Nina McConigley, a lecturer in English at the University of Wyoming, received the Best Short Stories Award in the High Plains Book Award Competition sponsored by the Billings Public Library in Montana. She was honored for her collection of short stories entitled Cowboys and East Indians (FiveChapters Books, 2013). The stories examine the immigrant experience in the American West.
The award is given to literary works that examine life on the High Plains in the states of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas or in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.
Born in Singapore to Irish and Indian parents, McConigley is a graduate of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. She earned a master’s degree in English from the University of Wyoming and a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from the University of Houston.