Authors Lindsay King-Miller and Teow Lim Goh, from Western Colorado University’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing (GPCW), were winners in their respective categories at the 2026 Colorado Book Awards. Western Instructor Laura Resau was a finalist in her category.
The 2026 Colorado Book Awards were held in partnership with Colorado Humanities, MSU Denver, and the Denver Project for Humanistic Inquiry. The ceremony was held at the Tivoli Turnhalle on Sept. 26 in Denver, CO, celebrating Colorado’s best literature published in 2025. Volunteer selectors and judges across the state read submissions to choose finalists and winners. Colorado Book Awards have recognized more than 1,000 Colorado authors and 350 books across a variety of genres.
Teow Lim Goh moved to Denver to study mathematics. She started writing to make sense of her experiences during college, and has since become a successful poet and essayist through her works on Chinese Immigration in the American West. Islanders, her first poetry collection on the detention of Chinese immigrants at the Angel Island Immigration Station, rose to critical acclaim in 2016. Because of Islanders success, Goh decided to further her writing education.
“I quickly saw that while I knew enough to write one book, if I wanted to grow as an artist I had a lot more to learn,” said Goh. “Back then, Western’s MFA program focused on literary tradition and prosody, and so I applied and got accepted.”
Goh’s epic poem, Bitter Creek, won the 2026 Colorado Book Awards in Poetry. Bitter Creek revisits the 1885 massacre of Chinese miners in Rock Springs, Wyoming, and tells the stories of the decade of violence that culminated due to labor struggles in the Union Pacific coal mines. Goh tells the story through the viewpoints of both Chinese and white workers, their families, and corporate and government officials and asks the age-old question: “What turns ordinary people into monsters?”
Goh is honored that her work is recognized in her adopted home of 20 years.
“Most of the writing life is a quiet dedication, juggling the desire to make art with the mundane responsibilities that add up to a life,” said Goh. “As a society, we have not grappled with the legacies of Chinese immigrants in the American West. Many stories have been lost to the ravages of racism and time. For example, researchers have not found any letters or journals by the Chinese transcontinental railroad workers. I’m glad the Colorado Book Awards honored these stories”
Lindsay King-Miller is an instructor in the Genre Fiction program within GPCW at Western. This semester she is teaching short fiction, and will be co-teaching two courses focused on speculative horror and fiction. Before teaching at Western, King-Miller was a freelance writer and advice columnist for The Hairpin, which inspired her first book Ask a Queer Chick. Her first novel, The Z Word, follows a queer community fighting zombies at a small town pride festival.
King-Miller won the 2026 Colorado Book Award in the Mystery, Thriller, and Horror category for her novel This Is My Body, a possession horror novel following lesbian single mother Brigid who cut ties with her extremist Catholic family to protect herself and her daughter, Dylan. When Dylan starts becoming unnaturally violent, Brigid becomes convinced that her daughter is suffering from demonic possession, and does the thing she swore she would never do: go home. She seeks help from her uncle and Catholic exorcist, Father Angus, and starts to uncover secrets from her childhood and her family’s past.
“It’s an incredible honor to have been nominated and win the award,” said King-Miller. “I loved attending the ceremony and getting to meet so many brilliant local writers, and to discover some wonderful books I hadn’t heard of before. More than anything, awards are a spotlight, and I think that’s why authors hope for them: so that the readers who want our books will be more likely to find them.”
King-Miller hopes that readers will check out the full slate of finalists and award-winners, which are listed on the Colorado Humanities website, and continue to seek out books beyond the spotlight.
Laura Resau teaches Nature Writing and Genre Fiction at Western’s GPCW. Resau has written for readers of all ages, including picture books, middle-grade, and young adult novels, with the majority of her work focused on middle school audiences. Most of Resau’s work integrates themes of environmental and human rights on a global stage.
Her debut adult novel, The Alchemy of Flowers, was a finalist in the general fiction category at the Colorado Book Awards. This story, inspired by Resau’s own journey to healing after infertility, follows Colorado woman, Eloise, who has hit rock bottom after years of heartbreak, so she takes an overseas gardening job at a remote chateau in Provence, France. At first, Eloise’s work and new home feel like paradise. But when eerie things begin to happen, paradise becomes a prison.
Resau began writing this story during the pandemic when she cultivated a medicinal flower garden in her backyard. Being stuck at home gave her the time and space to think about new paths to take her career, and she decided to write her first adult novel. Like most people during the pandemic, Resau craved to travel and immersed herself in her imagination and memories of Provence, where she studied for a year in college.
“While writing the book, I had fun integrating dreamy aspects of Provencal culture and food, and wanted to offer readers a magic-laced, delight-filled, escapist experience,” said Resau. “I loved weaving touches of horror, thriller, and danger into the narrative, along with the heart-
filling, healing, and whimsical elements, to create a story of both darkness and light.”
Resau began writing this story during the pandemic when she cultivated a medicinal flower garden in her backyard. Being stuck at home gave her the time and space to think about new paths to take her career, and decided to write her first adult novel. Like most people during the pandemic, Resau craved to travel and immersed herself in her imagination and memories of Provence, where she studied for a year in college.
“While writing the book, I had fun integrating dreamy aspects of Provencal culture and food, and wanted to offer readers a magic-laced, delight-filled, escapist experience,” said Resau. “I loved weaving touches of horror, thriller, and danger into the narrative, along with the heart-
filling, healing, and whimsical elements, to create a story of both darkness and light.”
All works can be found online via the authors’ names, gunnisoncountylibraries.org, and at coloradohumanities.org.
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