Women Writing the West® Announces
2023 WILLA Literary Award Winners and Finalists
Women Writing the West® (WWW) is proud to announce the 2023 WILLA Literary Award competition Winners and Finalists, representing the best of 2022 published literature for women’s or girls’ stories set in the North American West. WWW, a nonprofit association of writers and other writing professionals writing and promoting the Women’s West, is the underwriter and annual presenter of this nationally recognized award.
Selected by professional librarians, historians, and university affiliated educators, the winning authors and their books will be honored during the Women Writing the West Annual Conference.
The 2023 honorees are listed with the designation of Winner and Finalist in each of eight categories.
Betsy Randolph
WWW 2022 WILLA Literary Award Chair###
MULTIFORM FICTION
WINNER: Happy for You: A Novel, Claire Stanford, Penguin Books
FINALIST: The Road to Me, Laura Drake, Fiction Studio Books
FINALIST: Hardly Any Shooting Stars Left, B.K Froman, Iron Stream FictionHISTORICAL FICTION
WINNER: Woman of Light, Kali Fajardo-Anstine, One World
FINALIST: Hardland, Ashley E. Sweeney, She Writes Press
FINALIST: Beneath the Bending Skies, Jane Kirkpatrick, RevellROMANCE
WINNER: Henley, Shanna Hatfield, Wholesome Hearts Publishing
CREATIVE NONFICTION
WINNER: Brave Hearted: The Women of the American West, Katie Hickman, Spiegel & Grau
FINALIST: Spirit Things, Lara Messersmith-Glavin, University of Alaska Press
FINALIST: Apertures: findings from a rural life, Mary B. Kurtz, Shanti Arts PublishingSCHOLARLY NONFICTION
WINNER: The Widowed Ones: Beyond the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Chris Enss, Howard Kazanjian, and Chris Kortlander, TwoDot Press
FINALIST: Valley of Giants: Stories from Women at the Heart of Yosemite Climbing, Lauren DeLaunay Miller, Mountaineer Books
FINALIST: Rare Merit: Women in Photography in Canada, 1840-1940, Colleen Skidmore University of British Columbia PressPOETRY
WINNER: Prairie Midden, Athena Kildegaard, Tinderbox Editions
FINALIST: Making Silent Stones Sing: poems, Susan Cummins Miller, Finishing Line Press
FINALIST: Feeding the Fire, Twyla M. Hansen, WSC PressCHILDREN’S FICTION AND NONFICTION
WINNER: The Other Side of the River, Alda P. Dobbs, Sourcebooks Young Readers
FINALIST: Amelia and the Magic Ponies, Sue Houser, Mariah Fox, Illustrator, Irie BooksYOUNG ADULT FICTION AND NONFICTION
WINNER: Meg and the Rocks, Katy Hammel, Plot Duckies
FINALIST: My Rock and My Refuge, Rachel Kovaciny, White Rook Press
FINALIST: Jean Landis WASP Pilot – 2,500 Miles – Long Beach to Newark in a P-51, Sarah Byrn Rickman, Flight to Destiny Press###
The WILLA Literary Award
Celebrating the Diversity of the Women’s West
Women Writing the West (WWW) will accept entries for the 2024 WILLA Literary Award, honoring books originally published in 2023 that feature women’s or girls’ stories set in the North American West, beginning November 1, 2023.
The deadline for submission is February 1, 2024.
WWW membership is open to all persons worldwide; membership is not a requirement for eligibility in The WILLA Literary Award competition.
For more information about The WILLA Literary Award, Women Writing the West, or its Annual Conference, please visit the Women Writing the West website.
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Women Writing the West is a Colorado non-profit corporation and is tax exempt pursuant to IRC 501(c)(3). Contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent permitted by law. (Federal ID#: 84-1297060). Women Writing the West is registered as a charitable organization by the Colorado Secretary of State. (Approved Charitable Solicitation Filing #: 20153037447)
Women Writing the West Blog 
What a wonderful slate of finalist and winners! A heartfelt congratulations to each of you. And to the judges and WWW staff who work hard to make this happen.
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