WYO WRITERS WIN SPURS: From Candy Moulton: Writers from Saratoga and Encampment won Spur Awards and a Thermopolis writing team picked up a finalist award from Western Writers of America in this year’s competition that recognizes the best Western literature published in 2005. Winners in 15 categories were announced March 18 by WWA President Rita Cleary during the National Festival of the West. Lori Van Pelt of Saratoga will receive the Spur Award for her short story, "Pecker’s Revenge,” the lead story in her collection Pecker’s Revenge and Other Stories from the Frontier’s Edge, which is published by the University of New Mexico Press. Candy Moulton of Encampment will receive the Spur Award for her biography, Chief Joseph: Guardian of the People, published by Forge Books of New York in the American Heroes Series. W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear of Thermopolis are finalists for their Novel of the West, People of the Moon, published by Forge Books. This is their second year of recognition in the Spur Awards. Last year they took home the Spur for their novel People of the Raven. Paul Hutton, Bill Kurtis and Jamie Shenck won the Spur for their documentary Mountain Massacre which was filmed near Encampment, Wyo., in August 2004. It first aired on the Investigating History series on the History Channel in February 2005. A number of Encampment and Saratoga people participated in the filming. Spur winners and finalists will be honored June 13-17 at the WWA Convention in Cody.
