors, Willa Cather, the Short Story Committee decided to give the contest a recognized name, as well. In honor of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the contest was christened the LAURA Award.
WWW members enthusiastically embraced the contest. Spurred by members’ requests to have an opportunity to read the winning stories, and eager to showcase the extraordinary talent of our members, the WWW LAURA Committee decided to present a collection of the winning stories in an online journal, available here, at the WWW website.
So, sit down, pull up to your computer, and take a trip with us through the American West. We have a hunch Ms.Wilder herself would be mightily entertained!
The LAURA Journal
