The winners of the 2025 High Plains International Book Awards were recently announced. Canadian authors Adam Pottle and Jessica Vitalis took home the honours in their respective categories.
Pottle received the Children's Picture Book prize for Butterfly on the Wind, illustrated by Ziyue Chen (Roaring Brook Press). The Children's Middle Grade Book was awarded to Vitalis for her novel Unsinkable Cayenne (Greenwillow Books).
Rick McIntyre and David A. Poulsen's The Unlikely Hero: The Story of Wolf 8 (Greystone Kids) was also a finalist in the children’s middle-grade category. Shortlisted in the Indigenous Writer category was The Case of the Pilfered Pin by Michael Hutchinson (Second Story Press).
Established in 2007, the High Plains International Book Awards celebrate literary works that examine and reflect life in the High Plains region, which includes the states of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas, and the Canadian Provinces of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
For more information, visit highplainsbookawards.org.