This year 226 books were submitted for consideration in the 36th Annual Reading the West Book Awards. Independent booksellers across fourteen states read and reviewed all the books to choose their favorites. Now the Mountain and Plains Independent Booksellers are asking the public to help select the best of the best! Scroll through or click on the categories to see the shortlist titles. Cast your ballot by May 31, 2026. Winners will be announced June 11, 2026.
With links provided to the DPL catalog, the categories and shortlisted titles are:
Adult Fiction
The Devil is a Southpaw by Brandon Hobson
Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
Tantrum by Rachel Eve Moulton
Lone Dog Road by Kent Nerburn
Indian Country by Shobha Rao
Debut Adult Fiction
Welcome to Cottonmouth by Jay S. Bell
Crown by Evanthia Bromiley
The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff
Penitence by Kristin Koval
Her Soul for a Crown by Alysha Rameera
Poetry
Time and Chance by Katharine Coles
Bitter Creek: an Epic Poem by Teow Lim Goh
Blue Corn Tongue by Amber McCrary
Dream of the Bird Tattoo by Juan J. Morales
Your Mother's Bear Gun by Corrie Williamson
Nonfiction
The Wild Dark: Finding the Night Sky in the Age of Light by Craig Childs
The River's Daughter by Bridget Crocker
The Crazies: the Cattleman, the Wind Prospector, and a War Out West by Amy Gamerman
The Way Out: a True Story of Survival in the Heart of the Rockies by Devon O'Neil
The Girl in the Middle: a Recovered History of the American West by Martha A Sandweiss
Memoir/Biography
The Mountain Knows the Mountain by Philip Connors
A Boy's Journal of Survival and Resilience by D. Esperanza and Gerardo Ivan Morales
Articulate: a Deaf Memoir of Voice by Rachel Kolb
Delusions + Grandeur: Dreamers of the New West by Mark Sundeen
The Way Around: a Field Guide to Going Nowhere by Nicholas Triolo
Picture Books
The Old Sleigh by Jarrett Pumphrey and Jerome Pumphrey
Painting Wonder: How Pauline Baynes Illustrated the Worlds of C. S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien by Katie Wray Schon
Heartfelt by Elaine Vickers, illustrated by Samantha Cotterill
Bitsy Bat, Team Star by Kaz Windness
So Many Years, a Juneteenth Story by Anne Wynter, illustrated by Jerome Pumphrey
Young Readers
The Beat I Drum by Dusti Bowling
Away by Megan E. Freeman
Three Blue Hearts by Lynne Kelly
The Free State of Jax by Jennifer A. Nielsen
Will's Race for Home by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Young Adult
Eliza, from Scratch by Sophia Lee
Reasons to Hate Me by Susan Metallo
When We Ride by Rex Ogle
Fake Skating by Lynn Painter
Legendary Frybread Drive-in by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Remember to cast your ballot by May 31, 2026. Winners will be announced June 11, 2026.
