Maxim Loskutoff’s debut novel RUTHIE FEAR was named the 2021 High Plains Book Award winner for Fiction. He was previously honored in 2019 in the Short Stories category for his debut collection, COME WEST AND SEE. The judges praise the novel’s titular protagonist: "Ruthie Fear, who only once leaves Montana, has seen more of the world than you or I or most of the world’s fictional characters. She understands life’s too-short sweetness and its dark monsters; she is both a complete original and utterly believable.” The Billings Gazette, meanwhile, calls RUTHIE FEAR “one of the most powerful and resonant novels of 2020,” and Loskutoff “a brilliant and thoughtful writer.” W. W. Norton & Company published the book on September 1, 2020.