Originally created to honor outstanding volumes of Cowboy Poetry, the Will Rogers Medallion Award soon expanded into other categories as interest and reader demand increased.  Will Rogers was an accomplished author as well as a cowboy entertainer, and the purpose of the Award is to honor this facet of his legacy as well as to highlight current books that embody strong content, excellent production values, and enduring interest.  The Twelfth Annual Award Show, hosted in the Ft. Worth Stockyards during Red Steagall’s Twenty-Fifth Cowboy Gathering, attracted authors from as far away as Canada, Wyoming, the Dakotas, and Montana.  “As writers, as Westerners, and as Americans, we owe a tremendous debt to Will Rogers, and this is our way of acknowledging and honoring that debt,” said Mr. Williams.

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These early WRMA Medallion Winners included:

Lost Trails & Other Poems and Stories by Willard Hollopeter (Pine Hill Press, Sioux Falls, SD 2008)

Cowboy Poetry: The Gathering by Michael Whitaker (Cowboy Miner Productions, Phoenix, AZ  2005)

Western Images by Clark Crouch (Western Cowboy Publications, Richland, WA 2007)

Beyond the Smoke by Terry W. Burns (JourneyForth, Greenville, SC 2009)

Buck Ramsey's Grass edited by Scott Braucher and Bette Ramsey (Texas Tech University Press, Lubbock, TX 2005)

Western Poetry: West River Waltz by DW Groethe (Cowboy Miner Productions, Phoenix, AZ 2006)

Cowboy Poetry: The Campfire Ain't Quite Out by Kent Stockton (Cowboy Miner Productions, Phoenix, AZ 2006)

A Corner of Heaven: Cowboy Poetry by Bruce Satta (Bruce Satta, 2006)

Where Sagebrush Grows by Darin Brookman (Pair'a Spurs Press, Hollis, OK  2004)

West of Yesterday-East of Tomorrow by Charley Hendren (The Cowboyography Corral, Douglas, WY 2005)

They Still Do That by Dave P. Fisher (Double Diamond Books, Sparks, NV 2006)

When Cowboys Rode Away by Glen Enloe (Infinity Publishing, West Conshohocken, PA, 2006)

From My Window by Yvonne Hollenbeck (Pine Hill Press, Sioux Falls, SD, 2005)

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion edited by Virginia Bennett (Gibs Smith, Publisher, Salt Lake City, UT 2004)

The Adventures of Randy Jones and Booger Red by Gail T. Burton (Phantom Publishing, Benton, AR 2005)

Drover Diaries: Original Poems of the American Cowboy by Rod Nichols (Painted Word Studios, Crosby, TX 2006)

A Prairie Prayer by Bruce Roseland (The North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies, Fargo, ND 2008)

Arizona Women: Weird, Wild & Wonderful by Dee Strickland Johnson (Cowboy Miner Productions, Phoenix, AZ 2006)

Rhymes & Damn Lies by Mike Puhallo (Hancock House, Blaine, WA 2006)

A Little Bit of Texas by Rod Nichols (Passage Publishing, 2002)

MIssouri Cowboy Poetry:Poems & Stories by the Missouri Cowboy Poets Association (MCPA, Verona, MO 2001)

View From Rider's Rest by Richard Barsaleau (2006)

Horse Daze by Harold Roy Miller (2006)

Cowboy Poetry: Classic Poems and Prose by Badger Clark (2006)

Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion & In the Company of Horses by Virginia Bennett (2005)

Cowboy Poetry: Cloud Watcher by Rolf Flake (2005)

Wild and Wooly Western Verse by Sam A. Jackson (2005)

Short Poets, Tall Cowboys by Val Moker/Jesse Colt (2005)

Just More Thinking by Georgie Sicking (2005)

Sunday Creek by Jeff Streeby (2005)

Ridin' Side by Side by Diane Thompson (2005)

The Gathering by Mike Whitaker (2005)

The Campfire Ain't Quite Out by Kent Stockton (2007)

Somewhere Between Earth and Heaven by Mike Dunn (2003)

An Old Cowboy Still Remembers by Glen Enloe (2003)

Walk Out a Cowboy by Chuck Beggs (2003)

Classic Western Poetry by Bill Black (2003)

Common Sense, Men and Horses by Debra C. Hill (2003)

My Home on the Range by Yvonne Hollenbeck (2003)

Almost Live in Elko by Chris Isaacs (2003)

Way Out West by Verlin Pitt (2003)

Cowboy Poetry by Pat Richardson (2003)

Rainman by Lloyd Shelby (2003)

Rhyme and Reason by Doris Daley (2004)

Don't Ever Sell Your Saddle by Glen Enloe (2004)

Time Not Measured by a Clock by Carole Jarvis (2004)

Arizona Herstory by Dee Johnson (2004)

Ground Tied by Lyn Messermith (2004) 

Cowboy Poetry: Turning to Face the Wind by Jane Morton (2004)

Pat Richardson Unhobbled by Pat Richardson

Naturally Raised by Mary Jean Rishein (2004)

Born to This Land by Red Steagall/Skeeter Hager (2004)

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