About the Awards

The Reading the West Book Awards are sponsored and promoted by the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association. The awards honor the best fiction, non-fiction, and illustrated books for adults and children set in one of the states, or created by an author or artist living or working in the region. The awards, given to books published in the previous calendar year, celebrate the rich variety of writing in and about this region, and reflect the extraordinary diversity of the reading public.

• Each year’s awards celebrate books published in the prior calendar year.
• A long-list is created from all titles nominated by publishers and authors.
• Reading the West Book Award reading committees, made up of regional booksellers, read the nominated titles to create shortlists of titles per award category.
• Category winners are determined by bookseller and public voting.
• Winners are announced at a live event in the spring.