Coyote wins Elmer Kelton Book Award

The Coyote Tracker has won the 2013 Elmer Kelton Book Award , presented by the Academy of Western Artists (AWA).  The winning novel, The Coyote Tracker, is the fifth book in the Josiah Wolfe series (Berkley).  The Josiah Wolfe series has garnered several previous awards including the 2013 WWA Spur Award, back-to-back wins of the Will Rogers Medallion Award for Western fiction (2011 & 2012), and the Best Book of Indiana award in 2011.

The Academy of Western Artists (AWA) was founded in 1996 to promote the contemporary western art movement.  Awards are presented to western artists each year in categories such as bitmaking, saddlemakers, and spurmakers.  This is the first year the AWA has presented the Elmer Kelton Book Award to honor western fiction and non-fiction authors. Named after the late western writer, Elmer Kelton (1926-2009), winner of seven Spur awards and voted Best Western Writer of All Time, the AWA award recognizes writers who reflect Kelton’s high quality of writing in both categories.  The New York Times said of Kelton, "One of the best of a new breed of Western writers who have driven the genre into new territory.”  The Elmer Kelton Book Award will be presented annually at the Will Rogers Award ceremony in Irving, Texas. 

 

In The Coyote Tracker, fictional Texas Ranger, Josiah Wolfe must save his friend, and fellow Ranger, Scrap Elliot from the hangman’s noose for a crime that he did not commit.  Set in 1875 Austin, Texas, Wolfe must navigate a bustling city full of deception and intrigue, in search of answers that plenty of people don’t want answered.  Western and mystery elements contribute to the novel’s broad appeal. The Josiah Wolfe series concluded with the publication of The Gila Wars in May, 2013. A new Western series is set for release August, 2014, and a new mystery will arrive on bookshelves in 2015.