Meet the 2025 Inductees

 Jim Butcher is the author of the Dresden Files series, the Codex Alera series, and a new steampunk series called Cinder Spires in addition to over 30 other books. Several have been made into TV movies. He has been nominated for The Hugo Award (science fiction's highest honor) three times as well as for the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. He’s a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author.

His Dresden Files series is beloved among countless readers, and the TV series by the same name only increased the audience. He actively participates in live-action, role-playing games and community games with his fans and other gamers.

According to Butcher, his resume includes a laundry list of skills which were useful a couple of centuries ago, and he plays guitar quite badly. However, his gaming skills are outstanding, as he is a regular on tabletop games in varying systems, a variety of video games on PC and console, and LARPs whenever he can make time for it. Jim currently resides mostly inside his own head, but his head can be found in the mountains outside Denver.

Jim goes by the moniker, Longshot, in a number of online locales. He came by this name in the early 1990s when (tonge in cheek) he decided he would become a published author. Usually only three in a thousand who make such an attempt actually manage to become published; of those, only one in ten make enough money to call it a living. The sale of a second series was the breakthrough that let him beat the long odds against attaining a career as a novelist.

All the same, he refuses to change his nickname. Be sure to visit his website: www.Jim-Butcher.com.

 Jim Davidson is a writer … and a high-altitude climber. From his 43 years of climbing mountains around the world, he shares adventurous tales that reveal how to grapple with change, challenge, and uncertainty, all stemming from the cultivation of a resilient mindset, resilient teamwork, and resilient leadership.

Davidson grew up working as a painter for his father’s industrial painting company. As a teenager, he climbed and painted churches, bridges, and high-voltage electrical towers that soared 200 feet tall. Jim is not afraid of heights.

While working as an environmental geologist for twenty years, Jim wrote many scientific reports, technical papers, and chapters in technical books. His first full book, The Ledge: An Inspirational Story of Friendship and Survival, won the National Outdoor Book Award for Outdoor Literature and then became a New York Times bestseller. Written with Kevin Vaughan, a local Denver 9News journalist and former writer for several newspapers, Amazon picked The Ledge as one of the Best Books of the Year and as a Top Sports & Outdoor title.

The Next Everest: Surviving the Mountain’s Deadliest Day and Finding the Resilience to Climb Again, was selected as an Amazon Editors Pick, became a Colorado Book Award finalist, and has been published in five international editions. In it, Jim shares gripping adventures from summiting Mount Everest, surviving earthquakes and escaping alone from within an 80-foot deep glacial crevasse.

As an inspirational speaker, Jim shares resilience lessons with corporations and conferences. He has spoken to over a thousand audiences across the USA and internationally. His compelling survival stories have appeared in documentaries for Netflix, National Geographic, Smithsonian Channel, and the Discovery Channel’s hit show, “I Shouldn't Be Alive.”

Jim lives in Fort Collins with Gloria, his wife of 35 years, who volunteers as his unpaid alpha reader! His website is www.SpeakingOfAdventure.com. He still climbs mountains.

Mary Ellen Gilliland is a local historian, storyteller, author and hiking enthusiast in Summit County. She was honored with the Theobald Award for Historic Preservation for her work to preserve and record Breckenridge’s history. With 18 books and nearly 200 articles to her name, she was recognized by the American Heritage Committee of the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution with the prestigious Women in the Arts Recognition Award.

At age 12, Mary Ellen Gilliland was an awkward pre-teen with glasses, freckles and braces on her teeth. Enormously self-conscious, she hid behind trees when boys approached from the opposite direction. Then something significant occurred. She wrote a story which earned her an A+. Her teacher commented that she possessed the talent to be a writer someday. Stunned by her comment, Mary Ellen marveled at the thought …. a writer! So, at age 16, she attended a writer’s workshop for high school students. Her writing came to life.

She served as co-editor of her high school newspaper. Her ideas apparently were deemed inflammatory, so the high school powers-that-be paired her with a conservative co-editor to tone down her maverick tendencies.

Mary Ellen’s first national magazine article appeared the day after graduating from Marquette University. She landed a job at Manhattan’s Newsfront Magazine, writing feature articles and learning to typeset, lay out pages, insert photos and create paste-ups for the graphic arts cameras (long before computers eased the tedious process of preparing for the printer). Those skills led her to the creation of AlpenPress to publish her work and that of others in book form and the publication of her Colorado gold rush history books.

Now retired with hundreds of thousands of books sold, Gilliland always will remember gratefully the teacher who inspired her to write.

Francine Mathews writes under two names: her own and also as Stephanie Barron, her middle and maiden names. She has published over 30 books.

One of her books, Too Bad to Die, confirmed her place as a master of historical fiction and as a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice pick. It also was recognized as the International Thriller of the Year. Many have likened her insights to those of Ian Fleming’s. She is featured in Great Women Mystery Writers.

As author Francine Mathews, she wrote two series: one set in Nantucket featuring police officer Meredith "Merry" Folger, the latest in a long line of police officers in her family, including her father who is also her boss. Family and genealogy played an important part of the series. Mathews has stated that with this series she tried to "capture the difficult life in New England today" and the "bitter and embedded economic issues" facing the fishing industry. Her second series are spy thrillers based on her time working with the CIA.

As author Stephanie Barron, Mathews penned historical novels featuring the English novelist, Jane Austen, as an amateur sleuth. The books are presented as lost diaries merely edited by Barron. Mathews carried out considerable research into Austen as background to the series, especially using Austen's correspondence as a key source.

Francine earned a BA degree in European History at Princeton University. While there, she wrote for the university newspaper, which led to several big city newspaper jobs. She pursued an MA at Stanford University in Latin American History but left to work at the CIA as an intelligence analyst. After the publication of her first book, she started writing full-time. She calls Denver home.

Check her out at: www.FrancineMathews.com.

Dr. Linda Seger began writing when she was ten years old and wrote her first (and only) very, very short novel when she was thirteen. She wrote short stories and poetry for many years, taught drama at several colleges, and began working in the film industry as a script consultant in 1981. Dr. Seger has written ten books on screenwriting, the most prolific writer in this area, and taught screenwriting in 33 countries on six continents. Over the course of her career, Linda worked on approximately 2,500 screenplays, helping screenwriters hone their craft and solve script problems. Her expertise also has been sought as a copyright infringement expert witness.

Her seminars led to her first book in 1987, Making a Good Script Great. Director Ron Howard endorsed that book, saying, “[This book] has informed all my movies starting with Apollo 13.” 

A plethora of awards have been given to Linda for her work as a script consultant and for innovation in the film industry including: Living Legacy Award from the Moondance International Film Festival for her contributions and support of women in the film and television industry; the Louis T. Benezet Award awarded by her alma mater, Colorado College, for innovation in the field of drama and theology; and the Redemptive Storyteller Lifetime Achievement Award from the Redemptive Film Festival.

Additionally, she has written eight books on spirituality, specifically on the Quaker faith and practices. Seeger’s latest book is her memoir, Unpacking. Her books have received a number of book awards, including the Bookvana Book Award, Illumination Book Award – Enduring Light Medal Inspirational Gold Medalist, Book Fest “Best Book” Award, and Christian Writers for Life (CWFL) Book Award.

Linda and her husband, Peter, live happily in Cascade, Colorado, with their magnificent cat. Visit her website: www.LindaSeger.com.

 Over the past six decades, Oscar ‘Osi’ Sladek has been regarded as a dedicated and respected professional and cultural / educational leader in Colorado’s Jewish community. Oscar is a child survivor of the Holocaust from Presov, Czechoslovakia ,now Slovakia, who immigrated to the United States in the late 1950s and settled in Colorado in 1960 with his wife, Selma Rosen Sladek.

An accomplished composer, musician, singer and author, his memoir, written with Corinne Joy Brown, Escape To The Tatras - A Boy, A War And A Life Interrupted) is hailed as “… a masterpiece of love and survival” by James Carroll, winner of the National Book Award. It is written through the lens of a nine-year-old boy, providing a unique insight into the suffering and survival of children during the Holocaust. 

After WWII, Osi emerged as a popular folk artist in Israel where he served in the Israel Defense Forces for three years as musical director and composer of the Northern Command Entertainment Corps. Sladek later performed in the folk music scene in Hollywood during the late 1950s. In 1960, he headlined the Colorado Folk Festival at the Denver Auditorium Arena, sharing the stage with Judy Collins, Odetta, and Josh White.

Osi dedicated his life to Holocaust awareness and education. Today, he is one of the state’s most prolific speakers, addressing thousands of children and adults of all backgrounds. His musical performances and speaking have continued throughout the Rocky Mountain Region, Southern California and Canada. He has also provided steadfast guidance as a community leader who spent the bulk of his career working as executive director of Jewish community non-profit organizations.

In 2019, Governor Jared Polis presented Osi with an award honoring his “commitment to inspire understanding, moral courage and social responsibility” at the Mizel Annual Dinner, one of Colorado’s largest philanthropic events.

More at: www.EscapetotheTatras.com

Tommy Spaulding is the founder and president of Tommy Spaulding Companies, a leadership development, speaking, training, and teambuilding organization based in Denver.. A world-renowned speaker on leadership, he has spoken to thousands of organizations, associations, educational institutions, and corporations around the globe. His first book, It’s Not Just Who You Know: Transform Your Life and Your Organization by Turning Colleagues and Contacts into Lasting, Genuine Relationships quickly climbed to the top of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today national bestseller lists.

His second book, The Heart-Led Leader: How Living and Leading from the Heart will Change Your Organization and Your Life was a New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal national bestseller. It was also listed in Inc’s Top 100 Business Books of 2015. Tommy’s latest book is The Gift of Influence: Creating Life-Changing and Lasting Impact in Your Everyday Interactions, published in 2022, landing it on the Wall Street Journal’s national bestseller list

Tommy received a BA degree in political science from East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. He later earned a master’s degree from Bond University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. Spalding spent most of his career at the world-renowned leadership organization, Up with People, rising to become its youngest president and CEO.

In 2000, Tommy founded Leader’s Challenge, which grew to become the largest high school civic and leadership program in the state of Colorado. He is the founder and president of the Global Youth Leadership Academy, as well as the National Leadership Academy, a leading national nonprofit high school leadership development organization.

The National Leadership Academy is a four-day summer program held in Denver which engages high school students in leadership training, service learning and civic engagement through participation in an intensive summer academy; Kid's Challenge is a program currently in development which is designed to engage and immerse elementary school children in basic leadership and learning activities.

Daniel Tyler - details coming soon.

New York Times bestselling author, Dr. Stephen White, was a college dropout from his creative writing class after only three weeks, declaring it a "loathsome experience."

Eventually, he completed college and earned a PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Colorado in 1979.

During those college years, he learned to fly small planes, worked as a tour guide at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, cooked and waited tables at a French cafe in Berkeley, and tended bar at the Red Lion Inn in Boulder.

Trained as a clinical psychologist, Stephen became known as an authority on the psychological effects of marital disruption, especially on men. White's research has appeared in Psychological Bulletin and other professional journals and books. After receiving his doctorate, White worked in private practice and also at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. In addition, White served as a staff psychologist at The Children's Hospital in Denver, where he focused his attention on pediatric cancer patients.

Dr. White used his background to help him create believable characters and exciting, action-packed thrillers. He was still practicing full-time when he wrote his first book in 1989, Privileged Information, a mystery/thriller. He retired from writing in 2012, publishing his last book.

Stephen is best known for the extensive Alan Gregory series that began with Privileged Information, bridging a 20-book series about clinical psychologist under avocational detective, Alan Gregory. The last book, Compound Fractures closed out the series.

In the series, his main character’s wife, Lauren Crowder, plays a major role, a storyline describing her multiple sclerosis woven throughout his books. He used his storytelling skills to help readers understand what the disease is. He knows first-hand how to write about this often-debilitating disease … he has it!

His books are set in Boulder, describing in vibrant detail a variety of locations around the city.

Rebecca Yarros  became a published author in 2014 at age 33, with her novel, Full Measures, for which she was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Awards Debut. Since then, she completed 22 other novels—that makes over two/year! Her latest writing endeavor involves a new fantasy series, the Empyrean, which is scheduled to be turned into a TV series on Amazon Prime at a later date. future Yarros completed the third in that series of five books in 2025.

Sheis a #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author.

Rebecca’s list of other awards is lengthy: e recipient of the British Book Award for Book of the Year, the Alex Award from the American Library Association, the Australian Book Industry Awards International Book of the Year, the Goodreads Choice Awards Romantasy, and the Dragon Awards Fantasy. In 2024, TikTok awarded Fourth Wing as its BookTok Book of the Year

A graduate of Troy University in Troy, Alabama, she studied European history and English. Rebecca loves military heroes and has been blissfully married to hers for over twenty years.

As the mother of six, when she’s not writing, you can find her at the hockey rink or sneaking in some guitar time. She and her family live in Colorado Springs with their stubborn English bulldogs, two feisty chinchillas, and two cats who rule them all. 

Having fostered and then adopted their youngest child, Rebecca is passionate about helping children in the foster system through her nonprofit, One October, which she co-founded with her husband in 2019. To learn more about their mission to better the lives of kids in foster care, please visit www.OneOctober.org. 

To catch up on Rebecca’s latest releases and upcoming novels, visit www.RebeccaYarros.com.

Lucile Christy Bennett, 1898 - 1968

Lucile Christy Bennett was born in Nebraska in 1898. Soon after, her family moved to Yankton, South Dakota. Against her father’s wishes, she married Fred Eberhart in 1919. Fred was injured during World War I and became an itinerant Methodist minister. His shady reputation kept Lucile and him moving around South Dakota, Utah and finally, Colorado.

Divorcing Fred in 1934, she was left with six young children and little money. They lived in seedy hotels on Larimer Street before finding a small house at 11th and Clayton. Lucile stayed in the area, determined that her children should receive a good education, even if they were the poorest kids in class. She went on ‘the dole’ to keep her family fed and stay in her home.

To supplement meager funds, Lucile started writing, selling stories and articles wherever she could. In 1936, she anonymously penned an article for the Christian Century magazine titled, “What Shall I Teach My Children?” The story sought to confront prejudices toward people who relied on public assistance. Editors at the Rocky Mountain News discovered the story and sought to identify its author. When they found it was Lucile using her pen name, Eve Bennett, they offered her a staff position. Soon, she was elevated to editor of the Women’s section.

In 1937, Lucile married Carl Haberl, a veteran of the U.S. Cavalry. She would have him read her work and noted: “He was my toughest critic.”

Under the pan name of Eve Bennett, Lucile continued producing short stories that appeared in national publications and teenage romance novels, stating, “I am actually on the side of young people. It seems to me they are doing a good job of trying to learn to be responsible and intelligent in a world they never made.”

Lucile Haberl died in September 1968, after having written five published novels, now all out of print.

Kent Haruf, 1943 – 2014

Before becoming a writer, Kent Haruf  worked in a variety of places, including a chicken farm in Colorado, a construction site in Wyoming, a rehabilitation hospital in Denver, a hospital in Phoenix, and a presidential library in Iowa. He was 41 years old when his first short story, Now (And Then), was accepted for publication in the literary magazine, Puerto del Sol.

Over the next thirty years, he authored six novels and co-wrote a book of prose and photography. All of his books became national bestsellers.

His novels have been translated into 30 languages and include:
Plainsong. a finalist for the National Book Award, The New Yorker Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and the Book Sense Book of the Year Award. It won the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association Award, the Salon.com Book Award, the Society of Midland Authors Award, the Alex Award from the American Library Association, and the Evil Companions Literary Award. It was selected as a Notable Book of the Year by both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.

Eventide received the Colorado Book Award and was a finalist for the Book Sense Book of the Year Award. It was selected as a Notable Book of the Year by a number of newspapers.

Benediction was an Indie Pick by the Independent Booksellers and was voted the #1 book of 2013 by Indigo Books, the largest bookstore chain in Canada.

Our Souls At Night was produced as a film with Robert Redford and Jane Fonda and presented at the Venice International Film Festival. The U.S. premiere took place in New York City.

Three of his books, Plainsong, Eventide, and Benediction were adapted for the stage by the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

Wilfred “Perry” Eberhart , 1898 - 1968

Wilfred “Perry” Eberhart was born in Yankton, SD and moved to Colorado when he was three years old. His heart never left. He grew up in Denver as one of six children and a single mother. After graduating from East High School, he enlisted in the Navy and spent two years in the Pacific theater during World War II. Afterward, he enrolled at the University of Colorado where he met his future wife, Sandy. They were married in 1949 and set sail for Paris a year later, where Perry studied at the Sorbonne and found his muse as a writer.

After Paris, Perry worked as a beat reporter, determining that newspaper work was not for him. He returned to CU for a teaching certificate. Teaching was rewarding but fraught with bureaucracy and antagonistic administrators. Throughout it all, he developed a powerful love for the history of Colorado. Collaborating with Alan Swallow who ran a small publishing operation known as Sage Press, they published a variety of books including: Guide to Colorado Ghost Towns and Mining Camps, Treasure Tales of the Rockies, The Fourteeners and Ghosts of the Plains.

Following the devastating flood in 1965, Perry was appointed to be executive director of the South Platte Area Redevelopment Commission. Other activities included an inaugural board member of the Regional Transportation District, executive head of the Colorado Centennial/ Bicentennial Commission and compiling an inventory of historic sites for the Colorado Historical Society. He was hired as press secretary for Roy Romer’s 1966 senate campaign.

 He is survived by two sons, Dan and Pete, and daughter, Eve. Eight grandchildren and seventeen great-grandchildren carry on the family’s love of Colorado.