Historic Induction Scheduled For Western Writers Hall of Fame

LUBBOCK, Texas, June 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Win Blevins, this year's Owen Wister Award honoree from Western Writers of America, joins a class of distinguished writers who will become the first living authors to enter the Western Writers Hall of Fame.

Last year, the board of directors that oversees the Western Writers Hall of Fame voted to induct the Owen Wister Award recipient into the Hall of Fame, housed at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming. The Wister and its previous incarnation, the Saddleman Award, honor lifetime achievement for writing about the West. Previously, writers had to be dead at least 10 years to be eligible for induction.

The induction ceremony is scheduled for June 26 at the National Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock during WWA's annual convention.

Blevins is best known for his mountain-man classic "Give Your Heart to the Hawks" and his Spur Award-winning novel of Crazy Horse, "Stone Song." His newest book is "The Darkness Rolling," which he co-wrote with his wife, Meredith Blevins.

Among this year's other Hall of Fame inductees are Judy Alter, Matt Braun, James A. Crutchfield, David Dary, Max Evans, Andrew J. Fenady, John Jakes, Leon C. Metz, N. Scott Momaday, Robert M. Utley, Dale L. Walker, Richard S. Wheeler and Jeanne Williams, all previously recognized by WWA with either a Saddleman Award or a Wister.

Also included in this year's list of inductees are non-writers John Wayne, John Ford and Clint Eastwood.

Recently deceased Wister or Saddleman honorees not already in the Hall of Fame, including Robert J. Conley, Fred Grove, Tony Hillerman, Elmer Kelton, David Lavender, Jory Sherman and Norman Zollinger, will be posthumously inducted, along with Edward Abbey, who was voted into the Hall of Fame this year by WWA's membership.

Other writers being recognized this year are S. Omar Barker, Bill Gulick, Dee Brown, Alvin Josephy Jr., Benjamin Capps, Jose Cisneros, Tom Lea, Elmore Leonard, Nelson Nye, Gordon Shirreffs and Don Worcester.

Previously inducted Hall of Fame members include Andy Adams, Eve Ball, Willa Cather, Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain), Bernard DeVoto, J. Frank Dobie, Edna Ferber, Will Henry, Helen Hunt Jackson, Jack Schaefer, Wallace Stegner, John Steinbeck and Laura Ingalls Wilder.

For more information, log on to www.WesternWriters.org.

SOURCE Western Writers of America

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