Jan Cleere is the author of six award-winning historical nonfiction books detailing the lives of early pioneers who first ventured into the desert southwest. Her freelance work appears in national and regional publications including Arizona Highways Magazine, Persimmon Hill Magazine, Phoenix Woman, Tucson Guide Quarterly, The Desert Leaf, Chronicle of the Old West, and Arizona Garden. She is a presenter for the Arizona Humanities program Arizona Speaks and writes a monthly column for Tucson’s Arizona Daily Star newspaper, “Western Women,” recounting the lives of some of Arizona’s early amazing women