W. Michael Gear
W. Michael Gear is the New York Times, USA Today and international bestselling author or co-author (with his wife Kathleen O’Neal Gear) of over 70 novels ranging from prehistory, science fiction, mystery, thriller, Western, historical, and apocalyptic, as well as writing short stories and over 200 articles on the art of writing, archaeology, and history. He has written extensively on bison history, management, and genetics. The Gears were active in the bison industry for 30 years and ran Red Canyon Buffalo Ranch outside of Thermopolis, Wyoming. Michael and Kathleen now reside near Cody, Wyoming.
Together, the Gears have 18 million copies of their work in print worldwide and their novels have been translated into at least 30 languages.
Awards & Recognition
- W. Michael Gear received the Owen Wister Award for lifetime achievement in Western writing and was inducted in the Western Writers Hall of Fame in 2021.
- Gear was inducted into the Colorado Authors’ Hall of Fame in 2022.
- He received the Frank Waters Award for exemplary achievement in the field of Western writing in 2023.
- His This Scorched Earth was submitted for the Pulitzer Prize, won the American Legacy Award in all three classes of Fiction, Historical Fiction, and Literary Fiction, and was a finalist for the Spur Award.
- Both The Morning River and People of the Lakes were also campaigned for the Pulitzer Prize.
- Gear has won the Western Writers’ Golden Spur Award twice and placed as a finalist four times.
- In 2008 he and Kathleen received the Literary Contribution Award from the Mountain Plains Library Association.
- He and Kathleen were recipients of both the Emmie Mygatt and Arizola Magnenat Awards from the Wyoming Writers Inc.
- Gear is a two-time recipient of the Will Rogers Medallion Award once for best short fiction of the year and once for best contemporary novel of the year.
- For After the Eagle Has Fallen, Gear won Best Novel of the Year in both Science Fiction and Thriller/Adventure categories in the 2024 International Book Awards. In 2021 Unreconciled won Best Novel of the Year in the science fiction category and in 2023, Fourth Quadrant won Best Novel of the Year in the International Book Awards Thriller/Adventure category.
- The Gears’ article on bison genetics was a finalist for the Downing Journalism Award in 2024.
- In 2005 their novel People of the Raven won the Spur Award for Best Novel of the West.
- The Gears won the National Bison Association’s “Producer of the Year” award in both 2004 and 2009.
- Their Red Canyon Ranch bison won 167 awards including several Grand Champions, Reserve Grand Champions, numerous golds, and “Peoples’ Choice” Awards as well as numerous Producer of the Year awards at the NBA’s Gold Trophy Show and Sale at the National Western Stock Show, the Dakota Territory Show and Sale, the Wisconsin Bison Association Show and Sale, the Rocky Mountain Bison Association Show and Sale, and the Western Bison Association Stampede Show and Sale.
- The Western Bison Association honored them with the “Founders Trophy” for their contributions to the bison industry.