About BOSW
Welcome to The Best of the Southwest (BOSW). Founded by long-time journalist, editor, author and illustrator Erin Thorburn, BOSW is an online magazine designed to highlight luxury and unique experiences throughout the Southwest. Throughout her 20-plus-year writing career, Thorburn has had the pleasure of covering some of the Southwest’s most coveted and classic destinations.
Why the Southwest?
Living in Arizona for more than a decade, Thorburn discovered that in addition to the wealth of luxury and dynamic resorts, spas, restaurants, shopping and entertainment locales within her home state, many neighboring Southwest states provide a host of sister locations, as well as their own individual, spectacular offerings.
Many individuals who live in the Southewst, like Thorburn, have grown to appreciate the region for its rich lifestyle, travel and adventure opportunities. The goal of BOTSW is to invite anyone and everyone seeking to soak up The Best of the Southwest through engaging content. We’re so glad to have you and hope that you find an experience to spur a visit to our beautiful and bountiful Southwest.
What does BOSW consider “Southwest?”
We try not to split hairs about defining what states truly encompass the Southwest. Broadly, you’ll find that we provide lifestyle coverage for Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Southern California, Texas and Utah — and occasionally, Mexico. And, we reserve the right to publish any remarkable experience that may tip into Southwest neighboring states.
Meet the BOSW team:
Erin Thorburn
Founder & Creative Director
Erin Thorburn is an accomplished writer, journalist, photographer and illustrator with more than 20 years of experience covering travel and lifestyle trends and news stories in the Southwest.
She is currently a PR writer with Arizona-based Aker Ink and is a former assistant managing editor at AZ Big Media, writing and editing for all seven of the company’s publications —Az Business, AZRE, Experience AZ, PTK, Az Business Leaders, Play Ball and Ranking Arizona. She also occasionally co-hosts the award-winning “Art Scene Podcast” and “Scottsdale.com Podcast.”
Erin earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English with an emphasis in creative writing from Park University.
In addition to authoring and illustrating children’s books, the self-professed Star Wars nerd moonlights as a Sci-Fi novelist. If she’s away from her laptop, she’s spending time with her sweetie, three teenage daughters, two dogs, five birds and a bunny.
Lynette Carrington
Contributing Writer
Lynette Carrington is an award-winning writer, award-winning podcast host and media specialist with more than 16,000 articles published locally, nationally and internationally in the past 20 years.
She is currently co-host of “The Arts Scene Podcast,” The Scottsdale.com Podcast and a contributing writer for San Joaquin Magazine, Gilbert City Lifestyle and Arizona Health & Living.
Lynette is a huge fan of movies and was previously a publicist in the entertainment industry.
Carrington is currently the script supervisor and show flow manager for the Big Screen Achievement Awards at CinemaCon, the largest global gathering of theatre owners held by the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO), taking place annually at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
A.M. D’Angelo
Contributing Writer
A.M. D’Angelo is an independent writer, aspiring novelist, playwright, screenwriter, poet, scenario writer for interactive media, and occasional auteur of pop-cultural milieu via her blog, Hidden City.
In 2021 she self-published her first novel, Saturday Mornings Forever, in-addition to a stage play in 2022 entitled, Father We Never Knew: A Stage Play in II Acts. Some of her credits include assisting in the production of electronic press kits (EPK’s) for indie bands at Matador Records; in 2014 being awarded a scholarship and mentored fellowship for Digging Deep, Facing Self, a NYC-based women’s writing collective, with two of her poems selected for publishing; and in 2019, development credit for Vin & Jill, an independent television-pilot and proof-of-concept filmed in Brooklyn.
When not writing, D’Angelo enjoys photography, film, theatre, interactive entertainment and the subliminal art of long-distance running.
