Jane Little Botkin - The Pink Dress - Audiobook Tour

Memoir of a Reluctant Beauty Queen

Memoir

Date Published: September 30, 2025

Publisher: She Writes Press/Tantor

Narrator: Ann Marie Gideon

Run Time: 8 hours and 4 minutes

For fans of Little Miss Sunshine and Secrets of Miss America, this memoir from a national award-winning author reveals the reality of being the first Guyrex Girl in the 1970s. Beauty pageant stories have never been this raw, this real.

Growing up in West Texas, Jane Little Botkin didn't have designs on becoming a beauty queen. But not long after joining a pageant on a whim in college, she became the first protégé of El Paso's Richard Guy and Rex Holt, known as the "Kings of Beauty"—just as the 1970's counterculture movement began to take off.

A pink, rose-covered gown—a Guyrex creation—symbolizes the fairy tale life that young women in Jane's time imagined beauty queens had. Its near destruction exposes reality: the author's failed relationship with her mother, and her parents' failed relationship with one another. Weaving these narrative threads together is the Wild West notion that anything is possible, especially do-overs.

The Pink Dress awakens nostalgia for the 1960s and 1970s, the era's conflicts and growth pains. A common expectation that women went to college to get "MRS" degrees—to find a husband and become a stay-at-home wife and mother—often prevailed. How does one swim upstream against this notion among feminist voices that protest "If You Want Meat, Go to a Butcher!" at beauty pageants, two flamboyant showmen, and a developing awareness of self? Torn between women's traditional roles and what women could be, Guyrex Girls evolved, as did the author.

Share Link

Audiobook Tour - November 3 - December 5

November 3 - RABT Book Tours - Kick Off

November 4 - Momma and Her Stories - Excerpt

November 5 - Books 1987 - Spotlight

November 6 - Texas Book Nook - Review*

November 7 - Book Corner News and Reviews - Spotlight

November 10 - My Bookmarked Reads - Spotlight

November 11 - Tea Time and Books - Spotlight

November 12 - On a Reading Bender - Review

November 13 - Nana's Book Reviews - Spotlight

November 14 - A Life Through Books - Interview

November 17 - Crossroad Reviews - Spotlight

November 18 -My Reading Addiction - Interview

November 19 - The Indie Express - Review

November 20 - Wine Cellar Library - Excerpt

November 21 - Ella English - Excerpt

November 24 - Always Reading - Interview

November 25 - Sapphyria's Books - Spotlight

November 26 - The Faerie Review - Spotlight

November 28 - The Avid Reader - Interview

December 1 - Book Reviews by Virginia Lee - Spotlight

December 2 - Book Junkiez - Excerpt

December 3 - Liliyana Shadowlyn - Spotlight

December 4 - Novel News Network - Review

December 5 - RABT Reviews - Wrap Up

About the Author

A NATIONAL AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR, JANE...

melds personal narratives of American families often with compelling stories of western women. Jane is a late bloomer as an author. After teaching for thirty years, she was honored by the Texas State Legislature by formal resolution for her work with local history and education in 2008. She edited and directed publishing fifteen volumes of Texas local history with her former students before she decided to write on her own. Jane's first book propelled her membership on the Western Writers of America board and later as its vice president. Jane continues to judge entries for the WWA's prestigious Spur Award; reviews new book releases; authors articles for various magazines; and speaks to groups in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas.

JANE'S FIRST TWO WORKS HAVE WON NUMEROUS AWARDS IN HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY AND WOMEN'S STUDIES...

including two Spur Awards, two Caroline Bancroft History Prizes, the Texas Book Award, and the Barbara Sudler Award for the best book written on the West by a woman. Jane was also a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award, High Plains Book Award, two Women Writing the West’s Willa Literary Awards, Independent Book Award, Foreword Indies Book Awards, and Sarton Book Award.

Released in fall 2024, Jane’s third book—what she calls her Covid book—is The Pink Dress, A Memoir of a Reluctant Beauty Queen, a Foreword Indies Book Award winner in pop culture and Women Writing the West's Willa Literary Award finalist in creative nonfiction. The narrative brings far West Texas to life during the 1970s’ American Counterculture era.

Jane's newest book, The Breath of a Buffalo, A Biography of Mary Ann Goodnight, will be released from the University of Oklahoma Press tentatively in fall 2026.

Today Jane blissfully escapes into her literary world in the remote White Mountain Wilderness near Nogal, New Mexico, when she is not speaking at various events or preparing for her next nonfiction book.

Contact Links

Website: https://janelittlebotkin.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JaneLittleBotkin/?ref=bookmarks

Twitter: https://x.com/jane_l_botkin

Blog: https://janelittlebotkin.com/conversations/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/211350374-the-pink-dress?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=Rm1VksGy7I&rank=1

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janebotkin/

Purchase Links

Coming Soon...

Page updated

Report abuse