Jana's Voice Is Gone But Her Words Live On

 September 28, 2024

   Thanks to one of Jana's best friends, that would be Athia Hardt—we now know that Jana Bommersbach wrote 370 articles for True West! Wow. That is a ton of writing, excuse me, great writing from Arizona's most awarded journalist in the state's history.

   Here is how her editor puts it:

Jana Still Dancin With The One

Who Brung Her.

   Here's a sneak peek at Stuart's book take on Jana in the next issue of True West magazine.

From the Pen of Jana Bommersbach
   The silence is deafening. When the pen of a great writer is put down for the last time and the words stop singing from their hand to the page, we all hear it. And it is louder than you can imagine.
   Since Jana Bommersbach’s passing on July 17, 2024, in Fargo, North Dakota, her voice and joy, her words and wishes, her curiosity and imagination—her passionate pursuit of justice and bringing voice to the voiceless—was suddenly and quietly silenced. Odd and strange how that happens. It will happen to all of us—but no matter who it maybe—or the circumstances surrounding each of our last moments on this earthly plain—the quiet that surrounds someone who made their living with words—with storytelling—is not silent at all. In fact, their words, their voice, their wanting to share what they just learned, roars in our ears.
   How will we keep Jana’s voice heard beyond our own imagination? The best and only way I know is to keep reading her writing—sharing it with others—and sharing stories of her with all those willing to listen and be inspired.
   The best place to start is True West’s archives. Jana, a dear and close friend of TW’s Executive Editor Bob Boze Bell for 50 years, was a contributor to the magazine from almost the first month BBB owned it. She was a trailblazer on women’s history in the Western magazine and 25 years of columns and features beg to be edited into follow-up volumes to Hellraisers & Trailblazers: The Real History of The Wild West.
   Where else can you find Jana’s voice? Go online and you will find her byline in the pages of The Arizona Republic, The New Times and Phoenix Magazine. She also brought her voice to television, where Jana’s great sense of justice and humor can be discovered in her contributions to PBS and KTVK-TV3. For those of us who followed her writing, she seemed omnipotent, there was nothing she could not do.
   And how about her books: take the time to go back and rediscover Jana’s writing, including her novel Cattle Kate: A Mystery, her biography The Trunk Murderess: Winnie Ruth Judd and Bones in the Desert: The True Story of a Mother’s Murder and a Daughter’s Search.
   I promise you—once you start reading Jana Bommersbach—her voice will never be silenced and her voice will always be with you.

—Stuart Rosebrook

   That my friends is pure poetry.

Opening spread, Nov-Dec issue of True West

"There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money either."

—Robert Graves