Voices of the West is the 2014 recipient of the Western Writers of America Lariat Award. Program host Emil Franzi is the first broadcaster to be awarded the Lariat.
The Lariat Award: This special honor, created in 2006, is designed to recognize the company or individual who has shown exceptional support for WWA and for the literature of the West.2006 — The first Lariat Award was presented to the Caxton Publishing, one of the oldest Western publishers and a long-time champion of WWA.2007 — The first Lariat Award to an individual was presented to Tom Doherty of Tor-Forge Publishing. His firm has produced three WWA anthologies and generated fourteen Spur Awards through 2006.
2008 — True West magazine, Western history magazine founded in 1953, revamped and reimagined by historian/artist Bob Boze Bell when he took it over in the late 1990s.
2009 — University of Oklahoma Press, distinguished publisher of Western fiction and nonfiction and recipient of 19 Spur Awards, and the first university press established in the Southwest.
2010 — Dorchester Publishing, publisher of multiple western titles under the Leisure Books imprint.
2011 — Luther Wilson, former director of University of New Mexico Press.
2012 – Nancy Curtis/High Plains Press, publisher of many award winning books about Wyoming and the West.
2013 – Five Star Publishing, publisher of historical and Western novels.
2014 – Emil Franzi, radio host of “Voices of the West.”