SPECIAL EVENTS

March 23, 2019, 1:00 - 3:00 pm

Readings in the Museum by noted southwestern writers, including authors Jan Cleere, Barbara Marriott, Catherine Ellis and Sharon Miller. Event included with daily admission charge.

Author, historian, and lecturer Jan Cleere has been writing and speaking about the people who first settled in the desert southwest for the past twenty years. She is a magna cum laude graduate of ASU West with a degree in American Studies and an emphasis on writing. She is a Roads Scholar with Arizona humanities and serves on the Coordinating Council of the Arizona Women’s Heritage Trail, an organization dedicated to linking women’s history to historic sites throughout the state. Her column, “Western Women,” appears monthly in Tucson’s Arizona Daily Star newspaper detailing the lives of some of Arizona’s early amazing women.

Jan is the award-winning author of five books and featured in three anthologies. Her most recent book, “Never Don’t Pay Attention:” The Life of Rodeo Photographer Louise L. Serpa, was the 2016 winner of the New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards for best Arizona biography and best Arizona book. Levi’s & Lace: Arizona Women Who Made History was a 2012 finalist for the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. Amazing Girls of Arizona: True Stories of Young Pioneers won the 2009 Arizona Book Publishing Association Glyph award for best young adult nonfiction and was named one of the best books of 2009. Outlaw Tales of Arizona was recognized nationally in 2007 as winner of the National Federation of Press Women's Literary Competition for Historical Nonfiction. More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Nevada Women was a 2006 WILLA Literary Award Finalist. The Nevada Women's History Project elected Jan to its Roll of Honor for her significant contribution in the preservation of Nevada's women history. Jan’s freelance work appears in national and regional publications.

Barbara Marriott has written fiction and nonfiction tales of the old west for over fifteen years. She is the author of 13 books. These include nonfiction stories of the people and places in the southwest, and two fictional stories with an 1800 pioneer female detective. Her first book, Annie’s Guest, the story of a luxurious hotel in the old southwest, is still winning readers. Her latest Paint ‘N Spurs, biographies of the men who founded the Cowboy Artists of America, was a finalist in the International Book Awards, and selected as Best Arizona Book in the 2017 New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards. Marriott had also authored two military history books.

Marriott’s life as a fashion copywriter, management consultant, and university profession helps her look at life through many lenses.  Her PH.D in cultural anthropology adds a nice tint to her stories and her life.

Catherine H. Ellis, B.S. '68, was the 2017 winner of the Sharlot Hall award for the living Arizona woman who has made a major contribution to Arizona history. Born in Holbrook, Arizona, Cathy has published ten books and twelve journal articles on Arizona history, plus a few other items about history in other parts of the country. She has served on the editorial board for the Journal of Arizona History and currently serves on the Oracle Cemetery Association board. Initially, her training was in biology and she married David H. Ellis, an author in his own right whose books focus on endangered species and raptors. But her passion has always been Arizona history, particularly people whose lives would otherwise have gone unrecorded. Her most recent book, Pioneer Women of Arizona, was published in 2017 by BYU's Religious Studies Center and Deseret Books.

After a long career in education in Maryland, Sharon K. Miller moved to Tucson where she taught for the Southern Arizona Writing Project at the University of Arizona and mentored student teachers for UA South. Currently, she is the owner of Buckskin Books, offering editing, book design, ebook formatting, and self-publishing services. As an author, her research into the archaeology, history, and prehistory of Southern Arizona led to the Clay Series, three books that take place in the Tucson area, but with a focus on what is now the Romero Ruin in Catalina State Park. The Clay Remembers was published in 2015, The Clay Endures in 2016,and The Clay Sustains in 2017. She is currently working on her fourth book, tentatively titled, Indigo Girl, which is a sequel to The Clay Remembers but is not considered part of the Clay Series.