When Skye was fifty years old and pursuing double major

Associate Degrees (Library Tech and History) she was advised by a wise professor to "Choose a part of history that you love, then dig deep. Learn all you can and become an expert in that subject."

That's exactly what she did and continues to do!

FORGOTTEN FEMALE FELONS

The Colorado Territorial Prison was built in Cañon City in 1871. One year later, the first female felon was found guilty of poisoning her husband with strychnine and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

These women from our collective past faced many of the same challenges that contemporary women confront today. Issues such as female sexuality, abortion access, pregnancy and childbirth, domestic violence, addiction and economic instability remain as relevant now as they were then.

Using original prison intake sheets and other historical documents, award-winning author Sherry Skye Stuart skillfully tells these forgotten female felon’s imagined stories and restores their dignity as women, weaving their accounts with compassion, truth and imagination.

Delve into Catherine’s tale, a renowned midwife sent to prison for committing abortion.

Weep at May’s and Lizzie D.’s tragic stories of abuse and addiction.

Delight when Gertie's typewriter becomes the vehicle for telling her story sixty years later.

Chuckle when Bertha’s granny decides to use her fancy dresses to make a crazy quilt.

Explore the inner workings of the prison Female Department through the writings of two Matrons - Catherine and Susan.

Based on facts and entwined with elements of culture and human nature, these historical fiction stories cast light on an overlooked thread in the tapestry of the American West. Their lives are equally as real and important as the cowboys and outlaws, soldiers and explorers.

2025 Oklahoma Writers Federation Inc. 3rd place Unpublished Historical Fiction Book “Forgotten Female Felons.”

2025 Oklahoma Writers Federation Inc. 1st Honorable Mention Short Story – Western “Catherine.”

2023 Women Writing the West 3rd place LAURA Short Fiction "Mayfield."

Here is the link to read "Mayfield":

I am proud and honored to receive these awards

FORGOTTEN FEMALE FELONS is a book of historical fiction stories about the early women incarcerated in the Territorial, then Colorado State Prison, from roughly 1872 to the early 1900s. The bones of the stories are based on facts, then woven with elements of history, culture, and human nature, specifically female.
Stuart has created a unique book about an overlooked piece of the American west. These women’s stories are just as valid, real, and interesting as the explorers, soldiers, and cowboys.

Here is the link to read "Mayfield": I am proud and honored to receive these awards

Here is the link to read "Mayfield":

I am proud and honored to receive these awards