Another year, another reading challenge! “The WILLA Literary Awards honor the best in literature, featuring women’s or girls’ stories set in the West that are published each year…The award is named in honor of Pulitzer Prize winner Willa Cather, one of the country’s foremost novelists.” In August 2022, I decided that I would like to read the last six years of award winners (2016-2021) in the Historical Fiction and Contemporary Fiction categories. Here’s what I’ve read so far:
HISTORICAL FICTION WINNERS
- 2021 // Wild Rivers, Wild Rose by Sarah Birdsall
- 2020 // The Glovemaker by Ann Weisgarber (read in September 2021)
- 2019 // The Which Way Tree by Elizabeth Crook
- 2018 // Stranded by Matthew P. Mayo
- 2017 // Basque Moon by Julie Whitesel Weston
- 2016 // The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson (read in December 2021)
CONTEMPORARY FICTION WINNERS
- 2021 // Hanging Falls: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery by Margaret Mizushima
- 2020 // The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal (read in August 2021)
- 2019 // The Flicker of Old Dreams by Susan Henderson (read in August 2022)
- 2018 // Zetty by Debra Whiting Alexander (read in March 2024)
- 2017 // Piano Tide by Kathleen Dean Moore
- 2016 // Firebreak by Tricia Fields
