2022 Frank Waters Literary Awards

Friends of the Library Announce Literary Awards Recipients

International best-selling author Jim Fergus has been named the 2022 recipient of the Frank Waters Award by the Friends of the Pikes Peak Library District. Fergus, a Colorado College graduate, will receive the award and be the keynote speaker at the annual Literary Awards Luncheon at 11:30 a.m. on June 18 at the DoubleTree by Hilton, 1775 East Cheyenne Mountain Blvd

Fergus’s first novel, “One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd,” was published in 1998. The novel won the 1999 Fiction of the Year Award from the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association. It has since sold over 700,000 copies in the United States.

Fergus has also published a collection of outdoor articles and essays, titled “The Sporting Road.” In 2005, his second novel, “The Wild Girl: The Notebooks of Ned Giles” set in the 1930’s in Chicago, Arizona, and the Sierra Madre of Mexico, was published.  In 2018, he published “The Vengeance of Mothers,” a sequel to his first novel  followed by “Strongheart” in 2021.   Fergus divides his time between southern Arizona and France, where he also is a best-selling author.

The 2022 Golden Quill award also will be presented at the luncheon. The annual prize, given to a local author or publication, will go to John Anderson, former El Paso County sheriff, historian and writer.  His works include: “Sherlock Holmes in Little London: 1896 The Missing Year”; “Rankin Scott Kelly: First Sheriff of El Paso County Colorado Territory 1861-1867”; and “Ute Prayer Tees of the Pikes Peak Region.”

Cost of the luncheon will be $45 for Friends of the Library members, $50 for all others. Reservations also may be mailed to: Beth Crumrine, Friends of PPLD, 5550 N. Union Blvd., Colorado Springs, CO 80918. Deadline for reservations is 5 p.m. Friday, June 10. Questions may be directed to the Friends office, 531-6333, Ext. 1461.

Books will be for sale at the event and authors will be on hand to autograph them. Proceeds from the event benefit Friends, who support library district programs and needs.