Sunny Gale—A Novel, Unbroken, The Widow Smalls and Other Stories and EDEN illuminate the lives of unforgettable characters shaped by the American West and the changing South.
Greensboro, North Carolina/USA – September 10, 2026-Award-winning author Jamie Lisa Forbes presents four compelling works of American fiction that explore ambition, hardship, family, injustice and the courage required to create a meaningful life. Through Sunny Gale—A Novel, Unbroken, The Widow Smalls and Other Stories and EDEN, Forbes introduces readers to ordinary people confronting extraordinary emotional, social and physical challenges.
Raised on a ranch near Laramie, Wyoming, Forbes brings firsthand knowledge of ranching life, horses, unforgiving weather and close-knit rural communities to her writing. After earning degrees in English and philosophy, she returned to Wyoming, where she ranched and raised a family for fifteen years. She later earned a law degree and established a legal practice in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Her newest historical novel, Sunny Gale—A Novel, follows Hannah Brandt, a determined young woman who discovers her gift for riding after moving to the Nebraska plains in the late nineteenth century. Refusing to accept the limited future prescribed for women of her era, Hannah enters the rodeo world and reinvents herself as Sunny Gale.
After a triumphant bronc ride, she publicly claims the name that will define her career, describing a “sunny gale” as sunlight breaking through a fierce spring snow squall. Her journey takes readers through exhilarating competitions, complicated marriages, motherhood, rivalry, grief, injury and the fight to preserve women’s place in rodeo.
The novel draws inspiration from the remarkable but often overlooked history of female rodeo competitors. Sunny is modeled partly on Prairie Rose Henderson, while rival rider Ruth Pickering is inspired by Bonnie McCarroll.
Sunny Gale—A Novelwas a recipient of numerous honors, including a Will Rogers Silver medallion for excellence in historical fiction. The novel was a finalist for the Feathered Quill Book Awards (women’s fiction category) and a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Awards (historical fiction category). Kirkus Reviews honored the novel with a listing in its Best Indie Books of 2024.
In Unbroken, Forbes turns to rural Wyoming, where ranch wife Gwen Swan and single mother Meg Braeburn meet during a punishing winter. Gwen is increasingly suffocated by domestic expectations, family conflict and the isolation of ranch life. Meg, meanwhile, is trying to provide for her young son while rebuilding her life after leaving an unreliable husband who is serving time in prison.
Their developing relationship becomes a lifeline as both women confront poverty, disappointment, motherhood, pride and difficult choices. Set against harsh winters, relentless wind, livestock emergencies and a community in which neighbors depend upon one another, the novel presents rural life without romanticizing its demands.
Unbroken received the 2011 WILLA Literary Award for Contemporary Fiction. Judges praised its emotionally complex characters and its distinctive focus on two strong women struggling to preserve their relationship amid infidelity, single motherhood, poverty and small-town isolation.
The award-winning collection The Widow Smalls and Other Stories contains six works: “Ramona Dietz,” “Lincoln’s Nephew,” “His Mild Yoke,” “Crack-the-Whip,” “The Good War” and the title story. Together, they explore rural families, abusive relationships, generational expectations, grief, social pressure and the quiet rebellion of people who no longer wish to live according to someone else’s rules.
In the title story, Leah Smalls must decide who she will become after the death of her domineering husband. Her transformation culminates in the symbolic dismantling of the identity and property that confined her, as she moves toward a future in which she is no longer simply “the Widow Smalls.” The collection won the 2015 High Plains Book Award for Short Stories.
EDEN transports readers to 1950s White Rock, North Carolina. The novel begins during the murder trial of Franklin White, who is accused of killing his brother-in-law. Ten-year-old Eden Whitney takes the witness stand and declares that she saw White shoot her father. Her testimony draws eighteen-year-old Rowen Hart into a story involving family secrets, racial and class prejudice, grief, moral responsibility and unexpected relationships that challenge the assumptions of an entire community.
Across all four books, Forbes writes about people attempting to remain whole when their families, communities and circumstances threaten to define them. Her stories will appeal to readers of literary fiction, historical fiction, Western fiction, Southern fiction and character-driven stories about resilient women.
Get the Books
All of Jamie Lisa Forbes’s books are available to purchase directly through her official website.
Visit: jamielisaforbes.com
Explore the collection and order your copies directly from the author’s website.
About Jamie Lisa Forbes
Jamie Lisa Forbes was raised on a family ranch in southeastern Wyoming. She earned degrees in English and philosophy from the University of Colorado, lived and worked in Israel and later returned to Wyoming to ranch and raise her family. She subsequently graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Law and established a legal practice in Greensboro. Her fiction has received numerous honors and awards.
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Jamie Lisa Forbes
Website: jamielisaforbes.com
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