Here's a sampling of High Plains titles on Wyoming and the West: history, outlaws and lawmen, women, poetry, memoirs, and other perspectives of the West. For more information click on the image of the book.
Follow the Boys of Company K to Wyoming during the Civil War.
The inside story of the life of Butch Cassidy.
Poems that will change the way the world looks at women in ranching.
A side of the military you never read about the official U.S. Army Laundresses.
Did Tom Horn commit the murder of 14-year-old Willie Nickell for which he was hanged?
The story of the horse that became the symbol of Wyoming
Frontiersman Biography
A road trip for a cause...on a donkey.
High Plains Press, located near Glendo, Wyoming, has published over 50 books since its beginning in 1984. The company now publishes about four books a year and focuses on history of Wyoming and the American West.
Poetry has also been an unexpected success for High Plains Press. They publish one book of poetry a year, under the series title “Poetry of the American West.” The books were named Best Poetry Series of the West by True West magazine.
Book Publisher Nancy Curtis says that when she founded the company there were few other book publishing companies in Wyoming. “I knew people who were writing books that were definitely good enough to be in print, but there was no one to publish them. Other publishers did not understand the importance of the subject or thought the market was too small.”
She tested the waters with a poetry chapbook and then attended the University of Denver Publishing Institute to gain more know-how. Then she returned to her family’s Wyoming cattle ranch and started publishing.
Her involvement in the operation of the ranch was hands-on for many years. A typical winter day consisted of feeding cattle in the morning and editing books in the afternoon. Now she spends less time outside, but still loves “the cowboy way.” “It’s a perfect combination, she says. “We try to raise a few good cattle and publish a few great books.”
High Plains Press books have won four Wrangler awards for poetry, a Willa award and several Willa finalist awards, as well as several finalist awards in the Spur and Ben Franklin Award competitions.
High Plains Press books are reviewed in publications such as the Denver Post, the Rocky Mountain News, Tucson Citizen, Annals of Wyoming, True West, American Cowboy, Wild West, and others.
Curtis is also the co-editor, with Linda Hasselstrom and Gaydell Collier, of three collections of writing by plainswomen published by Houghton Mifflin: Leaning into the Wind, Woven on the Wind, and Crazy Woman Creek.