Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool: Reading the West Edition

This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool. 

I have written about this many times over the last few years, and it came up again when I was doing an in person training in Florida a few weeks ago-- Westerns are popular right now. A gentleman in the audience who drives a bookmobile wanted to talk about it. I whole heartedly agreed with him. We talked about the appeal of westerns and how the entire genre has evolved with the reading landscape.

As I recently wrote about the popularity of Western with all readers in this piece for The Lineup:

Up until recently, in order to be called a "Western" a book needed to be about the expansion of the West—and the men who “tamed” it. It also had to be set from after the Civil War to the turn of the 20th Century.

Okay, before I go any further, you can see right away why there is a problem with this definition—mostly white men, very strict time frame, and limited scope. 

But there are other things that are appealing about Westerns that many readers love and that this genre always got 100% right. For example, the rich descriptions of the beautiful landscape and the plots which place the characters in a morality play (with) revenge and redemption…at the center. These appeals are not unique to the West but they are things about the genre that fans also adore. 

This renewed interest in Westerns uses these basic appeal factors and a broad definition of "The West" as a place, but not always in those former strict time constraints. These are stories of the West that add in something else, like another genre, a darker tone…or are just plain "weird." They can now also be set anytime as long as "The West" as a place features prominently.” 

This popularity has only increased in the seven years since I first wrote that post, culminating most recently with Lone Women by Victor LaValle, a Weird Western, showing up on best lists from Library Journal to Book Page and as a nominee for awards like the Bram Stoker Award and the LA Times Book Prize.  

That piece was about Weird Westerns in particular, but they are but one subset of the types of Westerns drawing readers in these days. 

The biggest takeaway you need to understand about today's westerns is that they are about "The West" as a place, and, even more importantly, titles by Black, Hispanic, and Native authors are being included in the conversation-- as they should because these humans were a crucial part of the Western in its more restricted definition-- both in that real historic timeframe and in the fiction written about it, but they never had a chance to share their voices. 

One of my favorite places to find Westerns for today's readers is the group Reading the West and in particular, their awards. First, here is their mission statement (bottom of every page):

Reading the West was conceived to celebrate the diversity, courage, tenacity, expertise, and indie spirit of the bookstores in the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association. Our goal is to bring bookstores, books, and readers together, to promote the best of our regional authors and stories, and to feature the passionate recommendations of our booksellers.

For the past few years, they have been loud about the changing landscape of the Western (pun intended), and they show this in their awards. Recently, they announced their 34th Annual Shortlist here.

Here is a screen shot of the Fiction and Debut Fiction categories that links to that page too. It is diverse in who is writing these stories and also, what genres they are also crossing over with.

They have categories for young people (all ages), poetry, and nonfiction as well.

You can access all past winners here.

My only complaint about this award is that they do not have a database of the shortlist titles, but they do have that easy access to every year's winners. A quick perusal of titles that won 10 years ago through today, illustrates the evolution of the Western from a dying genre to an inclusive place for books about "The West" to be appreciated and celebrated. 

So get on the Western wagon train (again, pun intended) and embrace its popularity by suggesting books the represent "The West."