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Finalists

Latest Finalists

2024

Art & Photography

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On the Way to Somewhere Else
Tim Keane, Todd Forsgren (ed.)
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Living River: The Promise of the Mighty Colorado
Dave Showalter
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Prairie Interlace: Weaving, Modernisms, and the Expanded Frame, 1960-2000
Michele Hardy, Timothy Long, and Julie Krueger

Big Sky Award

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Man, Underground
Mark Hummel
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The Girl Prince: Virginia Woolf, Race and the Dreadnought Hoax
Danell Jones
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Holding Fire: A Reckoning with the American West
Bryce Andrews
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Mumblecusser
Allen Morris Jones

Children’s Middle Grade Book

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The Umbrella House
Colleen Nelson
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Coyote Queen
Jessica Vitalis
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A Sky Full of Song
Susan Lynn Meyer

Children’s Picture Book

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Let Me Tell You About My Mom
Casey Rislov, photography by Ron Hayes
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Lily and Maia...A Dinosaur Adventure
Jack Horner, illustrated by Grace Hattrup
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Border Crossings
Sneed B. Collard III, illustrated by Howard Gray

Creative Nonfiction

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The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance
Rebecca Clarren
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Holding Fire: A Reckoning with the American West
Bryce Andrews
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The Definition of Beautiful
Charlotte Belows

Fiction

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Man, Underground
Mark Hummel
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Go as a River
Shelley Read
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A Council of Dolls
Mona Susan Power

First Book

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West of Town
Shirley Steele
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Through the Wilderness
Brad Orsted
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The Definition of Beautiful
Charlotte Belows

Indigenous Writer

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Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada
Michelle Good
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Bad Cree
Jessica Johns
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A Council of Dolls
Mona Susan Power

Nonfiction

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Tenacious Beasts: Wildlife Recoveries That Change How We Think about Animals
Christopher J. Preston
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Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada
Michelle Good
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The Girl Prince: Virginia Woolf, Race and the Dreadnought Hoax
Danell Jones

Poetry

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West of Town
Shirley Steele
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The Currency of His Light
Roy Beckemeyer
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Mumblecusser
Allen Morris Jones

Short Stories

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Shoot the Horses First
Leah Angstman
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This Is Salvaged
Vauhini Vara
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Men Behaving Badly
Tim O'Leary

Woman Writer

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Shoot the Horses First
Leah Angstman
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A Council of Dolls
Mona Susan Power
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A Sky Full of Song
Susan Lynn Meyer

Young Adult

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Bat Cave: A Fable of Epidemic Proportions (Critter Chronicles #2)
Scott Bischke
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As I Enfold You in Petals (Spirit of Denendeh Vol. 2)
Richard Van Camp, Scott B. Henderson (illustrator), Donovan Yaciuk (colorist)
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A Twist in Time
Janet Muirhead Hill

Past Finalists

2023

Art & Photography

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Montana Modernists: Shifting Perspectives of Western Art
Michele Corriel
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Montana Panoramic: Transparent in the Backlight
Photographs by Craig W. Hergert; Text by Shann Ray
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Conserving America’s Wildlands: The Vision of Ted Turner
Photographs by Rhett Turner; Text by Todd Wilkinson

Big Sky Award

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Montana Modernists: Shifting Perspectives of Western Art
Michele Corriel
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Montana: A Paper Trail
Thomas E. Minckler
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On a Benediction of Wind
Charles Finn (poetry) & Barbara Michelman (photography)

Children’s Middle Grade Book

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Thunderous
M. L. Smoker & Natalie Peeterse; Illustrations by Dale Ray DeForest
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Tenmile
Sandra Dallas
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If You Can Dream It You Can Do It
Colleen Nelson & Kathie MacIsaac; Illustrations by Scot Ritchie

Children’s Picture Book

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I Do Not Like the Rotten Egg Scent in Yellowstone National Park
Penelope Kaye
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Buddy: A Farm in the Forest Story
Jena Wagmann
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What If You Could?
Lynne Harley

Creative Nonfiction

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Otters Dance
Bob Budd
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Think Like a Horse: Lessons in Life, Leadership, and Empathy from an Unconventional Cowboy
Grant Golliher
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I Never Met a Rattlesnake I Didn’t Like: A Memoir
David Carpenter

Fiction

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Jameela Green Ruins Everything
Zarqa Nawaz
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The New Neighbor
Carter Wilson
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Hell and Back
Craig Johnson

First Book

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Crazy Mountain
Elise Atchison
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In Celebration
Dorothy Bradley
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A Pros and Cons List for Strong Feelings: A Graphic Memoir
Will Betke-Brunswick

Indigenous Writer

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Thunderous
M. L. Smoker & Natalie Peeterse; Illustrations by Dale Ray DeForest
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With Great Discretion
J. Hoolihan Clayton
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Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation
Andrew Stobo Sniderman & Douglas Sanderson

Nonfiction

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This America of Ours: Bernard and Avid DeVoto and the Forgotten Fight to Save the Wild
Nate Schweber
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Born of Lakes and Plains: Mixed-Descent Peoples and the Making of the American West
Anne F. Hyde
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Boys and Oil: Growing up Gay in a Fractured Land
Taylor Brorby

Poetry

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The Big Melt
Emily Riddle
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Puzzled
Ruth Maus
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Goodbye Yellowstone Road
Tom Vandel

Short Stories

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The Term Between
Brady Harrison
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Not the Apocalypse I Was Hoping
Leslie Greentree

Woman Writer

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White Horse
Erika T. Wurth
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The Apothecary’s Garden
Jeanette Lynes
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Black Umbrella
Katherine Lawrence

Young Adult

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Behind the Label: Gloria & Willa
Lorna Schultz Nicholson
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The Emir’s Falcon
Matt Hughes
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Ann of Sunflower Lane
Julie A. Sellers

2022

Art & Photography

Jon Lodge: Fracture
Jon Lodge (artist), Brandon Reintjes, & Gordon McConnell
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Bison: Portrait of an Icon
Audrey Hall and Chase Reynolds Ewald
George Carlson: The American West
Todd Wilkinson

Children's Book

The Undercover Book List
Colleen Nelson
The Mystery of the Giant Kohlrabi
Sharon Plumb
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Dear Peter, Dear Ulla
Barbara Nickel

Creative Nonfiction

We Are All Perfectly Fine: A Memoir of Love, Medicine, and Healing
Jillian Horton
Helmi's Shadow: A Journey of Survival from Russia to East Asia to the American West
David Horgan
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The Holly: Five Bullets, One Gun, and the Struggle to Save an American Neighborhood
Julian Rubinstein

Fiction

Daughter of the Morning Star
Craig Johnson
Let the Wild Grasses Grow
Kase Johnstun
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And It Will Be a Beautiful Life
Craig Lancaster

First Book

Commendable Discretion: A Detective Novel of the Old West
J. Hoolihan Clayton
Miraculous Sickness
ky perraun
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Black Snake: Standing Rock, the Dakota Access Pipeline, and Environmental Justice
Katherine Wiltenburg Todrys

Indigenous Writer

Kitotam
John Brady McDonald
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20.12m: A Short Story Collection of a Live Lived as a Road Allowance Metis
Arnolda Dufour Bowes
Standoff: Standing Rock, the Bundy Movement, and the American Story of Sacred Lands
Jacqueline Keeler

Medicine and Science

We Are All Perfectly Fine: A Memoir of Love, Medicine, and Healing
Jillian Horton
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Wild Rescues: A Paramedic’s Extreme Adventures in Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton
Kevin Grange
The Scenic Geology of Alberta: A Roadside Touring and Hiking Guide
Dale Leckie

Nonfiction

No One Dare Call Her a Liar
Larry Lee Kruckenberg
We Are All Perfectly Fine: A Memoir of Love, Medicine and Healing
Jillian Horton
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A History of Montana in 101 Objects
Kirby Lambert, Tom Ferris, and the Montana Historical Society

Poetry

awasis - kinky and disheveled
Louise B. Halfe-Sky Dancer
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The Track the Whales Make
Marjorie Saiser
No Way: An American Tao Te Ching
David Romtvedt

Short Stories

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Site Fidelity
Claire Boyles
The Broken World
Tom Vandel
What If We Were Somewhere Else
Wendy J. Fox

Woman Writer

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The Stone Sister
Caroline Patterson
The Call of the Last Frontier: The True Story of a Woman's Twenty-Year Alaska Adventure
Melissa Cook
Ancestors: Indigenous Peoples of Western Canada in Historic Photographs
Sarah Carter & Inez Lightning

Young Adult

When You Least Expect It
Lorna Schultz Nicholson
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Alone
Megan E. Freeman
The Life and Deaths of Frankie D.
Colleen Nelson

2021

Art & Photography

A Corner of Space and Time: Lee Nye's Eddie's Club Portraits
Jean Belangie-Nye, Aaron Teasdale, & Benjamin Ferencz
Borderlands
Mark Vitaris
The Indian’s Pony: From Bones to Bronze
Gerald Anthony Shippen

Big Sky Award

Shakespeare in Montana: Big Sky Country's Love Affair with the World's Most Famous Author
Gretchen E. Minton

Children's Book

Harvey Holds His Own
Colleen Nelson, Tara Anderson (illus.)
The Nighthawk's Harmonica: A Montana Roundup Story
Marcia Melton
On A Good Horse
Darby Karchut

Creative Nonfiction

The 10 Greatest Gifts We Give Each Other: A Memoir on the Magic of Marriage Vows
Barbara Lynn-Vannoy
Black Water: Family, Legacy, and Blood Memory
David A. Robertson
Cheatgrass Dreams
Theodore Waddell

Fiction

August
Callan Wink
Ruthie Fear
Maxim Loskutoff
In the Shadow of Dora: A Novel of the Holocaust and the Apollo Program
Patrick Hicks

First Book

The Big Quiet: One Woman's Horseback Ride Home
Lisa D. Stewart
The Response of Weeds
Bertrand Bickersteth
Winter Counts
David Heska Wanbli Weiden

Indigenous Writer

Winter Counts
David Heska Wanbli Weiden
Field Notes for the Self
Randy Lundy
Black Water: Family, Legacy, and Blood Memory
David A. Robertson

Medicine and Science

Roadside Geology of Montana: Second Edition
Donald W. Hyndman, Robert C. Thomas

Nonfiction

Shakespeare in Montana: Big Sky Country's Love Affair with the World's Most Famous Writer
Gretchen E. Minton
Taken by the Muse
Anne Wheeler
The Grizzly in the Driveway
Rob Chaney

Poetry

The Response of Weeds
Bertrand Bickersteth
The Bestiary
Dennis Cooley
Ghosts Still Linger
Kat Cameron

Short Stories

Vermin: Stories
Lori Hahnel
If Sylvie Had Nine Lives
Leona Theis
Dear Hearts
Barbara Miller Biles

Woman Writer

Second Wind
Patricia Frolander
Revery: A Year of Bees
Jenna Butler
The Historians
Cecilia Ekbäck

Young Adult

Dilly
Matthew P. Mayo
Opulence, Kansas
Julie Stielstra
Journeyman: The Story of NHL Right Winger Jamie Leach
Anna Rosner

2020

Art & Photography

The Arapaho Way: Continuity and Change on the Wind River Reservation
Sara Wiles
Truth and Beauty in the Canadian Rockies
Lisa Christensen
Victo Cicansky: The Gardener's Universe / L'univers d'un jardinier
Timothy Long & Julia Kreuger (eds)

Big Sky Award

Forever Neverland
Susan Adrian
Voices of Yellowstone's Capstone
Traute Parrie & Jesse Logan (eds)
The Cheyenne Story: An Interpretation of Courage
Gerry Robinson

Children's Book

Forever Neverland
Susan Adrian
Howl: A New Look at the Big Bad Wolf
Ted Rechlin
Major: A Soldier Dog
Trevor Jones

Creative Nonfiction

Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country
Pam Houston
Essential Yellowstone: A Landscape of Memory and Wonder
Michael J. Yochim
Encounters in Yellowstone: The Nez Perce Summer of 1877
M. Mark Miller

Fiction

The Healer's Daugher
Charlotte Hinger
Fall Back Down When I Die
Joe Wilkins
The Line Between
Tosca Lee

First Book

Reckless Steps Toward Sanity
Judith Sara Gelt
The Cheyenne Story: An Interpretation of Courage
Gerry Robinson
Earth to Charlie
Justin Olson

Indigenous Writer

Perception: A Photo Series
KC Adams
From the Ashes: My Story of Being Metis, Homeless, and Finding My Way
Jesse Thistle
The Red Chesterfield
Wayne Arthurson

Medicine and Science

Six Hundred Generations: An Archaeological History of Montana
Carl Davis
The Science of Why, Vol 4
Jay Ingram
Birds, Bones, and Beetles: The Improbable Career and Remarkable Legacy of University of Kansas Naturalist Charles D. Bunker
Charles H. Warner

Nonfiction

Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power
Pekka Hamalainen
Voices of Yellowston'e Capstone
Traute Parrie & Jesse Logan
One Size Fits None: A Farm Girl's Search for the Promise of Regenerative Agriculture
Stephanie Anderson

Poetry

St. Boniface Elegies
Catherine Hunter
Mercy
Shirley Camia
Wildernss//Kingdom
Jory Mickelsen

Short Stories

Not a Thing to Comfort You
Emily Wortman-Wunder
This. This. This. Is. Love. Love. Love.
Jennifer Wortman
Winning Chance
Katherine Koller

Woman Writer

Nighthawk Rising: A Biography of Accused Cattle Rustler Queen Ann Bassett of Brown's Peak
Diana Allen Kouris
Cold Metal Stairs
Su Croll
River People
Margaret Lukas

Young Adult

Qaqavii
Miriam Korner
Cold White Sun
Sue Farrell Holler
Spin
Colleen Nelson

2019

Art & Photography

Bert Riggall's Greater Waterton
Beth Towe
An Honest, Genial and Kindly People
Adrian K. Paton
Plains Indian Buffalo Cultures: Art from the Paul Dyck Collection
Emma I. Hansen
Albert Bierstadt: Witness to a Changing West
Dr. Peter H. Hassrick et. al.

Big Sky Award

Cloudbursts: Collected and New Stories
Thomas McGuane
Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption
Susan Devan Harness
The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life
David Quammen

Children's Book

Prison Paws: Max's Story
Donna Cochran
Double! Not Half
Rodney Gottula
My Buddy, Dido
Marion Mutala

Creative Nonfiction

West to Montana
Christine Wortman-Engren
Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption
Susan Devan Harness
Warblers and Woodpeckers: A Father-Son Big Year of Birding
Sneed B. Collard, III
Petting Tigers: My Life as a Witness of Jehovah
Shelley Smith Jones

Fiction

A Death in Eden
Keith McCafferty
The Flicker of Old Dreams
Susan Henderson
Go Ask Fannie
Elisabeth Hyde
The River by Starlight
Ellen Notbohm

First Book

Women Who Dig: Farming, Feminism and the Fight to Feed the World
Trina Moyles
Double! Not Half
Rodney Gottula
One-Sentence Journal: Short Poems and Essays from the World at Large
Chris La Tray

Indigenous Writer

One-Sentence Journal: Short Poems and Essays from the World at Large
Chris La Tray
Awasis and the World-Famous Bannock
Dallas Hunt
Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption
Susan Devan Harness

Medicine and Science

Ghostwalker: Tracking a Mountain Lion's Soul through Science and Story
Leslie Patten
Psychedelic Revolutionaries: LSD and the Birth of Hallucinogenic Research
Patrick W. Barber
The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life
David Quammen

Nonfiction

Wild Migrations: Atlas of Wyoming's Ungulates
Matthew J. Kauffman
Buffalo Heartbeats Across the Plains: The Last Great Hunts and Saving the Buffalo
Francie M. Berg
An African in Imperial London: The Indomitable Life of A. B. C. Merriman-Labor
Danell Jones

Poetry

All That Held Us
Henrietta Goodman
Heavy
Joy Brown
View From True North
Sara Henning
Blackbird Song
Randy Lundy

Short Stories

Come West and See
Maxim Loskutoff
Cloudbursts: Collected and New Stories
Thomas McGuane
Thorn-Field
James Trettwer

Woman Writer

Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption
Susan Devan Harness
Buried
Ruth Chorney
The Flicker of Old Dreams
Susan Henderson

Young Adult

Sadia
Colleen Nelson
Bronte's Thunder
Lucinda Stein
Wolfe in Shepherd's Clothing: A Shepherd & Wolfe Mystery
Angela Counios & David Gane

2018

Art & Photography

The Writing on the Wall: The Work of Joane Cardinal-Schubert
Lindsey V. Sharman
Islands of Grass
Trevor Herriot
Theodore Waddell: My Montana
Rick Newby

Children's Book

What I Saw in Grand Teton
Julie Gillum Lue
What I Saw in Glacier
Ellen Horowitz
Blue Corn Soup
Caroline Stutson

Creative Nonfiction

Homestead Soldiers
Bill Jones
Headlights on the Prairie: Essays on Home
Robert Rebein
A Darkness Lit by Heroes: The Granite Mountain- Speculator Mine Disaster of 1917
Doug Ammons

Fiction

Love and Other Consolation Prizes
Jamie Ford
The Widow Nash
Jamie Harrison
Days Without End
Sebastian Barry

First Book

Encountering Riel
David Orr
Bad Kansas
Becky L Mandelbaum
The Widow's Guide to Edible Mushrooms
Chauna Craig

Indigenous Writer

Strangers, Book 1, The Reckoner trilogy
David A Robertson
Metis Christmas Mittens
Leah Marie Dorion
Invisible Reality: Storytellers, Storytakers, and the Supernatural World of the Blackfeet
Rosalyn R. LaPier

Medicine and Science

Rocks, Ridges, and Rivers: Geological Wonders of Banff, Yoho, and Jasper National Parks
Dale Leckie
A Surgeon with Custer at the Little Big Horn: James DeWolf's Diary and Letters, 1876
Todd E. Harburn (editor)
The Patch: The People, Pipelines, and Politics of the Oil Sands
Chris Turner

Nonfiction

Wonderlandscape: Yellowstone National Park and the Evolution of an American Cultural Icon
John Clayton
Frank Little and the IWW: The Blood That Stained an American Family
Jane Little Botkin
The Patch: The People, Pipelines, and Politics of the Oil Sands
Chris Turner

Poetry

Throwing the Diamond Hitch
Emily Ursuliak
Hose and Iron: Selected Poems
Greg Kuzma
The Bunch Grass Motel: The Collected Poems of Randall Gloege
Randall Gloege

Short Stories

The Widow's Guide to Edible Mushrooms
Chauna Craig
What We Build Upon the Ruins
Giano L Cromley
Maple & Lead
Aaron Parrett

Woman Writer

Follow Me Down
Sherri Smith
Pemmican Wars, Vol 1, A Girl Called Echo
Katherena Vermette
The Last Chance Ladies' Book Club
Marlis Wesseler

Young Adult

Strangers, Book 1, The Reckoner trilogy
David A Robertson
Stranded: A Story of Frontier Survival
Matthew P. Mayo
Blood Brothers
Colleen Nelson

2017

Art & Photography

Frederic Remington: A Catalogue Raisonne II
Peter Hassrick
Wild Harmony of Glacier National Park
Sumio Harada
Yellowstone Forever: A Decade in Yellowstone National Park
Stephen C. Hinch

Children's Book

Bears
Ted Rechlin
The Most Important Thing: Stories About Sons, Fathers, and Grandfathers
Avi
Runs With Courage
Joan Wolf

Creative Nonfiction

Temperance Creek
Pamela Royes
Happiness is a Rare Bird
Gene Walz
North of Crazy: A Memoir
Neltje

Fiction

As Good As Gone
Larry Watson
The Bones of Paradise
Jonis Agee
An Obvious Fact
Craig Johnson

First Book

Hurt People
Cote Smith
The Waiting Place
Sharron Arksey
Riversong
Alice Colton
Improbable Fortunes
Jeffrey Price

Indigenous Writer

Will I See?
David A. Robertson
Traitors of Camp 133, The
Wayne Arthurson
Burning in This Midnight Dream
Louise Halfe

Medicine and Science

Hopping Ahead of Climate Change: Snowshoe Hares, Science, and Survival
Sneed B. Collard III
Vulnerability and Adaptation to Drout: The Canadian Prairies and South America
Henry Diaz, Margot Hurlbert & Jim Warren
Unearthing Paradise: Montana Writers in Defense of Greater Yellowstone
Marc Beaudin, Max Hjortsberg and Seabring Davis, eds

Nonfiction

The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero
Timothy Egan
A Week in Yellowstone's Thorofare: A Journey Through the Remotest Place
Michael Yochim
Blood on the Marias: The Baker Massacre
Paul Wylie

Poetry

It's As Good Here As It Gets Anywhere
Greg Kosmicki
Poems Across the Big Sky II
Lowell Jaeger
On Not Losing My Father's Ashes in the Flood
Richard Harrison

Short Stories

All I Want Is What You've Got
Glen Chamberlain
Madagascar: New and Selected Stories
Steven Schwartz
For a Little While
Rick Bass

Woman Writer

Mortal Fall
Christine Carbo
The Waiting Place
Sharron Arksey
Convictions
Judith Silverthorne

Young Adult

Along Comes a Wolfe: A Shepherd & Wolfe Mystery
Angela Counios
The Pain Eater
Beth Goobie
And Then the Sky Exploded
David A. Poulsen

2016

Art & Photography

Grizzlies of Pilgrim Creek
Thomas D. Mangelsen/ Todd Wilkinson
Honouring the Buffalo: A Plains Cree Legend
Judith Silverthorne
Wyoming Grasslands
Frank H. Goodyear, Charles R. Preston

Children's Book

Cub's Journey Home
Georgia Graham
Honouring the Buffalo: A Plains Cree Legend
Judith Silverthorne
Fire Birds: Valuing Natural Wildfires and Burned Forests
Sneed B. Collard III

Creative Nonfiction

Canoeing the Great Plains
Patrick Dobson
Betty: The Helen Betty Osborne Story
David Alexander Robertson
Profession of Hope: Farming on the Edge of the Grizzly Trail, A
Jenna Butler

Fiction

Crazy Mountain Kiss
Keith McCafferty
This Is What I Want
Craig Lancaster
Madder Carmine
Tyler Enfield
American Copper
Shann Ray

First Book

The Wild Inside
Christine Carbo
The Bookseller
Cynthia Swanson
The Actor
Beth Hunter McHugh

Medicine and Science

Glacier National Park After Dark
John Ashley
Health of the Seventh Cavalry: A Medical History
P. Willey, Douglas D. Scott
Grizzlies of Pilgrim Creek
Thomas D. Mangelsen/ Todd Wilkinson

Nonfiction

Fire Birds: Valuing Natural Wildfires and Burned Forests
Sneed B. Collard III
Warrior in the Ring
Brian D'Ambrosio
Colorado: A Historical Atlas
Thomas J. Noel
Cowboy Legend, The
John Jennings

Poetry

Why I Returne to Makoce
Lois Red Elk
Days Run Away, The
Robert Currie
Red Canyon Falling on Churches
Juliana Aragon Fatula
Report to the Department of the Interior
Diane Glancy

Short Stories

Collector of Names, The
Patrick Hicks
Deer Walking Upside Down, The
Jerry McGahan
Far Enough: A Western in Fragments
Joe Wilkins

Woman Writer

The Actor
Beth Hunter McHugh
Wolf Winter
Cecilia Ekback
Liberty Street
Dianne Warren
After Light
Catherine Hunter

Young Adult

Three Feathers
Richard Van Camp
Blanket of Butterflies, A
Richard Van Camp
Am I the Only One? Struggling Being a Teen
Treena Wynes

2015

Art & Photography

In the Alley/Dans la ruelle
Dave Margoshes (editor), Donald Kerr & Timothy Long (contributors)
Charles M. Russell: Photographing the Legend
Larry Len Peterson
Crown of the Continent: The Wildest Rockies
Steven Gnam
Jennifer Bottomly O'looney and Kirby Lambert
Montana's Charlie Russell: Art in the Collection of the Montana Historical Society

Children's Book

Do Trees Sneeze?
Jean Freeman
Red Berries, White Clouds, Blue Sky
Sandra Dallas
Back to Batoche
Cheryl Chad

Culinary

A Taste of Montana: Favorite Recipes from Big Sky Country
Seabring Davis
Gatherings: Friends and Recipes from Montana's Mustang Kitchen
Carole Sullivan
Out of Old Saskatchewan Kitchens
Amy Jo Ehman

Fiction

The Home Place
Carrie La Seur
Stars Go Blue
Laura Pritchett
Any Other Name
Craig Johnson

First Book

Altitude Adjustment: A Quest for Love, Home, and Meaning in the Tetons
Mary Beth Baptiste
Badluck Way
Bryce Andrews
Montana State Parks: Complete Guide and Travel Companion
Kristen Inbody and Erin Madison

Nonfiction

Montana 1864: Indians, Emigrants, and Gold in the Territorial Year
Ken Egan Jr.
American Carnage: Wounded Knee, 1890
Jerome A. Greene
The Horse Lover: A Cowboy's Quest to Save the Wild Mustangs
H. Alan Day and Lynn Wiese Sneyd
Badluck Way
Bryce Andrews

Poetry

Splitting an Order
Ted Kooser
Slant Six
Erin Belieu
Balefire
Shann Ray

Short Stories

God Telling a Joke and other stories
Dave Margoshes
The Widow Smalls and Other Stories
Jamie Lisa Forbes
I am Currently Working on a Novel
Rolli (Charles Anderson)

Woman Writer

The Ogallala Road: A Memoir of Love and Reckoning
Julene Bair
The Home Place
Carrie La Seur
Somebody Stole My Iron: A Family Memoir of Dementia
Vicki Tapia

Young Adult

Harry Potter and the Art of Spying
Lynn Boughey & Peter Earnest
Queen of Fire
Regine Haensel
Camp Outlook
Brenda Baker

2014

Art & Photography

Karl Bodmer's America Revisited
W. R. Wood & R. M. Lindholm
North Dakota Unforgettable
Chuck Haney
A President in Yellowstone
Frank H. Goodyear III
This Place, These People
David Stark and Nancy Warner

Children's Book

Leaving Mr. Humphries
Alison Lohans
Baba's Babushka: A Magical Ukrainian Wedding
Marion Mutala
Who Pooped in the Cascades?
Gary D. Robson

Fiction

High and Inside
Russell Rowland
Songs of Willow Frost
Jamie Ford
Let Him Go
Larry Watson

First Book

Wounded
Barbara Joyce-Hawryluk
Montana
Gwen Florio
The Last Good Halloween
Giano Cromley

Medicine and Science

Manitoba Butterflies: A Field Guide
Simone Hebert Allard
In the Shadow of the Sabertooth: A Renegade Naturalist Considers Global Warming, the First Americans and the Terrible Beasts of the Pleistocene
Doug Peacock

Nonfiction

Shooting Arrows and Slinging Mud
James E. Mueller
Traveling the Power Line: From the Mojave Desert to the Bay of Fundy
Julianne Couch
Rough Breaks: A Wyoming High Country Memoir
Laurie Wagner Buyer

Poetry

Grey Dog Big Sky
Sheryl Noethe
Saving Singletrees
Leo Dangel
To Love That Well: New & Selected Poems 1954 - 2013
Robert Pack

Short Stories

You Haven't Changed a Bit
Astrid Blodgett
Cowboys and East Indians
Nina McConigley
Little Raw Souls
Steven Schwartz

Woman Writer

Clearwater
Kim McCullough
Meadowlark: A Novel
Dawn Wink
The Wittenbergs
Sarah Klassen
Wounded
Barbara Joyce-Hawryluk

Young Adult

Black Helicopters
Blythe Woolston
The Throne
Beth Goobie
The Ehrich Weisz Chronicles: Demon Gate
Marty Chan

2013

Art & Photography

North American Journals of Prince Maximilian of Wied
Marsha V. Gallagher, editor
Montana: Real Place, Real People
Alan Kesselheim & Thomas Lee
The Diamond Willow Walking Stick: A Traditional Métis Story About Generosity
Leah Marie Dorion

Culinary

Celebrating Home: A Handbook for Gracious Living
Christy Rost (text) and Rock Souders (photo)
Foodshed: An Edible Alberta Alphabet
Dee Hobsbawn-Smith
Food for the Gods
Karen Dudley

Fiction

Canada
Richard Ford
The Royal Wulff Murders
Keith McCafferty
The Round House
Louise Erdrich

First Book

The Boarding House
Marcia Melton
The Anatomy of Edouard Beaupre
Sarah Kathryn York
Fobbit
David Abrams
The Boys of Company K
Lee Cullimore

Nonfiction

Visions and Voices: Montana's One-Room Schoolhouses
Charlotte Caldwell
Deliverance From the Little Big Horn
Joan Nabseth Stevenson
Wagons East
Victoria Taylor
Let Them Paddle
Alan Kesselheim

Poetry

Nakoda Sky People
Minerva Allen
Notes from the Journey Westward
Joe Wilkins
I See My Love More Clearly From a Distance
Nora Gould

Short Stories

What You Get at Home
Dora Dueck
Dominant Traits
Eric Freeze
Western Taxidermy
Barb Howard

Woman Writer

The Miseducation of Cameron Post
Emily Danforth
Blood and Salt
Barbara Sapergia
Deliverance From the Little Big Horn
Joan Nabseth Stevenson

Young Adult

The Miseducation of Cameron Post
Emily Danforth
Dead Girl Moon
Charlie Price
Outcasts of River Falls
Jacqueline Guest

2012

Art & Photography

Arapaho Journeys: Photographs and Stories from the Wind River Reservation
Sara Wiles
Relatives with Roots: A Story about Metis Women's Connection to the Land
Leah Marie Dorion
Fra Dana: American Impressionest in the Rockies
Valerie Hedquist & Sue Hart
Hand Raised: The Barns of Montana
Chere Jiusto & Christine W. Brown

Emeritus

Thomas McGuane

Fiction

The Ringer
Jenny Shank
Liberty Lanes
Robin Troy
Kings of Colorado
David E. Hilton

First Book

The Big Sky, By and By
Ed Kemmick
American Masculine
Shann Ray
Rim Haven
Lynne Montague
Kings of Colorado
David E. Hilton

Nonfiction

The Boy
Betty Jane Hegerat
Honyocker Dreams: Montana Memories
David Mogen
Hand Raised: The Barns of Montana
Chere Jiusto & Chistine W. Brown

Poetry

Songs of Unreason
Jim Harrison
Killing the Murnion Dogs
Joe Wilkins
Dirt Songs: A Plains Duet
Twyla M. Hansen & Linda M. Hasselstrom

Short Stories

Quantum Physics and the Art of Departure
Craig Lancaster
American Masculine
Shann Ray

Woman Writer

Racing Home
Adele Dueck
Married Into It
Patricia Frolander
Wanton West: Madams, Money, Murder, and the Wild Women of Montana's Frontier
Lael Morgan

2011

Art & Photography

Visions of the Big Sky
Dan Flores
In Poetic Silence: The Floral Paintings of Joseph Henry Sharp
Thomas Minckler
L Is for Land of Living Skies: A Saskatchewan Alphabet
Linda Aksomitis

Emeritus

Larry Woiwode

Fiction

The Scent of Rain and Lightning
Nancy Pickard
Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives
Brad Watson
Ghosts of Wyoming
Alison Hagy

First Book

Bound Like Grass: A Memoir of the Western High Plains
Ruth McLaughlin
In Poetic Silence: The Floral Paintings of Joseph H. Sharp
Thomas Minckler
Prairie Feast: A Writer's Journey Home for Dinner
Amy Jo Ehman

Nonfiction

The World Famous Miles City Bucking Horse Sale
Sneed B. Collard III
Buffalo Bill: Scout, Showman, Visionary
Steve Friesen
Bloodshed at Little Bighorn: Sitting Bull, Custer and the Destinies of Nations
Tim Lehman
Prairie Feast: A Writer's Journey Home for Dinner
Amy Jo Ehman

Poetry

Horse Tracks
Henry Real Bird
New Poets of the American West
Lowell Jaeger (ed.)
A Harvest of Words: Contemporary South Dakota Poetry
Patrick Hicks

Woman Writer

Goodbye Wifes and Daughters
Susan Kushner Resnick
Dakota, or What's a Heaven For
Brenda K. Marshall
Cool Water
Dianne Warren

2010

Emeritus

Margaret Coel

Fiction

Twisted Tree
Kent Myers
Euphoria
Connie Gault
Spoon
Robert Greer

First Book

600 Hours of Edward
Craig Lancaster
Seldom Seen: A Journey into the Great Plains
Patrick Dobson
Heavy Burdens on Small Shoulders: The Labour of Pioneer Children on the Canadian Prairies
Sandra Rollings-Magnusson

Nonfiction

Lights on a Ground of Darkness
Ted Kooser
Lanterns on the Prairie: The Blackfeet Photographs of Walter McClintock
Steven L. Grafe (ed)
Montana Place Names from Alzada to Zortman: A Montana Historical Society Guide
Rich Aarstad, Allie Arguimbau, Ellen Baumler, Charlene Porslid, & Brian Shovers
Faces of the Frontier: Photographic Portraits from the American West, 1845-1924
Frank Goodyear

Poetry

Holding Everything Down
William Notter
I Go to the Ruined Place: Contemporary Poems in Defense of Global Human Rights
Melissa Kwasny & M. L. Smoker (eds)
A Random Census of Souls: Prose Poems
Samuel Western

Woman Writer

Riding the Edge of an Era: Growing Up Cowboy on the Outlaw Trail
Diana Allen Kouris
No Place Like Home
Linda Hasselstrom
Border to Border: Historic Quilts and Quiltmakers of Montana
Annie Hanshew

2009

Emeritus

Louise Erdrich

Fiction

Another Man's Moccasins
Craig Johnson
So Brave, Young and Handsome
Leif Enger
Kyleah's Tree
Janet Muirhead Hill

First Book

Sherlock Holmes: The Montana Chronicles
John S. Fitzpatrick
Wind River Country: Hiddern Heart of Wyoming
Bayard Fox
Horses that Buck: The Story of Champion Bronc Rider Bill Smith
Margot Kahn

Nonfiction

The Wide Open: Prose, Poetry, and Photographs of the Prairie
Annick Smith & Susan O'Connor (eds)
In Contemporary Rhythm: The Art of Ernest L. Blumenschein
Peter H. Hassrick & Elizabeth J. Cunningham
Legacy of Stone: Saskatchewan's Stone Buildings
Margaret Hyrniuk, Frank Korvemaker, and Larry Easton

Poetry

The Baseball Field at Night
Patricia Goedicke
Prairie Kaddish
Isa Milman
Made Flesh
Craig Arnold

Woman Writer

The Wide Open: Prose, Poetry, and Photographs of the Prairie
Annick Smith & Susan O'Connor (eds)
Horses that Buck: The Story of Champion Bronc Rider Bill Smith
Margot Kahn
Road Map to Holland
Jennifer Graf Groneberg

2008

Emeritus

Gary Ferguson

Fiction

Shallow Grave
Lori G. Armstrong
The Watershed Years
Russell Rowland
A Feast of Longing
Sarah Klassen

First Book

Migration Patterns: Stories
Gary Schanbacher
Turpentine
Spring Warren
Where the Rivers Run North
Sam Morton

Nonfiction

Boxing for Cuba
Guillermo Vincente Vidal
Gall: Lakota War Chief
Robert W. Larson
One Woman's Montana
Kathe LaSage
This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor
Susan Wicklund & Alan Kesselheim
Charles M. Russell: A Catalogue Raisonne
B. Byron Price (ed)

2007

Best Book

Indians and Emigrants: Encounters on the Overland Trails
Michael L. Tate
Horses They Rode
Sid Gustafson
Cowboy Girl: The Life of Carolyn Lockhart
John Clayton
The Boy Who Invented Skiing: A Memoir
Swain Wolfe

Emeritus

Larry Watson

First Book

One Night in a Bad Inn
Christy Leskovar
Copper Chorus: Mining, Politics, and the Montana Press, 1889-1959
Dennis L. Swibold
Jay Cooke's Gamble: The Northern Pacific Railroad, the Sioux, and the Panic of 1873
M. John Lubetkin