Lesley Poling-Kempes
Author Talk & Book Signing: Ladies of the Canyons
Wednesday, December 2, 3 pm
El Zaguán
545 Canyon Road, Apt 2
Complimentary community programming | Advanced Registration is recommended to guarantee seating
Join the Historic Santa Fe Foundation at El Zaguán for an engaging presentation and book signing with award-winning author Lesley Poling-Kempes.
Poling-Kempes will discuss her acclaimed nonfiction book, Ladies of the Canyons: A League of Extraordinary Women & Their Adventures in the American Southwest—the true story of remarkable women who left the comforts of Victorian society at the turn of the 20th century to forge new lives, art, and communities in the high desert.
Following the talk, the author will answer audience questions and sign copies of Ladies of the Canyons. Books will be available for purchase.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Ladies of the Canyons tells the true story of remarkable women who left behind the comforts of Victorian society for the high desert of the American Southwest. Educated, restless, and intrepid, figures like Natalie Curtis, Carol Stanley, Alice Klauber, and Mary Cabot Wheelwright were transformed by the region's people and landscapes in the early 20th century. Alongside visionaries such as Mabel Dodge Luhan, Mary Austin, and Willa Cather, they helped forge Santa Fe’s iconic art and literary colony—crossing paths with Theodore Roosevelt, Robert Henri, and Native leaders while defining a bold new identity for women during the emergence of the Modern Age.
Praise for “Ladies of the Canyons”
“Poling-Kempes has done an admirable job scouring archives for these women, who have been largely left out of the historical record of the West. It's a kind of prequel to our common history of the Southwest, peopled by women with long skirts and cinched waists in the desert heat, riding cowboy style, trying to do right by the land they all loved.” –-Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times
“Part Willa Cather, part Thelma and Louise, here is a story of heroines, of mischief-makers and epic-builders, told by a writer who knows and loves the grand landscapes on which these larger-than-life women left their indelible mark.”—Hampton Sides
Contact Anne Kelly at anne@historicsantafe.org for more information
ABOUT THE TALK
Lesley Poling-Kempes is the award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction books about the American Southwest, including “The Harvey Girls: Women Who Opened the West,” “Ghost Ranch,” and the novel, “Bone Horses.”
Her most recent book, “Ladies of the Canyons: A League of Extraordinary Women & Their Adventures in the American Southwest”, won the Reading the West Book Award for nonfiction and the WILLA Literary Award, and was the recipient of the Harris Award for Outstanding Achievement given annually by the New Mexico Book Association.
Lesley is currently completing the sequel to “Bone Horses,” and also a new book of nonfiction about early 20th century Santa Fe. She has made her home near Abiquiu, New Mexico since the late 1970s.
Contact Anne Kelly at anne@historicsantafe.org for more information
ABOUT THE AUTHOR