Historian Barbara Tuchman defines history as "simply a good story" and award-winning "Forgotten Female Felons - Book One" is a book of "good "historical fiction short stories about the early women incarcerated in the Colorado Territorial, Prison in Cañon City, from 1872 to the early 1900s.

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    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 cast light on an overlooked thread in the tapestry of the American West and are just as valid, real, and interesting as the explorers, soldiers, and cowboys.

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     Using original never-before-accessed prison intake sheets and other historical documents, weaving their accounts with compassion, truth and imagination, award-winning author Sherry Skye Stuart skillfully tells these women’s imagined stories and restores their dignity as women, weaving their accounts with compassion, truth and imagination.

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     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.   

  

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

         Weep at 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.

         

         "Forgotten Female Felons - Book One" is a book that you'll long remember, stories of secrets, stories and second chances.

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     I first met these women in 2010 in the basement archives of the Colorado Museum of Prisons. Their faces tugged at my heart and imagination, as I carefully scanned the fragile intake sheets bound into thick bulky ledgers.

      Each intake sheet detailed the facts of their incarceration - name, age, crime, location, parents, spouse, occupation, literacy, drug use, length of imprisonment, and release.

      All of it fascinating reading. What stuck with me however, were their faces and dresses and hats. They looked like "normal" women, not like criminals. I realized that they were someone's mother, sister, cousin, neighbor. They were real women with real stories.

     After I developed my presentation of the same name, I delved even deeper. I found some of these women on census records, in newspaper articles, court records. As women, most of them had disappeared from public records.

      In time, I began writing fiction stories about possibilities, envisioning them as whole women, not just about the worst thing they had ever done. Or maybe they didn't even commit the crime. I'll never know their truths but I can honor their lives by telling their imagined stories and restoring their dignity as women, 

     FORGOTTEN FEMALE FELONS  was published

June 22, 2025. The Book Launch was hosted by the Museum of Colorado Prisons. 

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FORGOTTEN FEMALE FELONS, the Unpublished Historical Fiction Book, won third place in May 2025 from Oklahoma Writers Federation, Inc.

"Catherine" a story from the book, was award 1st Honorable Mention in the 2025 Short Story category from Oklahoma Writer's Federation.

"Mayfield" a short story from the book won Third Place in the LAURA  Short Fiction contest from Women Writing the West. 

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"Stuart has masterfully blended real-life stories with wit, compassion and empathy.These women were  early prison inmates from all walks of life. Stuart brought their stories to life in her colorful style."

Linda Womack, award-wining author and 2023 Colorado Author's Hall of Fame Inductee.

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"Based on real women with real tragedies in their lives, these poignant stories can rip your heart out and give you hope. Either way, it's a delight to follow them on their journeys."

Karima Diane Alavi, Author.

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"The stories are heartbreaking but the subject matter is so timely right now. Even if you;re not interested in history, read this book. I guarantee you'll find it inspiring."

Vicki Felmlee, award-winning author of "Autumn" and "The Silver Moon Stallion."​​​