Authors series showcases women in Skirting Traditions
The Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott showcases the individual women featured in Skirting Traditions: Arizona Women Writers and Journalists 1912-2012 throughout the 2013 calendar year. Contributors to the anthology present about the women they wrote about for the book, followed by Q&A.
Copies of Skirting Traditions will be available for purchase and signing. For more information, email sheilaroe@msn.com. Contact the Sharlot Hall Museum, (928)445-3122 or http://www.sharlot.org. Thanks to APW member Elizabeth Bruening-Lewis for coordinating this informative series with the museum.
The programs scheduled through August are as follows:
January 20 – Mary Kidder Rak
Sheila Roe presents about Arizona writer and cattlewoman Mary Kidder Rak. Rak, who was born in 1879 and had a degree in history from Stanford, moved with her husband, Charlie, to a remote cattle ranch in the far southeastern part of Arizona in 1918. She wrote classic stories about her life on an Arizona ranch, including A Cowman’s Wife: An Autobiography (1934) and Mountain Cattle (1936).
March 10 – Louise DeWald
Pam Knight Stevenson shares her experiences with Louise DeWald. Dewald was the Arizona Republic food editor for the Sunday magazine section Arizona Days and Ways and a cookbook author. Stevenson’s research includes an oral history interview shortly before she died and interviews with her family. DeWald’s cookbooks include Arizona Highways Heritage Cookbook and Outdoor Cooking: From Backyard to Backpack.
March 24 – Olgivanna Lloyd Wright
Brenda Kimsey Warneka presents about Olgivanna Lloyd Wright. Wright was the third wife of Frank Lloyd Wright from 1928 until his death in 1959. Warneka’s research included interviews at Taliesin West with people who knew Wright. In addition to the role she played in her husband’s success, Wright wrote a newspaper column about life at Taliesin and authored several books, including The Struggle Within, Roots of Life, and Frank Lloyd Wright: His Life, His Work, His Words.
April 7 – Mary Jane Phillippi Shoun
Pam Knight Stevenson presents on Mary Jane Phillippi Shoun. Shoun, a pioneer radio broadcaster in Flagstaff. She was a multi-talented journalist who excelled in diverse media careers throughout her life. After moving to the Phoenix area, she worked as a radio broadcaster, public relations expert, and as a newspaper reporter and editor at various publications, including the Glendale Star, Peoria Times, and Maryvale Star.
April 21 – Sunday, 2 p.m.- 4 p.m.- Anna Moore Shaw
Barbara Lacy presents on Anna Moore Shaw. Shaw, a Pima Indian, was born at a time when her family lived much as had earlier generations, but was quickly adopting a modern Anglo lifestyle. Shaw’s concern for preserving the oral Pima stories from her youth was the impetus for her to go to college after her children were grown so that she could preserve the stories. She wrote Pima Indian Legends and her autobiography, A Pima Past.
May 5 – Sunday, 2 p.m.- 4 p.m. – Patricia Myers
Carol Osman Brown presents on Patricia Myers. Myers was a reporter, columnist and editor for major newspapers and magazines in the greater Phoenix area before branching out to national and international publications, and then becoming a public relations consultant and internationally known jazz critic.
May 19 – Sunday, 2 p.m.- 4 p.m.- Pauline Bates Brown
Brenda Kimsey Warneka will make a presentation about Pauline Bates Brown. Brown was the first woman Sunday editor at the Arizona Republic and the only woman in the country in 1942 to hold the job of state director for the Office of War Information. She was the press officer for the Japanese-American internment camp at Poston, Ariz., and later worked for the Indian Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior in Phoenix.
June 16 – Sunday, 2 p.m.- 4 p.m. – Eleanor (“Ellie”) Mattausch
Gail Bornfield shares about Ellie Mattausch, broadcaster on radio and TV news shows in the Phoenix area, and later news editor of the San Pedro Valley News in rural southeastern Arizona. She was the first woman editor of the Fort Huachuca Scout, where she filed and won the first equal pay case in Arizona. She eventually helped start and manage the Oracle monthly newspaper in Pinal County.
June 30 – Sunday, 2 p.m.- 4 p.m. – Yndia Smalley Moore
Elizabeth Breuning-Lewis presents on Yndia Smalley Moore, a relative of her husband. Moore was the daughter of well-known Arizonan newspaper legend George Smalley and granddaughter of a Minnesota newspaper publisher. She created the publication that became the Journal of Arizona History and edited her father’s reminiscences in My Adventures in Arizona: Leaves from a Reporter’s Notebook.
July 28 – Sunday, 2 p.m.- 4 p.m. – Betty Kruse Accomazzo
Sheila Roe shares on Betty Kruse Accomazzo. Accomazzo, a member of the Arizona Cowbelles, preserved Arizona ranch family histories as the compiler and editor of seven volumes of Arizona National Ranch Histories of Living Pioneer Stockman.
August 11 – Sunday, 2 p.m.- 4 p.m. – Phyllis G. Leonard
Carol Osman Brown talks on Phyllis G. Leonard. Leonard, a self-taught writer with a business background who was the author of seven internationally published novels, including Prey of the Eagle and Mariposa, plus numerous magazine and newspaper articles. Leonard was an important Arizona author who helped readers learn about the frontier West from women’s points of view and brought history to life in an educational and entertaining manner.
Celebrate Lllama of Death Jan. 20
Enjoy chocolate and champagne as Arizona Press Women celebrates best-selling mystery writer Betty Webb’s newest book, The Llama of Death.
Sunday, Jan. 20, 1‐4 p.m.
At the home of Barbara Lacy in Paradise Valley
RSVP by Friday, Jan. 18, to apw.reservations@gmail.com
The critics are embracing The Llama of Death. Publishers Weekly writes “Animal lore and human foibles spiced with a hint of evil test [zookeeper] Teddy’s patience and crime‐solving in this appealing cozy.”
January newsletter highlights member happenings
The latest issue of the TypeRider, APW’s monthly newsletter, is chalk full of information and photos. Find out more about:
- the 2013 NFPW Communications Contest (entries due Feb. 1)
- the Jan. 20 celebration of the publication of Betty Webb’s latest mystery, The Llamas of Death
- upcoming publishing workshops by Lynda Radke
- the lastest happenings from members
- NFPW updates
- and more!
Click January 2013 to read more.
Communications contest entries due Feb. 1
Feb. 1 is the postmark deadline for At-Large entries for the 2013 National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest. Arizona will not have a state contest this year.
Work that wins a first place in the at-large or state contests goes on to the national contest. Winners of the national contest will be notified by June 1 and will be recognized at the NFPW annual conference in Salt Lake City in August.
The contest year is Jan. 1 – Dec. 31, 2012.
The deadline is Feb. 1, 2013, for all entries, including books.
The entry fee is $20, with checks made payable to the National Federation of Press Women.
Contest categories and the national entry form can be found at NFPW Communications Contest. Check the at-large box and submit two forms with each entry.
At-large contest entries should be mailed to Cathy Petrini, NFPW At-Large Contest Director, 10 W. Alexandria Ave, Alexandria VA 22301-2015
Questions have come up about Category 63 (essay, chapter or section of a book) and whether entering multiple parts of a single book should constitute a single entry or multiple entries with multiple entry fees. Contact Brenda Warneka if you have this issue.
New members or former members who did not renew their dues in 2012 can still enter the contest by paying dues now. Please contact Brenda Warneka for more information.
Questions may be emailed to Cathy Petrini, At-Large Contest Director, or call her at (703) 739-8186. State contact is Brenda Warneka.
‘Skirting Traditions,’ Arizona Press Women anthology, now available
Skirting Traditions: Arizona Women Writers and Journalists 1912-2012 releases today, Feb. 1. The Arizona Press Women anthology was the culmination of almost three years of effort.
Written by 18 award-winning members of APW, the anthology is designated as an Arizona Centennial Legacy Project by the Arizona Historical Advisory Commission, and will be promoted at state events throughout the centennial period, beginning with an expo on the state capitol grounds in conjunction with Arizona’s 100th birthday on Feb. 14.
To order the 308-page paperback, which retails for $22.95, visit the Tucson-based publisher Wheatmark, Amazon or Barnes & Noble. An e-version of the book is planned for a later release. It can also be ordered through brick-and-mortar book stores, ISBN is 9781604945973.
For more information on the project, go online to Skirting Traditions; like the Facebook page, follow on Twitter or email the editors.
Skirting Traditions is a history book, presented as a collection of short stories, moving forward from the beginning of statehood in 1912 to the modern day. Each story chronicles the life of a woman writer or journalist in Arizona who made a significant contribution to the history of the state, beginning with Sharlot Hall, who campaigned to have Arizona admitted to the Union as a separate state, and ending with Jana Bommersbach and Pam Knight Stevenson. The women who appear in the book were chosen through a nomination process and are representative of many others throughout the state during the centennial period.
“We anticipate that the public, historians, journalists and devotees of the Old West will be interested in reading about the remarkable women profiled in this anthology,” says Brenda Warneka, a co-editor who conceived of the project.
Other co-editors are Carol Hughes, Lois McFarland, June P. Payne, Sheila Roe and Pam Knight Stevenson.
The stories in Skirting Traditions were researched and written by members of APW, who, in addition to the coeditors, include Gail Bornfield, Vera Marie Badertscher, Carol Osman Brown, Jan Cleere, Jane Eppinga, Marion E. Gold, Carol Jean La Valley, Barbara Bayless Lacy, Elizabeth Bruening Lewis, Patricia Myers, Marion Peddle and Arlene Uslander.
The Skirting Traditions book project is sponsored by the National Federation of Press Women Education Fund, a 501 (c)(3) organization. Proceeds from sales will fund scholarships for Arizona journalism students at Arizona institutions of higher learning.
Arizona Professional Writers 