2013: Timothy Egan

Timothy Egan is an acclaimed writer and veteran chronicler of the American West, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, a popular New York Times columnist and a National Book Award-winning author. His most recent book, a biography of the famous photographer of Native Americans, , was named one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly. Other works include The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America, a New York Times bestseller and winner of the 2009 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, and The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl, which won the 2006 National Book Award for nonfiction.

Egan also wrote Lasso the Wind: Away to the New West, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year which won the Mountains and Plains Book Seller's Association Award; Breaking Blue, a true crime account of the nation's longest running murder investigation; and a novel, The Winemaker's Daughter, a story of wine, love, fire and betrayal. He has been a regular contributor to BBC Radio with his series of vignettes on American life. His weekly online column for The New York Times is consistently among the most read pieces on the NYT site.