Sponsored by Friend of the Festival
Chris Enss is a New York Times best-selling author who has been writing about women of the Old West for more than 30 years. She has penned more than 50 published books on the subject. Her work has been honored with nine Will Rogers Medallion Awards, two Elmer Kelton Book Awards, an Oklahoma Center for the Book Award, three Foreword Review Magazine Book Awards, the Laura Downing Journalism Award and a Willa Cather Award from Women Writing the West for scholarly nonfiction. Enss’s most recent works are "The Doctor Was A Woman: Stories of the First Female Physicians on the Frontier," "An Open Secret: The Story of Deadwood’s Most Notorious Bordellos," "The Widowed Ones: Beyond the Battle of the Little Bighorn," "Along Came a Cowgirl: Daring and Iconic Cowgirls of Rodeos and Wild West Shows" and "Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont 'The Fifth Marx Brother.'"
Awards: Academy of Western Artists Elmer Kelton Book Award, Oklahoma Historical Society Outstanding Book on Oklahoma History, Western Writers of America Spur Finalist, True West Magazine Best Historical Non-Fiction Author 2017
Communities: Tucsonan