Celebrating The Life And Legacy Of Win Blevins

After nearly sixty years of writing, Blevins passed away at age 84. Wolfpack Publishing has the privilege of publishing his last work, Fitz, available on November 28th.

Win Blevins was an award-winning author best known for his works—both fiction and non-fiction— that embodied his love for the American West. Blevins was a recipient of the lifetime achievement award from the Western Writers of America, a member of the Western Writers Hall of fame, five-time winner of Native Writer of the Year, two-time winner of the Spur Award for Best Novel of the West, and was nominated for a Pulitzer for his novel, Stone Song.

Blevins was known for his love of the great outdoors and the rugged American West. He once said "I have run her rivers and guided people along her currents and through her rapids. I have climbed her demanding mountains and was almost taken by one. I'll keep hiking to ruins, smelling the desert and alpine air, wading the creeks, and listening to the wolves howl until I check out."

Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on October 21, 1938, Blevins was an honors graduate of Columbia University and the Music Conservatory of the University of Southern California. Blevins began his career as a critic for newspapers in Los Angeles where he developed his love of the American West and began writing about Western lore and Native American history. After years of writing, climbing mountains, and running rivers, he married novelist Meredith Blevins, and settled in the Utah canyonlands. His love of the West led him to become a pipe carrier and to walk the red road—an adventure he'd never dreamed of.

Over his long career, Blevins wrote nearly forty books, including the historical fiction Rendezvous series; his Dictionary of the American West is held in 750 libraries. Later in life, Blevins worked as the Gaylord Family Visiting Professor of Professional Writing at the University of Oklahoma and a book editor for Macmillan Publishing and TOR/Forge Books.

He is survived by his beloved wife, soulmate, and partner, Meredith Blevins. She shared Blevins passion for the great outdoors and shared this statement— "Win was a big animal who had little concept of boundaries and rules, political, physical, or emotional. Driving roads in the West would bring up a story about a massacre or a ceremony that happened on a mesa we'd pass that looked, to me, like every other mesa! But the stories made the place come alive. Driving with our Great Dane (Shorty) and our hound (Mack), we logged hundreds of thousands of miles together—we both loved the adventure, the scents, the tastes, of new places. Kids grew up, Grandkids came. Happy times happened, as did trouble, but we were always on the same team. He was a terrific partner for me. Solid. All of Win's emotions were big…He loved me big—we considered love to be the grandest adventure of all. He wrote me poems, hundreds, that I treasure. I'm grateful, always, for being loved and for loving, grateful for the relationship neither one of us dreamed was on our horizon.

He leaves four children, Pam Blevins Hinkle, Adam Blevins, Ethan Blevins, Allegra Lynch, and eight grandchildren: Ruth, Aletha, Henry, Peter, Holly, Ben, Caleb, and Sienna. Win spent the last thirty years of his life in the Southwest. His passions included; classical music, spending time in nature, baseball, roaming red rock mesas, and rafting. He greatly enjoyed developing new stories of the Old West and was proud to be a member of the world's oldest profession —storytelling.

See the brief synopsis of Fitz below:

Get swept away by this never-before-seen western adventure from award-winning author Win Blevins that follows a larger-than-life young man as he discovers the untamed American West.

Thomas Fitzpatrick always longed for something more—to see more, do more, and be more. At just seventeen, he leaves home and sails up the Mississippi River in the winter of 1822 only to cross paths with the famed explorer, William Clark. This serendipitous encounter marks the beginning of his epic adventures as a fur trader, leading him through trials and triumphs that are beyond anything he could have ever hoped for.

Fitz's adventures unfold as he travels with a diverse group of companions, seeking the wild wonders of an untamed frontier. From surviving battles and discovering crucial routes through the Rockies to becoming a respected Indian negotiator, his life intersects with numerous iconic figures of his time, including Jim Bridger, Jedediah Smith, and Kit Carson.

As Fitz embarks on his long-awaited journey into the rugged landscapes of the American West, he begins to grasp that the life he's yearned for is tantalizingly close. But as he teeters on the brink of exhilarating experiences, the question looms: Will this newfound existence on the edge be his salvation…or his ultimate demise?

You can grab a copy of Fitz on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CLQ4CNRV