Billings Gazette
The 2022 High Plains Book Awards finalists were recently revealed, and the winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on October 8, 2022 in Billings.
All of the nominated works – a record 294 this year – have been read and rated by community readers. Winners in each category will be determined by a jury of published writers with ties to the High Plains region.
This year, 10 of the finalists were from Montana, four from Wyoming and Colorado, two from Oregon and one from New York, Utah and Nevada, as well as 13 authors from Canada.
Nominated books must have been first published in 2021. Each winner will receive a $500 prize and a commemorative plaque.
Finalists in 12 categories are listed below. Finalists for the Big Sky Award, given to the best book by a Montana author, will be announced separately.
People also read…
“Bison: Portrait of an Icon”, by Audrey Hall and Chase Reynold Ewald
“Jon Lodge: Fracture”, by Brandon Reintjes and Gordon McConnell
“George Carlson: The American West”, by Todd Wilkinson
“The Undercover Book List”, by Colleen Nelson
“The Mystery of the Giant Kohlrabi”, by Sharon Plumb
“Dear Peter, dear Ulla”, by Barbara Nickel
“Helmi’s Shadow: A Journey of Survival from Russia to the East Asia to the American West”, by David Horgan
“We’re All Perfectly Well: A Memoir of Love, Medicine and Healing”, by Jillian Horton
“The Holly: Five Bullets, One Gun, and the Struggle to Save an American Neighborhood”, by Julian Rubinstein
“Let the Wild Herbs Grow”, by Kase Johnstun
“And It Will Be a Good Life”, by Craig Lancaster
“Daughter of the Morning Star: A Longmire Mystery”, by Craig Johnson
“The Miraculous Illness”, by Ky Perraun
“Laudable Discretion”, by Julianna Hoolihan Clayton
“Black Snake: Standing Rock, the Dakota Access Pipeline and Environmental Justice”, by Katherine Wiltenburg Todrys
“20.12m: A collection of short stories from a life lived as a Road Allowance Métis”, by Arnolda Dufour Bowes
“Standoff: Standing Rock, the Bundy Movement, and American Hallowed Grounds History”, by Jacqueline Keeler
“Kitotam” by John Brady McDonald
“We’re All Perfectly Well: A Memoir of Love, Medicine and Healing”, by Jillian Horton
“Wild Rescues: A Paramedic’s Extreme Adventures in Yosemite, Yellowstone and Grand Teton”, by Kevin Grange
“The Scenic Geology of Alberta: A Roadside Hiking and Trekking Guide”, by Dale Leckie
“Nobody dares to call her a liar”, by Larry Lee Kruckenberg
“A History of Montana in 101 Objects: Artifacts and Essays from the Montana Historical Society”, by the Montana Historical Society, Kirby Lambert and Tom Ferris
“We’re All Perfectly Well: A Memoir of Love, Medicine and Healing”, by Jillian Horton
“No Way: An American Tao Te Ching”, by David Romtvedt
“The Track the Whales Make: New and Selected Poems”, by Marjorie Saiser
“awâsis—kinky and disheveled”, by Louise B. Halfe – Sky Dancer
“Site Loyalty”, by Claire Boyles
“What If We Were Elsewhere”, by Wendy J. Fox
“The Shattered World” by Tom Vandel
“The Stone Sister”, by Caroline Patterson
“Ancestors: Indigenous Peoples of Western Canada in Historical Photographs”, by Sarah Carter and Inez Lightning
“The Call of the Last Frontier: The True Story of One Woman’s Twenty-Year Adventure in Alaska”, by Melissa Cook
“Alone”, by Megan E. Freeman
“The Life and Death of Frankie D.”, by Colleen Nelson
“When You Least Expect It”, by Lorna Schultz Nicholson
The High Plains Book Awards honor regional authors and/or literary works that examine and reflect life in the High Plains, including the states of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
The Billings Public Library Board first established the High Plains Book Awards in 2006. The awards are now an independent, non-profit organization. For more information, visit www.highplainsbookawards.org or email Info@highplainsbookawards.org.
