Ruth McLaughlin wins the 2010 Montana Book Award

For the second year in a row, the Montana Book Award goes to a Great Falls author. Ruth McLaughlin has won the 2010 prize for her memoir, Bound Like Grass: A Memoir from the Western High Plains. (Jamie Ford's novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, won the 2009 award.)

Bound Like Grass is an engaging story that encompasses three generations: the idealistic homesteader grandparents, the hard-working parents, and the children who grew up, moved away and never returned.

The Montana Book Award is an annual award that recognizes literary and/or artistic excellence in a book published during the award year. Eligible titles are set in Montana, deal with Montana themes or issues, or are written, edited, or illustrated by a Montana author or artist. Books for all ages are considered for the award.

Also nominated for the 2010 award were Everything, by Kevin Canty (the only fiction book nominated), Goodbye Wifes and Daughters, by Susan Resnick, The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn by Nathaniel Philbrick, and Visions of the Big Sky: Painting and Photographing the Northern Rocky Mountain West by Dan Flores.

Read about the award and some of the books at M. Mark Miller's blog. Miller is a reader for the Montana Book Award.