“Sassy Texas Women: Three Centuries of Ranchers, Spies, Gunrunners, Bankers, Lawyers & Educators.”
Carmen Goldthwaite, career journalist and syndicated investigative reporter, bent those skills into a spade to unearth stories of Texas women ranchers, lives and tales little known or long forgotten. In her words, “I went for the women who really ran the ranches themselves, either by default of death of husband or father, or by their own initiative.” A seventh generation Texan, she is the author of Texas Ranch Women: Three Centuries of Mettle and Moxie (2014) and Texas Dames: Sassy and Savvy Women throughout the Lone Star State (2012). Her articles have appeared in the New York Times; Dallas Morning News; Houston Chronicle; and Fort Worth Press. Her reporting led to statewide awards and syndication with Scripps-Howard News. In 2013, she won “Best in Short Fiction” in a national competition while her novel, Whispering Spirit, made its way to finalist in two national contests. Her essay “Night Bull” appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Miracles Happen. Another, “Burgers and Butterflies,” appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Magic of Mothers and Daughters. Other publication credits include Wild West, True West, American Cowboy, Fort Worth Texas Magazine, Persimmon Hill, and Latitudes & Attitudes. Her work has also appeared in the anthologies This Way West and Wild Women of the Old West. Goldthwaite teaches creative writing, including narrative nonfiction, at Southern Methodist University. She has served as a director and past vice president-elect of Archives of Women of the Southwest at SMU’s De Golyer Library; Writer-in-Residence at Texas Christian University’s Schieffer School; and former director of the Friends of the Fort Worth Library.