Lesley Poling-Kempes is the author of two books that bring to light the remarkable stories of women a century ago who loved and lived upon the same landscape she calls home, Ladies of the Canyons: A League of Extraordinary Women and Their Adventures in the American Southwest, and The Harvey Girls.

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Born and raised in Westchester County, New York, Lesley’s love affair with the high desert of Abiquiu and Northern New Mexico began when she first visited Ghost Ranch on a family vacation as a child. After college, she moved full time into the Indio-Hispano world of Abiquiu and began to write the real and imagined stories of her adopted community.

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Lesley’s work has won the Reading the West Book Award, The Southwest Book Award, the WILLA Award for both scholarly Nonfiction and Contemporary Fiction and the Tony Hillerman Award for Fiction. We are thrilled to have her as a Guest Speaker for this wonderful 50th Anniversary event.