Western American Literature

Thomas J. Lyon Book Award

To honor outstanding single-author scholarly books on the literature and culture of the North American West, the Western Literature Association presidents invite nominations for the annual Thomas J. Lyon Book Award.

To qualify a book must have a 2020 publication date and be a single-authored, book-length study on the literature and culture of the North American West. Please find information about the procedure to nominate a book on our website: <http://www.westernlit.org/thomas-j-lyon-book-award-in-western-american-literary-and-cultural-studies/>.

Deadline for nominations: June 1, 2021.

Don D. Walker Prize

The Don D. Walker prize is given annually to the best essay published on western American literature during the previous calendar year. "Western" in this context is defined broadly and refers to all of North America that historically or critically has been considered "West" as well as to comparative studies of the American West that cross regional or national boundaries.

The Western Literature Association invites nominations from presses and journals as well as from individuals. Self-nominations are accepted. Please find more information at <http://www.westernlit.org/don-d-walker-prize/>.

Deadline for nominations: June 1, 2021.

The Louis Owens Awards for Graduate Student Presenters at the WLA Conference

The WLA honors the great writer and scholar Louis Owens for his contributions to western American and American Indian literary studies and for his unfailing generosity as a colleague, teacher, and mentor. The goal of the Louis Owens Awards is to build for the future of the Western Literature Association by modeling Owens's own support and encouragement of diverse graduate student engagement in western literature and culture studies.

The Owens Awards are intended to foster ever-greater diversity within the WLA membership, to help broaden the field of western American literary studies, and to recognize both graduate student scholarship and financial need. Although there will not be an official conference in 2021, and so graduate students will not be able to present this year, the WLA is developing an alternative model for the award.

Check the website for updated details: <http://www.westernlit.org/the-louis-owens-awards-for-graduate-student-presenters-at-wla-conferences/>. [End Page 407]

Congratulations to Our 2020 WLA Award Recipients

Distinguished Achievement Award
For an influential scholar or creative writer in Western American literature

Stephen Graham Jones and Juan Felipe Herrera

Delbert & Edith Wylder Award
For outstanding service to the Association

Nicolas S. Witschi (Western Michigan University)

Thomas J. Lyon Book Award
For the most outstanding book published in 2019 in Western American literary and cultural studies

Cathryn Halverson for Faraway Women and the Atlantic Monthly published by the University of Massachusetts Press

Don D. Walker Prize
For best essay published in Western American literary studies in 2019

Emily Lutenski for "Dickens Disappeared: Black Los Angeles and the Borderlands of Racial Memory" published in American Studies, vol. 58, no. 3

Creative Writing Award
For the best creative writing submission to the conference

Raul B. Moreno for "The Land of Infinite Variety: Transmigration and the Fictional Essay"

J. Golden Taylor Award
For the best essay submitted to the WLA conference by a graduate student

Surabhi Balachander for "Border-Collapsers: Globalization and Anthropocene Assemblage in the Work of Juan Felipe Herrera" [End Page 408]

Dorys Crow Grover Awards
For outstanding papers presented at the conference by graduate students who contribute to our critical understandings of region, place, and space in Western American literatures

Sarah Emily Nolan (University of Southern California) for "Building Indigenous Worlds in Arigon Starr's 'Ue-Pucases: Water Master'" and Renee Lorraine Sprinkle (West Texas A&M University) for "An Ecofeminist Re-Reading: Zane Grey's The Thundering Herd" [End Page 409]

56th Western Literature Association Conference

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Due to the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, the Western Literature Association has reluctantly decided to postpone the 2021 conference. Instead, we expect to gather in Santa Fe in 2022. In the meantime we will be organizing alternative digital events...