Jan Cleere is the author of six award-winning historical nonfiction books detailing the lives of early pioneers who first ventured into the desert southwest. Her freelance work appears in national and regional publications including Arizona Highways Magazine, Persimmon Hill Magazine, Phoenix Woman, Tucson Guide Quarterly, The Desert Leaf, Chronicle of the Old West, and Arizona Garden.
She is a presenter for the Arizona Humanities program Arizona Speaks and writes a monthly column for Tucson’s Arizona Daily Star newspaper, “Western Women,” recounting the lives of some of Arizona’s early amazing women.
In 2001, Jan received recognition from Arizona Highways Magazine for her article, “Hostess to the West,” the life of Elizabeth Hudson Smith, a Black entrepreneur in Wickenburg, Arizona, during the early 1900s.
Also in 2001, Jan was a finalist for the Sharlot Hall Alice B. Longan award (Prescott, Arizona), which encourages serious women writers at the beginning of their literary careers.
The Arizona Newspapers Association honored Jan for a series of historical profiles she wrote for Phoenix Woman Magazine, and the Nevada Women’s History Project named her to its Roll of Honor for her significant contribution in the preservation of Nevada women’s history.
Her freelance work appears in national and regional publications.