AWARDS AND ACCOLADES

Reading the West Book Awards Winners

Picture Books – Painting Wonder: How Pauline Baynes Illustrated the Worlds of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien by Katie Wray Schon

Young Readers – Three Blue Hearts by Lynne Kelly

Young Adult –Legendary Frybread Drive-in: Intertribal Stories edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith 

Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award

Winner – An Authentic Life by Jennifer Chang

Discovery Winner – Cowboy Park by Eduardo Martinez-Leyva

Independent Author Awards

Nineteenth Century Non-Fiction – Betting on Horses by Preston Lewis

Political Fiction – Born in the Aftermath by Ian Griffin

Thriller – Lies to Forever by Marlene M. Bell

War – Born in the Aftermath by Ian Griffin

Young Adult Non-Fiction – Pintsized Pioneers at Play by Preston Lewis

Joe Battaglia won the Grand Prize in the Best Book of the Year and Best Fiction categories of the 2026 PenMasters Global Awards for Literary Excellence for his novel Beneath the Rings.

Whitney Cubbison won the Silver Medal in the Regional Fiction: Europe & Russia category of the Independent Publisher Book Awards.

Natalie Musgrave Dossett won a Silver Medal in the Historical Fiction category of the IPPY Book Awards for her novel Sarita.

Bret Anthony Johnson was named a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow.

Stephen Graham Jones won the Nebula Award for Novel from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association for his novel The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. The novel also won the Nebula Award for Superior Achievement in a Novel and the Locus Award for Best Horror Novel.

Lise Olsen won the Book category of the Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE) Awards for The Scientist and the Serial Killer: The Search for Houston’s Lost Boys.

Bill W. Sanford won the Soul-Driven Fiction Series award of the Texas Authors Book Contest for his novel The Scar of Cain: The Books of Jasher, Book 1.

Catherine Tucker won the Legal Thriller category of the National Indie Excellence Awards for her novel Tall Cotton.

Lin Wilder won the Books in a Series category of the Book Excellence Awards for her Dr. Lindsey McCall Medical Mystery Series.

Lentic Systems by Chelsea Woodard claimed the 2026 Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry from UNT Press.

FINALISTS

2026 Will Rogers Medallion Awards Winners

Western Traditional Fiction –The Reckoning of Men by Chris Mullen

Western Modern Fiction – The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones; Narrow the Road by James Wade

Western Romance – To Love a Beast by Karen Witemeyer

Western Inspirational – On a Midnight Clear by Misty M. Beller, Tracie Peterson, & Karen Witemeyer

Western Written Poetry – The Solace of Wild Places by Kathryn Jones; Santa Fe Trail: Chasing the Big Westby karla k. morton & Alan Birkelbach

Western Short Nonfiction – “Dr. Sofie Herzog: The Gunfighter’s Physician” by Chris Enss

Western Cookbooks – I’ll Have the Chicken Fried Steak by Mike Cox

Western Young Reader/Fiction/Illustrated – Rosie’s Ranch Rescue: Taking Care of Each Other by Paige Murray

Western Young Reader/Fiction (7-12 yrs.) – Halloween on the Butterfield Trail by Patrick Dearen

Western Young Adult Fiction (13-18 yrs.) – Never Curse the Rain by S.J. Dahlstrom

Western Young Readers/Nonfiction – Pintsized Pioneers at Play: Homemade Frontier Fun and Danger by Preston Lewis and Harriet Kocher Lewis

Western Historical Fiction – A Novel of the Battle of Franklin by Preston Lewis

Western Humor – “Directions” short story by Reavis Z. Wortham

Shamus Awards from Private Eye Writers of America

Best P.I. Hardcover – Hatchet Girls by Joe R. Lansdale

Best Original Paperback P.I. Novel – The Hook and the Eye by Raymond Benson and Catch Me on a Blue Day by M.E. Proctor

Silver Falchion Award Finalists from Killer Nashville

Best Action Adventure – The Fatal Saving Grace: An Ed Earl Burch Novel by Jim Nesbitt

Best Cozy – Seven for a Secret Never To Be Told by Derek Wheeless

Best Investigator – Blood on the Wire by Candace Irving

Best Juvenile / YA – Risky Pursuit by Nancy G. West

Best Mystery – The Demonologists’ Legacy by K. Scott Culpepper

Best Nonfiction – Earthbound: The Obstacles of Human Space Exploration and the Promise of Artificial Intelligence by Dennis Meredith

Best Southern Gothic – The Wretched and Undone by J.E. Weiner

Best Thriller – Welcome to Cottonmouth by Jay S. Bell

Independent Author Awards

Crime Fiction – Lies to Forever by Marlene M. Bell

Cross Genre – Born in the Aftermath by Ian Griffin

Historical Fiction – Too Much the Lion: A Novel of the Battle of Franklin by Preston Lewis and Born in the Aftermath by Ian Griffin

Romance – Born in the Aftermath by Ian Griffin

Suspense – Lies to Forever by Marlene M. Bell

Mary Alford is a finalist in the AWSA Golden Scroll Awards for her novel Amish Country Killer.

Joe Battaglia earned a finalist spot on the 2026 American Writing Awards Hawthorne Prize for Beneath the Rings.

David Fleming is a finalist for the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting in the Best Sports Book category for his book A Big Mess in Texas.

Gabino Iglesias has been nominated for a #kelvin505 Award for Best Novel in Translation for The Devil Takes You Home (translated by M. Sanz Jiménez). Additionally, he is a finalist for the Ignyte Critics Award for reviews and analysis of the field of speculative literature.

Stephen Graham Jones is a finalist in the Outstanding Novel: Adult category of the Ignyte Critics Award for his novel The Buffalo Hunter Hunter.