Rodeo Queens

This “delectable slice of Americana” ( ) explores “the glitter and the glamour of the rodeo subculture and, at the same time, some of its deepest contradictions.” ( is a bittersweet journey into the lives of women who have worked the rodeo circuit in the rural West from the 1930s to the present. For over eight years, Joan Burbick traveled the backroads of the West, searching for “rodeo queens,” the women who promote and perform in the elaborate pageantry of the rodeo. She interviewed dozens of queens in their living rooms, kitchens, barns, and ranches. She followed current queens down the rodeo road from tiny Western towns to the show- biz glitter of Las Vegas. Through their stories we witness dramatic changes in the rodeo, including the decline of skilled horse handling, the fierce conflicts over gender and race, and the intense commercialization of the rodeo. Combined with Burbick’s wonderful collection of rodeo queen photographs, this rich tapestry of women’s voices echoes and challenges our clichs of the rural West. Their stories of fulfilled dreams and lost hopesreveal the tenacity of the myth of the American West, a place of muscled men, golden-haired women, relentless beauty

Author Biography

Joan Burbick teaches American Studies at Washington State University. Born in Chicago, she has lived in the Palouse region of northern Idaho and eastern Washington for the last twenty years, writing, raising a family, and, in her free time, working with horses.