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.

 

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; the Independent Publisher Book Award; two Foreword Indies Book Awards; Colorado Humanities Book Award; Oklahoma Book Award, Sarton Book Book Award, and High Plains Book Award finalists; and the WWW's Downing Journalism Award.

 

TBOAB verse and date

I am honored to announce

The Breath of a Buffalo, A Biography of Mary Ann Goodnight

will release in early 2027 from the University of Oklahoma Press.

My best work yet!

Pre-orders will be available in late 2026!

Please visit Events on the Menu to see what's coming up in 2026.

Current Conversations

A comic strip illustration of a well class woman

Jane Street and the Housemaid Rebellion: Sex, Syndicalism, and Denver’s Capitol Hill

Since I am about to resume work on my new book, Jane Street and the Housemaid Rebellion: Sex, Syndicalism, and Denver’s Capitol Hill, I am re-posting a blog from my Chasing Rabbits page at www.franklittleandtheiww.net. Later I will break down this title for readers. It sounds nasty, doesn’t it? I will say this, if the “Me, Too”…

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Who’s Butch Cassidy? For Whom Do We Authors Write?

Here I am, my brain processing facts, connections, and others’ analyses for two different books. I can’t believe I started writing at such a late period in my life, but it is what it is, and I have to be hyper-vigilant about my interpretations and analyses, and even word choices. Sometimes I type a word…

A beautiful view of the city with the statue of a Red Indian

The Dude Was Born, and the Western Rockies Have Never Been the Same

On my way home from Lander, Wyoming, after a horrible start, so bad that I questioned the wisdom in flying out last week. My Southwest Airlines flight took off an hour and half late because someone got the emergency exit door stuck. My connection in Denver was a charter flight to Riverton, WY. Instructions were…