Encore for More Speakers Program will host Jim Turner for a presentation covering five Arizona novelists: Zane Grey, Harold Bell Wright, Richard Summers, Eva Antonia Wilbur Cruz and Susan Lowell.

Turner’s presentation, entitled “Writers of the Purple Sage,” is a play-on-words of Grey’s novel, “Riders of the Purple Sage,” which Turner will cover, along with an overview of the written works of the other aforementioned authors.

The novelists

Grey spent his honeymoon at the Grand Canyon and, according to a press release, went on to be one of the first and most famous Western writers of all time.

Wright came to Tucson with lung problems and became a bestselling author from 1900 to 1930. The University of Arizona Writing Professor, Richard Summers, wrote “Dark Madonna,” in 1937.

Capturing Hispanic culture and folklore, Cruz describes ranch life and the blending of Tohono O’odham, Hispanic and Anglo folkways in, “Beautiful Cruel Country.”

Lowell wrote an award-winning young adult novel about a young Arizona ranch girl entitled, “My Name is Lavina Cumming,” based closely on the life of her grandmother.

Before retiring from the Arizona Historical Society, Turner worked with more than 70 museums across Arizona. He co-authored the fourth-grade textbook, “The Arizona Story.” Turner’s pictorial history book, “Arizona: Celebration of the Grand Canyon State,” was a 2012 Southwest Books of the Year selection.

Turner moved to Tucson in 1951 and earned an M.A. in U.S. history from the University of Arizona in 1999. He taught Arizona history for more than 40 years. Turner is the author of “The Mighty Colorado from the Glaciers to the Gulf,” “Four Corners USA: Wonders of the American Southwest” and “Arizona: A History of the Grand Canyon State.”

“Writers of the Purple Sage” will be held today, Wednesday, April 12, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. in the Community Center.

This event is free for Community Center members and $5 for non-members. Pre-registration is required on the Town of Fountain Hills website, fountainhillsaz.gov/230/Special-Presentations. The course number is 1492.

Encore for More Speakers Program is supported by a grant from the Phoenix-based non-profit organization, Arizona Humanities.