Sharon Niederman is an award-winning Southwestern author and photographer living in northern New Mexico. She specializes in cuisine, travel, history, women's history, and spirituality. Her 2012 book, Signs & Shrines , received the prestigious Lowell Thomas Travel Writing Award and the Society of American Travel Writers Gold Award. She has twice received the Border Regional Library Association Southwest Book Award for "literary excellence and enrichment of the cultural heritage of the Southwest." Her articles have appeared in Sunset, New York Times, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, Albuquerque Journal, Santa Fe New Mexican, Denver Post, and many other publications. She serves on the board of the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum and is past president of New Mexico Press Women and the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society.