Women Who Write Westerns

 

Women Who Write Westerns

The Western genre has long been associated with rugged cowboys, open frontiers, and masculine heroism. However, women writers have played a crucial role in shaping and reshaping the genre, challenging conventions, and broadening its thematic horizons.

Historical Context: Early Women Western Writers

In the early days of the Western, women were often relegated to secondary roles—both on the page and behind the pen. Yet even in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, women like B. M. Bower (Bertha Muzzy Sinclair) were crafting bestselling Westerns. Bower’s Chip of the Flying U (1906) became a classic, offering a more nuanced take on cowboy life.

Similarly, Zane Grey’s sister, Romer Zane Grey, was an early woman in the genre, though overshadowed by her brother’s fame. Women often used male pseudonyms or initials to gain readership in a male-dominated market.

Mid-Century Expansion: Westerns and the Female Perspective

The 1940s through 1970s saw a shift. Women like Dorothy M. Johnson (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) explored morally complex frontiers, often focusing on themes of justice, loneliness, and cultural collision. Johnson's stories were frequently adapted for film, demonstrating the cinematic power of her narratives.

Mari Sandoz, a Nebraskan author and historian, wrote Westerns that emphasized Native American perspectives and the harsh realities of prairie life. Her Old Jules and Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas remain foundational works in “revisionist” Western storytelling.

Contemporary Western Writers: Women Rewriting the Frontier

Modern women writers continue to innovate within the Western genre, blending it with elements of romance, historical fiction, fantasy, and feminist critique. Notable figures include:

Paulette Jiles: Her novel *News of the World (2016), which was a National Book Award finalist, follows a retired soldier and a young girl across post–Civil War Texas, challenging traditional frontier masculinity.

Elmer Kelton’s contemporary, Jane Candia Coleman, who writes poetic and deeply emotional Western fiction, often centering women’s lives in the rough terrain of the American Southwest.

Linda Lael Miller, known for romantic Westerns that blend heart and grit, Miller’s prolific career shows the commercial viability of women writing love and loss on the range.

Leila Meacham and Sandra Dallas, who blend family saga with frontier legacy, often centering women’s domestic, emotional, and economic power.

Diverse Voices: Expanding the Genre’s Identity

Women of color have also contributed to reshaping the Western landscape. Their narratives introduce readers to underrepresented experiences on the frontier.

Toni Morrison’s Paradise, while not a traditional Western, is deeply embedded in the landscape of the American West and its racial histories.

Ana Castillo and Sandra Cisneros, through their borderland writing, highlight Chicana experiences in Western settings.

Natalie Diaz and Debra Magpie Earling are part of a growing group of Indigenous women authors challenging colonial mythologies embedded in Western tropes.

Themes and Transformations: What Women Bring to the Western

Women writing Westerns often:
- Reimagine the “hero” through moral ambiguity and emotional depth.
- Center domestic labor, caregiving, and female resilience.
- Explore community, generational legacy, and the land as both a burden and a birthright.
- Disrupt colonial and patriarchal narratives by including Indigenous, Black, Latinx, and queer perspectives.

Women at the Heart of the Western Myth

Women writers have long been present on the literary frontier, reshaping the Western genre into a multifaceted exploration of justice, identity, land, and survival. Their contributions ensure that the Western is not merely a relic of cowboy myths but a living genre capable of growth, challenge, and inclusivity.

As new generations of writers pick up the pen—and the lasso—they continue to write women into the landscapes where they have always belonged.