Greensboro, N.C. – Award‑winning novelist Jamie Lisa Forbes announced the release of four new books that delve into ambition, hardship, family and the courage required to shape a meaningful life. The titles—Sunny Gale—A Novel, Unbroken, the short‑story collection The Widow Smalls and Other Stories, and EDEN—offer readers a range of American fiction set in the West and the changing South.
Local Roots Inspire Authentic Stories
Forbes grew up on a ranch near Laramie, Wyoming, giving her firsthand experience with ranching life, horses, harsh weather and close‑knit rural communities. After earning degrees in English and philosophy, she returned to Wyoming, ranched and raised a family for fifteen years, then earned a law degree and opened a legal practice in Greensboro.
Sunny Gale—A Novel
Set on the Nebraska plains in the late 1800s, the novel follows Hannah Brandt, a determined young woman who discovers a talent for riding. Refusing the limited future prescribed for women of her era, she enters the rodeo world, adopts the name Sunny Gale and battles competition, marriage, motherhood, injury and the fight to preserve women’s place in rodeo. The character draws inspiration from historic female rodeo figures such as Prairie Rose Henderson and Bonnie McCarroll. Sunny Gale—A Novel earned a Will Rogers Silver Medallion for historical fiction, was a finalist for the Feathered Quill Book Awards (women’s fiction) and the Eric Hoffer Book Awards (historical fiction), and was listed in Kirkus Reviews’ Best Indie Books of 2024.
Unbroken
Returning to rural Wyoming, Unbroken follows ranch wife Gwen Swan and single mother Meg Braeburn as they survive a punishing winter. Their friendship becomes a lifeline as they confront poverty, isolation, infidelity and the demands of ranch life. The novel received the 2011 WILLA Literary Award for Contemporary Fiction, praised for its emotionally complex characters and vivid depiction of small‑town hardship.
The Widow Smalls and Other Stories
The six‑story collection explores rural families, abusive relationships, generational expectations and quiet rebellion. In the title story, Leah Smalls decides who she will become after her domineering husband’s death, symbolically dismantling the identity that confined her. The collection won the 2015 High Plains Book Award for Short Stories.
EDEN
Set in 1950s White Rock, North Carolina, EDEN opens with the murder trial of Franklin White. Ten‑year‑old Eden Whitney testifies that she saw White shoot her father, drawing eighteen‑year‑old Rowen Hart into a tale of family secrets, racial and class prejudice, grief and moral responsibility that challenges an entire community’s assumptions.
Across all four books, Forbes writes about people striving to stay whole when families, communities and circumstances threaten to define them. Her work will appeal to readers of literary, historical, Western, Southern and character‑driven fiction, especially those who appreciate stories of resilient women.
All of Forbes’s titles are available for purchase directly through her website jamielisaforbes.com.
Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.
