Awards and Accolades:

Marlene Bell won the Cozy Mystery category of the Speak Up Talk Radio Firebird Book Awards for her novel A Hush at Midnight.

Jane Little Botkin received an Honorable Mention in the Pop Culture category in the national INDIES Book of the Year awards.

Amanda Churchill won the Debut Fiction category of the Reading the West Awards for her novel The Turtle House.

Tonya Duncan Ellis was the Honor recipient of the Crystal Kite Award in the Texas & Oklahoma division for her children’s book They Built Me for Freedom: The Story of Juneteenth and Houston’s Emancipation Park.

Dagoberto Gilb won the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvoge Award for the Art of the Essay for his work A Passing West.

Ian Griffin won the Speak Up Talk Radio Firebird Book Awards in the Suspense and Thriller categories for his book Ascend from the Ashes. The book also placed in the Regal Summit Book Awards.

William L. Harben won the Crime Fiction and Mystery/Thriller-Suspense Thrillers category of the 2025 International Impact Book Awards for I’ve Been Waiting.

Steena Hernandez won the Crystal Kite Award in the Texas & Oklahoma division for her children’s book Lupita’s Brown Ballet Slippers.

Yoon Ha Lee won the Young Adult category of the Locus Award for Moonstorm.

Preston Lewis was honored with the Will Rogers Medallion Award Lifetime Achievement Award for his body of work.

Courtney McCaskill won the Historical category of the 2025 Holt Medallion Awards for Snowbound with the Scoundrel.

Abigail Owen won the 2025 Holt Medallion gold medal in the Speculative category for The Games Gods Play.

Karen Witemeyer won the 2025 Holt Medallion gold medal for Best Long Inspiring Novel for her work Cloaked in Beauty.

2025 Silver Falchion Award Judges’ Top Picks:

Best Action Adventure– Reap the Wind by Joel Burcat

Best Cozy– Wheeling and Dealing by Becki Willis

Best Nonfiction– Tilghman: The Legendary Lawman and the Woman Who Inspired Him by Chris Enss

Best Investigator– Mexicanos Hustle by J Benjamin Sanders, Jr.

Best Supernatural– Cold Snap by Lindy Ryan

Best Suspense– The Forgotten Son by BJ Sloan

Best Western– Sarita by Natalie Musgrave Dossett

Finalists:

Jane Little Botkin is a finalist in the Downing Journalism Award from Women Writing the West. 

KB Brookins is on the list of finalists for the 37th Annual Lambda Literary Awards in the Transgender Nonfiction category for his memoir Pretty. 

Colwill Brown’s We Pretty Pieces of Flesh landed on the longlist for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize.

Natalie Musgrave Dossett is a finalist in the Best Western category of the 2025 Silver Falchion Awards for her novel Sarita.

Kionna Walker LeMalle garnered a spot on the longlist for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize for her novel Behind the Water Line.

Attica Locke made the short list for the 2025 KAA Gold Dagger awards from the Crime Writers of America for Guide Me Home.

Ben Markovits is on the long list for the 2025 Booker Prize for his novel The Rest of Our Lives.

Kimberly King Parsons is a finalist in the 37th Annual Lambda Literary Awards in the Bisexual Fiction category for her novel We Were the Universe.

Alejandro Puyana is a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for his debut novel Freedom is a Feast.

Cara Rogers Stevens is a finalist for the George Washington Prize for Thomas Jefferson and the Fight Against Slavery.

Becki Willis earned a spot on the finalist list of the 2025 Silver Falchion Awards in the Best Cozy category with Wheeling and Dealing.

2025 Will Rogers Medallion Award Finalists

Western Modern Fiction

The Broken Truth by Reavis Z. Wortham

Western Romance

Cloaked in Beauty by Karen Witemeyer

If the Boot Fits by Karen Witemeyer

Western Inspirational

The Big Dry by Patrick Dearen

Western Cookbooks

End of the Trail Eats: Cowboy-Approved Recipes from the cowtown Cafe to the Saloon by Natalie Bright

Western Young Reader/Fiction/Illustrated

The Story by Phil Mills, Jr.; Illustrated by Jean Abernethy

Western Young Readers / Non-Fiction

Pintsized Pioneers: Taming the Frontier, One Chore at a Time by Hariet Kocher Lewis and Preston Lewis