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
The Bindle Stiff
When I was a kid at Halloween in El Paso, Texas, I often resorted to the easiest costume I could put together, short of cutting two holes in a white sheet and trick-or-treating as a ghost. While many of my peers often dressed as beatniks, my friends and I would dress as hoboes. Easy. Ragged…
Woodie Guthrie, Another Life Cut Short
I’m busy preparing my presentation for the High Plains Book Festival so no new post. Since today is the anniversary of American folk singer and writer Woody Guthrie’s death, I honor him, reposting a blog from my www.franklittleandtheiww.net “Chasing Rabbits” page: I first came across Woody Guthrie while researching another lyricist, IWW Joe Hill, whom…
David Street, Hollywood Actor
I just returned from interviewing Jane Street’s grandson and gained a wealth of information. He had already destroyed some of her work, and I was prepared to find little. Imagine my excitement to discover about a 1 ½” stack of her type-written writings. Poems, short stories, jokes, protest articles. Who knew there would be so…