Award winning Southwestern author, journalist and photographer Sharon Niederman’s debut novel, Return to Abo, was released by University of New Mexico Press in 2005 to enthusiastic reviews and an immediate second printing. Inspired by stories she collected from New Mexico ranch women and rooted in two decades of writing on the history, culture, environment, art, agriculture, lifeways and cuisine of the Southwest, this novel celebrates the traditions of rural life.

“Return to Abo is about a small town in southeastern New Mexico that can’t decide if it wants to live or die,” the author says. “It is a contemporary novel about three generations of women living on a small ranch who are struggling to make peace with each other and with the land.”

One of the region’s most prolific freelance writers, Niederman’s work frequently appears in Sunset Magazine, New Mexico Magazine, the Santa Fe New Mexican, the Albuquerque Journal and many other publications. She is the author and editor of six books on Southwest culture, two of which have won the Border Regional Library Southwest Book Award for “contribution to the history and culture of the Southwest.” She is writer and photographer of The Santa Fe & Taos Book: Great Destinations, A Complete Guide, Seventh Edition, to be published by The Countryman Press, a division of W.W. Norton, in April, 2006.

Niederman also tours state wide as a guide with the University of New Mexico’s Continuing Education program, the “Story of New Mexico.” She was recently appointed by Governor Bill Richardson to the board of directors of the Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces. She is a member of New Mexico Press Women, Women Writing the West, the Society of American Travel Writers and the Chuckwagon CowBelles.