Learn more about the landscape of independent publishing in the Mountains & Plains region, including presses and magazines based in the area, local book fairs and festivals, and regional awards, as well as books set in or about the area.
In keeping with the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association, CLMP defines the Mountains & Plains region as including Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
Books Set in the Mountains & Plains Region
Nonfiction
Watershed by Joel Long (Green Writers Press | March 5, 2026)
The essays in this collection focus on Utah’s Great Salt Lake “and its beauty, its fragility, and its changing landscape in the face of climate change.”
(Distributed by Independent Publishers Group. ISBN: 9798992398861)
Patrolling the Heart of the Silver State by Steve Raabe (Latah Books | April 19, 2024)
Set in rural Nevada, this is “a hilarious and heart-pounding collection of true tales by a former Nevada state patrol officer.”
(Distributed by Ingram. ISBN: 9781957607306)
Fiction
Future Perfect by Matthew James Babcock (Avalon Park Press | March 6, 2026)
Mostly set in Idaho and the mythical American West, this collection of stories feature characters “caught at the crossroads of everyday choices that find them discovering heroic impulses, claiming the sanctuary of concessions, embracing true identities,” and more.
(Distributed by Ingram. ISBN: 9798994022207)
We Bring You an Hour of Darkness by Michael Bourne (DoppelHouse Press | October 14, 2025)
Set in a fictional Colorado ski town, this novel “is based on the true crime of the Earth Liberation Front’s eco-terrorism in Vail.”
(Distributed by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution. ISBN: 9781954600263)
Fighters by Chee Brossy (TRP: The University Press of SHSU | June 18, 2025)
Set in the late 90s in the Navajo Nation, this novella “is the story of the bonds of brothers, of roles that we love but also from which we try to break free.”
(Distributed by Texas A&M University Press. ISBN: 9781680033984)
Lookout by Christine Byl (Deep Vellum | July 22, 2025)
Set in rural Montana, this novel “centers on the dual coming-of-age of a girl and her father amid the natural and cultural forces that shape their family.”
(Distributed by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution. ISBN: 9781646052295)
Arroyo Circle by JoeAnn Hart (Green Writers Press | October 1, 2024)
This novel set in Boulder, Colorado, “illuminates the spiritual connectedness of chance occurrences and weaves a powerful tale of strife, introspection, and reclamation.”
(Distributed by Independent Publishers Group. ISBN: 9798989178445)
The Invisible Years by Rodrigo Hasbún, translated from the Spanish by Lily Meyer (Deep Vellum | February 24, 2026)
This novel follows two estranged friends reuniting in Houston, Texas, “picking open long scabbed-over wounds from their upper-class adolescence in 1990s Bolivia and the scandal that ripped them apart.”
(Distributed by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution. ISBN: 9781646054602)
When We Were Hardcore by Linda Michel-Cassidy (EastOver Press | February 3, 2025)
“Born of the mountain areas in the American Southwest,” this debut short-fiction collection “depicts the lesser-known lives of characters who discover, reckon with, and often seek to escape the mostly rural landscapes that made them.”
(Distributed by Ingram. ISBN: 978-1-958094-50-1)
Purgatoire by Liz Prato (Forest Avenue Press | April 7, 2026)
Set in rural Colorado, this novel in stories “paints a gripping portrait of Italian immigrants in rural America, and how the shame and secrecy of one man’s abandonment haunts a family for generations.”
(Distributed by Publishers Group West. ISBN: 9781942436690)
There Will Never Be Another Night Like This by John Salter (Slant Books | January 9, 2024)
The characters in this short fiction collection, set in North Dakota, “have one thing in common: they’re in flux.”
(Distributed by Ingram. ISBN: 9781639821532)
Churn by Chloe Chun Seim (TRP: The University Press of SHSU | January 24, 2024)
Churn “mines the uncanny to tell a story of rural Kansas” in this novel spanning “from the plains of rural Kansas to hundred-acre towns, the end of the universe to its primordial breath.”
(Distributed by Texas A&M University Press. ISBN: 9781680033496)
Country of Under by Brooke Shaffner (Split/Lip Press | August 13, 2024)
This novel, largely set along the border of Texas and Mexico, revolves around two friends who “struggle to do what they have done in their best moments: see the beauty in each other, even when the world does not.”
(Distributed by Asterism Books. ISBN: 978-1-952897-41-2)
Magdalena is Brighter than You Think by Grace Spulak (Autumn House Press | April 21, 2026)
Set in rural New Mexico, this debut story collection “explores the complexities of gender, queerness, trauma, and resilience through characters who live in the margins and imagine new ways to survive there.”
(Distributed by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution. ISBN: 9781637681169)
Poetry
Second Nature by Chaun Ballard (Boa Editions | April 1, 2025)
This poetry collection “weaves childhood experiences, historical events, and family stories into a living tapestry of memory that celebrates the landscape of Black America” in Nebraska and surrounding rural areas.
(Distributed by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution. ISBN: 9781960145529)
Begin Where You Are: The Colorado Poets Laureate Anthology (The Center for Literary Publishing | December 1, 2025)
This anthology, compiled by Turner Wyatt, collects work by all ten Colorado poets laureate, including previously unpublished poems by Andrea Gibson.
(Distributed by University Press of Colorado. ISBN: 978-1-885635-97-6)
Southwest Reconstruction by Raquel Gutiérrez (Noemi Press | December 2, 2025)
Written over ten years in the Southern Arizona landscape, these poems “act as the noisy divining rod for both kinship and ancestral communication.”
(Distributed by Itasca Books. ISBN: 978-1-955992-69-5)
If I Had Said Beauty by Tami Haaland (Lost Horse Press | March 1, 2025)
This poetry collection, “grounded in encounters with wild and domestic life,” is “rooted in the spaces of Montana, its mountains and high plains.”
(Distributed by Asterism Books and Washington State University Press. ISBN: 979-8-9890965-8-9)
Dreams for Earth by Fatima-Ayan Malika Hirsi (Deep Vellum | September 23, 2025)
Set in Dallas, Texas, these poems “invite us to live fully in the power, responsibility, and joy of our interconnectedness.”
(Distributed by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution. ISBN: 9781646053995)
Burns by SG Huerta (Sundress Publications | January 20, 2026)
The poems in this collection “capture the complexity of life as a transitioning Xicanx in a tumultuous Texas climate.”
(Distributed by Ingram. ISBN: 978-1951979874)
If Seasons Were Kingdoms by Margaret Koger (Fernwood Press | April 23, 2024)
In this poetry collection set in southern Idaho, Koger “leads us on a journey riddled with puzzles, on a search for the narrator.”
(Distributed by Ingram. ISBN: 978-1594981289)
Heat Death of the Universe by Leela Raj-Sankar (fifth wheel press | June 6, 2023)
“An exploration of adolescence in the desert,” this poetry collection is set in Arizona and spans “themes of race, illness, love, and loss.”
(Distributed by Asterism Books. ISBN: 9798987116883)
Grappling with Care: Poetry from a Forensic Psychologist by Autumn Slaughter (Something Involving A Mailbox! | October 11, 2025)
This collection “explores the interplay of empathy, power and assistance within the criminal justice system” in Oklahoma.
(Distributed by Something Involving A Mailbox!. ISBN: 978-1-955714-05-1)
Rodeo by Sunni Brown Wilkinson (Autumn House Press | April 22, 2025)
In these poems set “in the rural and wild western mountains of northern Utah and throughout the American West,” Wilkinson “finds solace, uncovering startling moments of hope and healing in the aftermath of suffering.”
(Distributed by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution. ISBN: 9781637681022)
Independent Presses Based in the Mountains & Plains Region
Arizona
Abalone Mountain Press
Cardboard House Press
Chax Press
Gasher Press
Noemi Press (Read our publisher spotlight here.)
PHX Oasis Press
Schaffner Press
Colorado
Middle Creek Publishing & Audio
Quills and Cosmos Press
South Broadway Press
Switchback Books
Idaho
Limberlost Press
Kansas
Brigids Gate Press
Choeofpleirn Press
Waywiser Books
Nebraska
Ex Ophidia Press
Octopus Books
Split/Lip Press
Nevada
Baobab Press
Dipity Literary Magazine
New Mexico
Coyote Arts
Monday Editions
Santa Fe Writers Project
Oklahoma
Something Involving A Mailbox!
Texas
Abode Press
Arte Público Press (Read our publisher spotlight here.)
Assure Press
Avalon Park Press
Catalyst Press
Deep Vellum Publishing (Read our publisher spotlight here.)
Four Palaces Publishing
Gnashing Teeth Publishing
Host Publications (Read our publisher spotlight here.)
Infrarrealista Review
Kallisto Gaia Press
Lit Fox Books
Madville Publishing
Mouthfeel Press
Next Page Press
TRP: The University Press of SHSU
Veliz Books (Read our publisher spotlight here.)
Utah
Lightscatter Press
Yawning Fox Press
Wyoming
Pierian Springs Press
Print Literary Magazines Based in the Mountains & Plains Region
Arizona
After Dinner Conversation
Cutthroat, A Journal of the Arts
Gasher Journal
Hayden’s Ferry Review
Shō Poetry Journal
Colorado
Colorado Review
F(r)iction (Read our publisher spotlight here.)
Inverted Syntax
Pilgrimage
South Platte River Review
The Thalweg
Idaho
Talking River Review
Kansas
Cottonwood
Flint Hills Review
StoryBottle Co.
Montana
Whitefish Review
Nebraska
Corpus Callosum Journal
The Gilded Weathervane
Illuminations Literary Magazine
Plainsongs
Prairie Schooner (Read our publisher spotlight here.)
Nevada
Consequence Forum
Interim
Witness
New Mexico
El Portal
Horizon Review
Oklahoma
Cimarron Review
SIAMB!
World Literature Today
South Dakota
Belicosa Arts Magazine
Wanbli Ho Journal
Texas
#TWP Quarterly Lit Zine
American Short Fiction
EcoTheo Collective
Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature And Fine Arts
Kallisto Gaia Press
The McNeese Review
North Texas Review
Peach Fuzz Magazine
Superpresent
Sine Qua Non
The Windhover
Utah
Exposed Bone
Sugar House Review
The Nomad
The Southern Quill
Western Humanities Review
Book Fairs and Festivals in the Mountains & Plains Region
African American Book Festival
Austin, TX
2025: June 28
Aspen Literary Festival
Aspen, CO
2025: September 26-28
Fort Collins Book Fest
Fort Collins, CO
2026: April 10-11, 17-18
Heartland Book Festival
Kansas City, KS
2025: October 10-12
Las Vegas Book Festival
Las Vegas, NV
2026: October 17
Literary Sojourn
Steamboat Springs, CO
2026: September 19
Lone Star Book Festival
Austin, TX
2026: June 6-7
Mountain Words Festival
Crested Butte, CO
2026: May 21-24
National Black Book Festival
Houston, TX
2025: October 23-25
Nebraska Celebration of Books
Lincoln, NE
2025: November 15
North Dakota Book and Arts Festival
Jamestown, ND
2025: September 20
Northern Arizona Book Festival
Flagstaff, AZ
2026: April 9-12
Payson Book Festival
Payson, AZ
2025: July 19
San Antonio Book Festival
San Antonio, TX
2026: April 11
Santa Fe International Literary Festival
Santa Fe, NM
2026: May 15-17
South Dakota Festival of Books
Spearfish, SD
2025: September 26-28
Southern New Mexico Book Festival
Las Cruces, NM
2025: October 11
Texas Book Festival
Austin, TX
2025: November 8-9
Treasure Valley Book Fair
Nampa, ID
2026: April 4
Tucson Festival of Books
Tucson, AZ
2026: March 14-15
Tulsa LitFest
Tulsa, OK
2025: April 24-27
Utah Humanities Book Festival
Utah (Statewide)
2025: October
Regional Awards
Colorado Book Awards
The Colorado Book Awards, given by Colorado Humanities, annually celebrate “the accomplishments of Colorado’s outstanding authors.”
Idaho Book of the Year
Idaho Book of the Year, presented by the Idaho Library Association, annually honors books that “have an Idaho setting or significant Idaho content, or have been written by a resident of Idaho.”
Kansas Notable Books
Kansas Notable Books, organized by the State Library of Kansas, recognizes 15 outstanding titles written by Kansans or about a Kansas-related topic.
Montana Book Award
The Montana Book Award is an annual award that recognizes literary and/or artistic excellence in books that are “set in Montana, deal with Montana themes/issues, or are written, edited or illustrated by a Montana author or artist.”
Nebraska Book Awards
The Nebraska Book Awards, sponsored by the Nebraska Center for the Book (NCB), recognize and honor “books that are written by Nebraska authors, published by Nebraska publishers, set in Nebraska, or concerning Nebraska.”
New Mexico Book Awards
The New Mexico Book Awards, managed by New Mexico Writers, are given annually in numerous categories to books with a “direct creative connection to New Mexico or the greater Navajo Nation.”
Oklahoma Book Awards
The Oklahoma Book Awards, given by the Oklahoma Center for the Book, annually honor titles “that feature Oklahoma or were created by individuals who live or have lived in the state.”
Reading the West Book Awards
The Reading the West Book Awards, sponsored by the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association, honor the best fiction, nonfiction, and illustrated books for adults and children set in one of the association’s states, or created by an author or artist living or working in the region.
Southwest Book Awards
The Southwest Book Awards, awarded by the Border Regional Library Association, are presented in recognition of outstanding books about the Southwest published each year in any genre.
Utah Book Awards
The Utah Book Awards, given by Utah Humanities, “honor works of outstanding literary merit by Utah authors.”
Writers’ League of Texas Book Awards
The Writers’ League of Texas Book Awards are given annually to books published by authors who have lived in Texas for a period of 3 or more years.
