For the second consecutive year, Noblesville author Larry D. Sweazy has been named winner of the 2012 Will Rogers Medallion award for Western Fiction. Sweazy was honored for his novel “The Cougar’s Prey,” the fourth novel in the Josiah Wolfe, Texas Ranger (Berkley) series. He previously won the 2011 award for “The Scorpion Trail,” the second book in the series.
“I was really surprised,” said Sweazy. “You never expect to win any award, so to win two years in a row is nearly unthinkable. It’s an honor that reflects on my publisher and editor’s skills, too. I’m humbled, honored and back to work on the next book.”
The Will Rogers Medallion award is presented by the Academy of Western Artists each year to those books that represent an Outstanding Achievement in the publishing of Western Literature. They are books that exemplify outstanding excellence in content and design with an enduring quality that preserves and celebrates the history and spirit of the West, and the memory of Will Rogers.
Sweazy will accept the award at the annual Cowboy Symposium in Lubbock, Texas, in September. Sweazy previously won the Western Writers of America (WWA) Spur Award for Best Short Story of 2005. The first book in the Josiah Wolfe series, “The Rattlesnake Season,” was a 2010 Best Book of Indiana finalist, and the following book, “The Scorpion Trail,” became the first Western to win the Best Book of Indiana literary competition in 2011.
There will be at least six Josiah Wolfe novels, with the fifth, “The Coyote Tracker,” to be published in August. Sweazy will be launching the book with a signing at Barnes and Noble Booksellers in Noblesville on Aug. 7 and at Mudsock Books and Curiosity Shoppe in Fishers on Aug. 11.