UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS HISTORIAN WINS SECOND NATIONAL AWARD FOR THE CONTESTED PLAINS

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- The Western Writers of America, Inc., has notified Dr. Elliott West, professor of history, that his book The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado has been named winner of the 1999 prize for Best Western Nonfiction — Historical.

The Western Writers of America represents more than 600 writers of every genre who share one common interest: the American West. Awards are presented for novels, short stories, nonfiction, biography, history, television dramas and documentaries, and best first novel. Winners will be recognized at a banquet July 1 in Rapid City, South Dakota.

The Contested Plains has won other national acclaim. The Organization of American Historians awarded West its prestigious Ray Allen Billington Prize, and the University Press of Kansas, the book's publisher, has nominated it for the Pulitzer Prize in history.

"The work tells the story of the Great Plains, America's oldest inhabited region, as a history of human dreams-and the terrible limits of such dreams," said West. "For me, it was a great education in how people and the land they live on are in a constant conversation, each changing the other in a long and fascinating history."

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