Owen Wister Award recipient
for Lifetime Contributions to Western Literature
and Western Writers Hall of Fame inductee
2020
Spur Award Winner
Best Western Original Mass-Market Paperback Novel:
"A Thousand Texas Longhorns," 2021
Spur Award Winner
Best Western Juvenile Fiction: "Taos Lightning," 2018
Spur Award Winner
Best Western Original Mass-Market Paperback Novel:
"Return to Red River," 2017
2013 Rounders Award
From the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, 2013
For living, promoting and articulating the Western way of life.
Spur Award Winner
Best Western Short Novel: "Legacy of a Lawman," 2012
Spur Award Winner
Best Western Original Mass Market Paperback Novel
"West Texas Kill," 2012
2011 Distinguished Alumnus
University of South Carolina
School of Journalism and Mass Communications, 2011
Spur Award Winner
Best Western Juvenile Fiction
"Hard Winter," 2010
Spur Award Winner
Best Western Juvenile Fiction
"Doubtful Cañon," 2008
Spur Award Winner
Best Western Novel
"Camp Ford," 2006
Western Heritage Wrangler Award winner
Outstanding Western Novel of 2003
"Spark on the Prairie: The Trial of the Kiowa Chiefs," 2004
Spur Award Winner, Best Western Short Story
"A Piano at Dead Man's Crossing," 2002
Arkansiana Award, Juvenile/YA
Arkansas Library Association
"Poison Spring," 2015
Spur Award Finalist, Best Western Short Story
"Legend," 2020
Spur Award Finalist, Best Western Short Story
"The San Angela Stump Match of 1876," "2018
Spur Award Finalist, Best Western Short Story
"Comanche Camp at Dawn," 2017
Spur Award Finalist, Best Western Short Story
"Umpire Colt," 2017
Spur Award Finalist, Best Western Juvenile Fiction
"Poison Spring," 2015
Spur Award Finalist, Best Western Juvenile Fiction
"Summer of the Star," 2014
Spur Award Finalist, Best Western Historical Novel
"Greasy Grass: A Story of the Little Big Horn," 2014
Spur Award Finalist, Best Western Juvenile Fiction
"And There I'll Be a Soldier," 2013
Spur Award Finalist, Best Western Juvenile Fiction
"South by Southwest," 2012
Spur Award Finalist, Best Western Short Novel
"Killstraight," 2009
Spur Award Finalist, Best Western Short Novel
"Northfield," 2008
Spur Award Finalist, Best Western Short Fiction Story
"The Cody War," 2008
Spur Award Finalist, Best Western Juvenile Novel
"The Hart Brand," 2007
Spur Award Finalist, Best Western Novel
"Ten and Me," 2000
True West Magazine Reader's Choice Best of the West Award
Best Living Historical Novelist, 2012
New Mexico Book Award Finalist
Best Novel-Historical Fiction: "Northfield," 2008
New Mexico Book Award Finalist
Best Juvenile Novel: "Doubtful Cañon," 2008
True West Magazine Best of the West Award
"Best Living Fiction Writer," 2008
Milton F. Perry Award Winner (National James-Younger Gang)
Best Book: "Northfield," 2007
New Mexico Book Award Finalist Best Novel-Historical Fiction
"Camp Ford," 2007
Southwest Books of the Year: Great Murder Trials of the Old West (2003), Law of the Land: The Trial of Billy the Kid (2004); Walk Proud, Stand Tall (2006)
