Best-selling and award-winning author Pam Houston has been named the 2021 recipient of the Frank Waters Award by the Friends of the Pikes Peak Library District. Houston, a Colorado resident, will receive the award and be the keynote speaker at the Frank Waters/Golden Quill award event. This literary awards ceremony is an annual signature event of the Friends of the Pikes Peak Library District. The Sunday soiree from 4 to 7 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 8, at the Colorado Springs Marriott, 5590 Tech Center Drive.

Pam Houston is the author of a memoir, “Deep Creek: Finding Hope in The High Country”; two novels, “Contents May Have Shifted” and “Sight Hound”; two collections of short stories, “Cowboys Are My Weakness” and “Waltzing the Cat”; and a collection of essays, “A Little More About Me.”

Houston worked as a rafting guide, a sheep-hunting guide in Alaska, and once rode a sailboat through a hurricane, but now rides horses and owns a ranch near Creede. Once she found her literary voice, she settled for good in the Colorado high country.

She is the winner of a Western States Book Award, the WILLA Award for contemporary fiction, the Evil Companions Literary Award and several teaching awards.

The 2020 Golden Quill award also will be given at the event. The annual prize, given to a local publication, will recognize “Colorado Springs: A Changing Landscape.” This soft-bound coffee-table book includes historical photos of the city along with current photos of the same locations.

The book was the brainchild of Don Kallaus, owner of Rhyolite Press, who collaborated with photographer and teacher Angela Crews and a group of photography students at Pikes Peak Community College. About 150 pages of color photos contrast with the black-and-white images taken by Glenn Wesley Murray from the 1930's to 1960's.

The event will be a cocktail party-style gathering in The Pavilion, a large tent on the hotel grounds, with heavy hors d’oeuvres and drinks.

Books will be for sale at the event and authors will be on hand to autograph them. Proceeds from the event benefit the Friends organization.