Owen Wister Award recipient
For Lifetime Contributions to Western Literature and Western Writers Hall of Fame inductee, 2020

2011 Distinguished Alumnus
University of South Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communications, 2011

Spur Award Winner
Best Western Original Mass-Market Paperback Novel: “A Thousand Texas Longhorns,” 2021

Spur Award Winner
Best Western Juvenile Fiction: “Taos Lightning,” 2018

Spur Award Winner
Best Western Original Mass-Market Paperback Novel: “Return to Red River,” 2017

Spur Award Winner
Best Western Short Novel: “Legacy of a Lawman,” 2012

Spur Award Winner
Best Western Original Mass Market Paperback Novel “West Texas Kill,” 2012

Spur Award Winner
Best Western Juvenile Fiction “Hard Winter,” 2010

Spur Award Winner
Best Western Juvenile Fiction “Doubtful Cañon,” 2008

Spur Award Winner
Best Western Novel “Camp Ford,” 2006

Spur Award Winner
Best Western Short Story: “A Piano at Dead Man’s Crossing,” 2002

Western Heritage Wrangler Award winner
Outstanding Western Novel of 2003, “Spark on the Prairie: The Trial of the Kiowa Chiefs,” 2004

Spur Award Finalist
Best Western Short Story: “The Cobbler of Spanish Fort,” 2023

Spur Award Finalist
Best Western Short Story: “Legend,” 2020

Spur Award Finalist
Best Western Short Story: “The San Angela Stump Match of 1876,” 2018

Spur Award Finalist
Best Western Short Story: “Comanche Camp at Dawn,” 2017

Spur Award Finalist
Best Western Short Story: “Umpire Colt,” 2017

Spur Award Finalist
Best Western Juvenile Fiction: “Poison Spring,” 2015

Spur Award Finalist
Best Western Juvenile Fiction: “Summer of the Star,” 2014

Spur Award Finalist
Best Western Historical Novel: “Greasy Grass: A Story of the Little Big Horn,” 2014

Spur Award Finalist
Best Western Juvenile Fiction: “And There I’ll Be a Soldier,” 2013

Spur Award Finalist
Best Western Juvenile Fiction: “South by Southwest,” 2012

Spur Award Finalist
Best Western Short Novel: “Killstraight,” 2009

Spur Award Finalist
Best Western Short Novel: “Northfield,” 2008

Spur Award Finalist
Best Western Short Fiction Story: “The Cody War,” 2008

Spur Award Finalist
Best Western Juvenile Novel: “The Hart Brand,” 2007

Spur Award Finalist
Best Western Novel: “Ten and Me,” 2000

Arkansiana Award
Juvenile/YA: Arkansas Library Association “Poison Spring,” 2015

2013 Rounders Award
From the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, 2013. For living, promoting and articulating the Western way of life.

True West Magazine Reader’s Choice
Best of the West Award: Best Living Historical Novelist, 2012

New Mexico Book Award Finalist
Best Novel-Historical Fiction: “Northfield,” 2008

New Mexico Book Award Finalist
Best Juvenile Novel: “Doubtful Cañon,” 2008

True West Magazine Best of the West Award
“Best Living Fiction Writer,” 2008

Milton F. Perry Award Winner (National James-Younger Gang)
Best Book: “Northfield,” 2007

New Mexico Book Award Finalist
Best Novel-Historical Fiction: “Camp Ford,” 2007

Southwest Books of the Year
Great Murder Trials of the Old West (2003), Law of the Land: The Trial of Billy the Kid (2004); Walk Proud, Stand Tall (2006)