Fiction set in the American frontier, typically the 19th century West, exploring themes of law, justice, survival, and the edge of civilization.
Western fiction is set in the American frontier, usually between the Civil War and the early 1900s, and centers the tensions of a society without established law: outlaws and sheriffs, settlers and Indigenous peoples, cattle ranchers and railroad companies. The landscape (deserts, mountains, open plains) is as much a character as the people. The genre has evolved from its mythic, cowboy-centric roots to include more diverse perspectives and more honest engagement with the frontier's violent history.
The Western is one of the foundational genres of American fiction and has influenced every genre that deals with lawless settings, moral codes, and frontier survival. Understanding its conventions helps you write any story set on the edge of civilization, whether that's the American West, a space colony, or a post-apocalyptic settlement.
The Western stripped of its mythology and confronted with its own violence, widely considered a masterpiece of American fiction.
A cattle drive from Texas to Montana, with characters so vivid they feel like people you've actually known.
An aging news reader transporting a young girl across post-Civil War Texas, a quiet Western about connection and storytelling.
Write a scene set in a frontier town where a stranger arrives. Without dialogue for the first 200 words, use the town's physical details and the townspeople's reactions to establish whether this is a place of law or lawlessness. The setting should tell the story before anyone speaks.