Sandra Dallas

Sandra Dallas is a highly accomplished American author, well-known for her fiction and non-fiction books written for adults, young adults, and children. She earned her degree in journalism from the University of Denver and embarked on her writing career as a reporter for Business Week, where she spent 25 years covering various topics, including penny-stock scandals, hard-rock mining, western energy development, and contemporary polygamy. Many of these experiences have inspired her fiction. Dallas is often described as a quintessential American voice, with her novels exploring themes of friendship, loyalty, and human dignity. She has won numerous awards and prizes for her work, including the National Cowboy Hall of Fame Western Heritage Wrangler Award, Independent Publishers Assn. Benjamin Franklin Award, Women Writing the West Willa Award, and two-time winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award.

Sandra Dallas was born in Kansas and raised in Colorado. After graduating from the University of Denver with a degree in journalism, she began her writing career by working for Business Week as a reporter. She spent more than twenty years at the magazine, where she covered the Rocky Mountain region and became the first female bureau chief. During her time as a reporter, Dallas wrote about a wide range of topics, from penny-stock scandals to contemporary polygamy. Many of these experiences have inspired her fiction. Dallas has written ten nonfiction books and eight novels, all of which have been well-received by critics and readers alike. Her work has been translated into a dozen foreign languages and has been optioned for films. She is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes and was inducted into the Colorado Authors' Hall of Fame in 2021. Dallas lives in Denver, Colorado, with her husband, Bob, and has two adult daughters.
Standalone Novels
# Title Year
1 Buster Midnight's Cafe 1990
2 The Persian Pickle Club 1995
3 Prayers for Sale 1997
4 The Diary of Mattie Spenser 1997
5 Alice's Tulips 2000
6 The Chili Queen 2002
7 New Mercies 2005
8 Tallgrass 2007
9 Whiter Than Snow 2010
10 The Bride's House 2011
11 The Quilt Walk 2012
12 True Sisters 2012
13 Fallen Women 2013
14 Red Berries, White Clouds, Blue Sky 2014
15 A Quilt for Christmas 2014
16 The Last Midwife 2015
17 Hardscrabble 2018
18 The Patchwork Bride 2018
19 Someplace to Call Home 2019
20 Westering Women 2020
21 Little Souls 2022
22 Tenmile 2022
23 Where Coyotes Howl 2023
Non-Fiction Books
# Title Year
1 No More Than Five in a Bed 1962
2 Gaslights and Gingerbread 1965
3 Cherry Creek Gothic 1971
4 Yesterday's Denver 1974
5 Sacred Paint 1979
6 Colorado Ghost Towns and Mining Camps 1985
7 Colorado Homes 1986
8 The Quilt That Walked to Golden 2004
Sandra Dallas Anthologies
# Title Year
1 The Spoilt Quilt and Other Frontier Stories 2019