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, received the award and was the keynote speaker at the annual Literary Awards Luncheon at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, 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 Madres 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 was also presented at the luncheon. The annual prize, given to a local author or publication, went 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.”

Proceeds from the event benefitted Friends, who support library district programs and needs.