Name Winfred Blevins | Role Author | |
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Nominations Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature Books Ravenshadow, Give Your Heart to the Hawks: A, The Misadventures of Silk an, Charbonneau: Man of Two Dreams, Dictionary of the American | ||
Win Blevins (born October 21, 1938) is a New York Times Bestselling American author of historical fiction, narrative non-fiction, historical fantasy, and non-fiction books, as well as short stories, novellas, articles, reviews, and screenplays. He has written many books about the western mountain trappers, and is known for his "mastery of western lore." His notable works include Stone Song, So Wild a Dream, and Dictionary of the American West. According to WorldCat, the Dictionary of the American West is held in 728 libraries. Blevins has won numerous awards, including being named winner of the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Achievement in writing literature of the West, being selected for the Western Writers Hall of Fame, being twice named 'Writer of the Year' by Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers, and winning two Spur Awards for Novel of the West.
Contents
- Early life and education
- Journalism and writing career
- Books
- The Rendezvous Series
- Natural History
- Cherokee Pre History Fantasy
- Yazzie Goldman
- As General Editor
- Awards
- Pseudonyms
- Personal life
- References
Early life and education
Blevins, of Cherokee and Welsh-Irish descent, is a native of Little Rock, Arkansas. After attending school in St. Louis, Missouri, he moved to New York, where he received a master's degree from Columbia University, graduating with honors, and continued to California, where he attended the Music Conservatory of the University of Southern California.
Journalism and writing career
Win Blevins started his writing career as a music and drama reviewer for the Los Angeles Times. He then became the entertainment editor and principal theater and movie critic of the Hearst newspaper in Los Angeles. His first book was published in 1973 and since then he has made a living as a free-lance writer. He has written articles for magazines, essays, published thirty-one books, one a dictionary, several travel guides to the West, and the rest novels, including fantasy, historical fiction and modern works of the West such as his contemporaries Rudolfo Anaya, John Nichols, Scott Momaday, Max Evans and Barbara Kingsolver write. For fifteen years he was an editor at Macmillan Publishing. From 2010 - 2012, Win spent two years as Gaylord Family Visitor Professor of Professional Writing at the University of Oklahoma. He has also written seven screenplays.
Books
Most of Win Blevins' books were originally published as hardbacks, and were subsequently made available as mass-market paperbacks, trade paperbacks, book club editions, foreign editions, audio books, and e-books. Almost all are still in print.
The Rendezvous Series
Natural History
Cherokee Pre-History Fantasy
Yazzie Goldman
As General Editor
Blevins also created, edited, and co-published the series Classics of the Fur Trade.
Awards
Pseudonyms
Win has published two novels and an article in True West Magazine under the pen name, Caleb Fox.
Personal life
Blevins has five children and a growing number of grandchildren. He lives with his wife, the novelist Meredith Blevins, among the Navajos in San Juan County, Utah. Win has been a river runner and has climbed mountains on three continents. His greatest loves are his family, music, and the untamed places of the West. He considers writing for a living to be a great blessing.