Welcome to Jane Little Botkin
Nationally recognized author Jane Little Botkin scours the West for firsthand sources in family, library, and museum collections, melding personal narratives of American families with compelling stories of western women, labor radicals, miners, lawmen, and outlaws in settings rich with a history that transitions into the New West. Her works are respected for their unique subjects, detail, depth, honesty, and narrative style.
Winner of two Western Writers of America (WWA) prestigious Spur Awards and two Women Writing the West's (WWW) Willa Literary Awards; two Caroline Bancroft History Prize Awards from the Denver Public Library; the Barbara Sudler Award for best book written on the West by a Woman from History Colorado; the Texas Nonfiction Book Award and Colorado Humanities Book Award; Oklahoma Book Award, Sarton Book Book Award, and High Plains Book Award finalists; Independent Publisher Book Award; two Foreword Indies Book Awards; and the WWW's Downing Literary Award for best short nonfiction.
I am honored to announce
The Breath of a Buffalo, The Life of Mary Ann Goodnight
will release in early 2027 from the University of Oklahoma Press.
Pre-orders will be available in late 2026!
Please visit Events on the Menu to see what's coming up in 2026.
Jane Little Botkin talks about writing and her books
Current Conversations
My Journey into the Sphere of Memoir
I picked up my nine-year-old grandson from school recently. After throwing his backpack onto the car’s floorboard while climbing into the seat simultaneously, he sighed. My cue. “How was school today?” Cam gave me a side glance. “I’m writing the story of my life, and it’s so hard.” “Why is it hard?” I asked. “Because…
Writing an Honest Biography
At the WWA conference in Amarillo in 1983, famous western biographer J. Evetts Haley recalled reading Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains when he was a boy. The author, Captain William F. Drannan, claimed to be an adopted son of Kit Carson. Stories of trapping beaver, hunting buffalo, and chasing wild horses…
We’re at the Summit, Now What?
Traversing Mount Arapahoe, ca. 1920 Woman’s Club of El Paso Speech March 2026 Did any of you work in an office in the 1970s? Were any of you required to bring coffee to your boss? And was that boss male? I recall working on the 5th floor of the old El Paso Natural Gas Company…