Vonn McKee

Vonn McKee brings deep storytelling to the western genre, rich with emotion and vivid pictures of a beautiful but unforgiving land and the hardy, spirited people who settled it. She often weaves real-life historical events into her writing, adding realism and intimacy to the characters and storylines.

Vonn broke into the western writing scene in 2014 with The Songbird of Seville, a short story that was chosen as a Spur Award finalist by Western Writers of America. That same year, The Gunfighter’s Gift was named a finalist for the Peacemaker Award for short fiction by Western Fictioneers.

She grew up in the Red River Valley of Louisiana, where her mother’s family settled in the mid 1800s, and spent summers at the northwestern Minnesota ranch where her father grew up, picking up details about horses, cattle, and agriculture. Inspired by seeing her grandfather stretched out on a sofa reading Zane Grey novels (some of which were passed down to her), she owned a complete ZG set herself by age eighteen. Vonn loved hearing her grandmother relate stories of her childhood spent on the Dakota prairies, which were similar to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s accounts in the Little House series of books.

Vonn McKee now calls Tennessee home. She has reviewed books for Roundup and True West magazines and, although her first love is writing short fiction, she is working on a historical novel series.