Staking Out Her “Territory”

According to a news release from Minotaur Books publicist Hector DeJean, “Liberty, Indiana, resident Tricia Fields’ novel, The Territory, has won in the fourth year of the Tony Hillerman Prize.”

Set in West Texas, The Territory captures the Southwest’s inimitable landscape and the current border issues as they affect the regular people living in a remote town near the Rio Grande.

The Tony Hillerman Prize is awarded annually to the best unpublished mystery set in the Southwest written by a first-time author. Previous winners include Roy Chaney, author of The Ragged End of Nowhere, and Christine Barber, author of The Replacement Child and The Bone Fire.

DeJean adds that “The deadline for submissions to next year’s competition will be June 1, 2011. For complete guidelines, please visit www.minotaurbooks.com or www.hillermanconference.com.”