Santa Fe Literary News

Jimmy Santiago Baca New Book Prompts Talk of His Life and Purpose

2011-05-04T11:35:00.001-06:00

By Verona Winn

Noted New Mexico poet Jimmy Santiago Baca is giving his children a gift of words. For each of his four children he is writing a book of poetry. The first Breaking Bread with the Darkness—The Esai Poems was recently celebrated at Collected Works Bookstore. His daughter Lucia will receive the next book in the series.
    Baca chose the Collected Works for the early April reading because he signed the original contact for the books sixteen months ago at the store. He said he was closing a circle, going back to where he started.
    Between reading the poems he wrote for his son, Baca talks about moments and events from his turbulent past. A runaway from home at age 13, he was arrested for a crime and imprisoned for five years. Illiterate, he taught himself to read and write during his imprisonment. He began to write poetry, working in the dark when the prison guards turned the lights off. When he was released, he recalled, walking into the woods to sit and write in the dark again.
    His first collection of poems was soon published.
    At Collected Works, he recalled a time he came across some old newspapers accounts of his arrest. When he looked at the pictures of his younger self, he couldn’t believe he was once that man. The younger version of himself was so filled with anger. The older, wiser self, he said, has found love in his family and children. He has let the past go and found joy in his children and family, Baca said.
   Baca’s event at Collected Works was not solely to promote his new book of poetry but also to raise funds for a film company comprising his own son, Gabriel Baca and New York filmmaker Daniel Califf-Glick. They hope to produce Baca’s book A Place to Stand as a documentary.
    Anyone wishing to contribute to this fund can write or email Cedar Tree, Inc. P.O. Box 9311, Albuquerque, NM 87119 or aplacetostand.documentary@gmail.com for information

Pioneers of Sixties Counterculture to Read in Taos March 22 and March 30

2011-03-21T21:04:00.010-06:00

The SAGE Institute for Environment, Creativity & Consciousness has joined with two Taos arts institutions to cosponsor readings by two important leaders of the Sixties counterculture. Both events are free and open to the public.

On Tuesday, March 22, from 4 to 6 pm, pioneering psychologist Ralph Metzner will give a lecture and reading at Moby Dickens Bookshop from his recent memoir collaboration with Ram Dass: BIRTH OF A PSYCHEDELIC CULTURE: CONVERSATIONS ABOUT LEARY, THE HARVARD EXPERIMENTS, MILLBROOK AND THE SIXTIES.

Published by the independent Santa Fe-based Synergetic Press, which has been publishing books about ethnobotany, biospheric science and cultures for several decades, BIRTH OF A PSYCHEDELIC CULTURE is an inside look at the seminal 1960s work of Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert (Ram Dass’s birth name) and Ralph Metzner, the cultural resistance to their experiments and the way in which psychoactive drug use became a part of contemporary society. Metzner has been involved in consciousness studies--including psychedelics, shamanism, yoga and meditation--for more than 50 years. He is the author of seminal books on the cartography of consciousness (Maps of Consciousness), ceremonial uses of ayahuasca and mushrooms (Sacred Vine of Spirits and Sacred Mushroom of Visions) and ecological consciousness (Green Psychology: Transforming Our Relationship to the Earth), among many others. He was the editor of The Psychedelic Review for 10 years.

Metzner will be available to sign books from 4 to 6 pm and will read from BIRTH OF A PSYCHEDELIC CULTURE at 5 pm. Moby Dickens Bookshop is located at 124A Bent Street, #6 Dunn House, downtown Taos. For more information call (575) 758-3050 or email mobyop@newmex.com.

On Wednesday, March 30, at 7:00 pm, Lenny Foster's Living Light Gallery, SAGE Institute and Neem Karoli Baba Ashram present an evening with the spiritual teacher Ram Dass and his new book, BE LOVE NOW (HarperOne, November 2010). Ram Dass’ co-author, Rameshwar Das, will be on hand to discuss BE LOVE NOW and show a short video from the new electronic version of BE HERE NOW. Due to fragile health, Ram Dass no longer travels, but he will make a rare Internet appearance by joining the audience for questions and answers via a special live webcast from his home in Maui.

Ram Dass is the much beloved author of the 1971 spiritual classic, BE HERE NOW, bridging Sixties psychedelic sensibilities to the eastern traditions of yoga and meditation that now permeate our culture. The original box that became BE HERE NOW was created at the Lama Foundation north of Taos, and a small temple commemorating Ram Dass’ guru, Neem Karoli Baba, resides west of the Taos Plaza. Book sales will benefit the Neem Karoli Baba Ashram, which feeds many local people and seeks to embody the ideals of its namesake to love and serve everyone. Donations to the gallery to defray expenses are welcome.

Lenny Foster’s Living Light Gallery is located at 107 Kit Carson Road, downtown Taos. For information contact Mirabai Starr at (575) 779-2406 or mirabaistarr@earthlink.net, or John Kane at (575) 776-1464/770-2109 or hanumandas1@gmail.com.

D'Agata Meets with Santa Fe University Students

2011-03-14T10:00:00.001-06:00

by Verona Winn

John D’Agata, author of About a Mountain, attended a question and answer session on February 16 with students at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design. The session was sponsored by the Creative Writing Revisions Class taught by Matt Donovan, the Faculty Chair of the Creative Writing Department, and Emily Rapp, author of A Poster Child.
    D’Agata's use of composite characters in his non-fiction work has been criticized and lead to a question from one of the students as to how far one can go before a book become fiction.
One of SFUAD’s students asked D’Agata how far can an author go before it does make a book fiction?
    D’Agata explained that in the case of About a Mountain he chose to create composites after making numerous trips to Yucca Mountain with numerous guides. Rather than listing each trip with each tour guide, he created a composite of all the tours by taking specific events from each tour and combining them into one tour.
    He also assembled a composite of the tour guides, by combining the personalities of all of them into just one guide. When one does something like this the writer needs to be up front with the readers and the publishers, D’Agasta said.
    Writers need to make their own decision on how far to go. He admitted to reading those reviews that questioned the trustworthiness of his work because of his use of composites. But, D’Agata said, the fact remains that the information is all factual and that he only streamlined the tours to keep the book readable.
    “The only relationship I want with you as reader,” D’Agata said. “You’re not my conscious, my priest, or my editor.”
    Another student asked if there were no ethical and moral issues when D’Agata worked at suicide hotline and used what he learned in his book.
    The author said he came from a family that volunteered a lot and his mother, who was involved with the hotline, suggested he join as well. He admitted he wasn’t very good as a counselor because he couldn’t follow the rules. He received a call one night from a young man whom he thought was the same young man who later committed suicide. This, D’Agata said, was telling. Here was this mountain that the government was expending enormous amount of money and resources on, yet all the while ignoring these young people who are dying.
    After twenty-five years of research, still no one knows if it’s safe to store radioactive waste in Yucca Mountain, he said. What is clear after a suicide is that family and friends are left without knowing why? These contrasts represent our lack of capacity to understand and that frustration is the point of the story, D’Agata said.
    Concluding his session with the students, D’Agata closed with some words of wisdom: “I don’t want all the information to come up all at once. I like the idea of me as a reader meeting the writer half way. A reading experience for me is where you the reader is pulled into a relationship with the writer.”
   D’Agata is also the author of Halls of Fame and editor of The Next American Essay, a collection of experimental nonfiction and The Lost Origins of the Essay. He is an Associate Professor in the English Department at the University of Iowa, teaching nonfiction writing.

Garcia Street Books Sold

2011-03-11T13:30:00.000-07:00

Edward and Eva Borins have sold Garcia Street Books to Francoise Paheau and Zaire Benhadje.

"After close to forty years as partners in business and life, we have decided it was time to step down to devote more attention to our family in Toronto, Vancouver, and Ottawa." the Borins said in a letter to customers and friends. "We have three children, four grandchildren, with the fifth and sixth, identical twins, expected this month in Vancouver; and Eva has a ninety-one year old mother in Ottawa. We are also looking forward to more time to pursue our other passions: adventure travel, art and literary consulting, physical fitness and wellness, gardening, and community work.We plan to continue living in Santa Fe."

Self-Publishing Workshop Coming on Saturday

2011-03-01T06:46:00.000-07:00

"Be Your Own Publisher" is the title of a daylong workshop Saturday, March 5, at the Sage Inn, 725 Cerrillos Road. It will be lead by Tom Johnson and will cover print-on-demand tools, computer programs, and techniques to help writers publish their own works. The cost of the workshop is $140.

Johnson is founder and co-director of the Institute for Analytic Journalism, here in Santa Fe. According to his website, his "35-year career in journalism has taken him from the classroom to the newsroom and back. He began using computers to tease meaning out of data while a Ph.D. candidate in the early '70s and studying the impact of technology on urban spaces. By the early '80s he was writing about dedicated word processing systems (think $13,000 in 1978 dollars) and covering the early stages of personal computing in Silicon Valley for Time and Popular Science. He worked for Time Magazine in El Salvador in the mid-'80s, was the start-up editor of MacWeek, and a deputy editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

To register for the workshop, visit this website.

Santa Fe Author Turns to Fiction to Warn of the Consequences of Climate Change

2011-02-21T09:56:00.001-07:00

Melting Down, a novel by Santa Fe environmental consultant Harvey Stone, is coming to stores in April. An environmental thriller about an international terrorist plot conceived by high-ranking Russian nationalists to exploit the global consequences of climate change for world domination, the book offers a tale of political intrigue, suspense, and action that spans the globe, all the while educating the reader to effect of climate change.

As publication date nears, we will have more information but already the book is catching the eye of early readers. Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature, suggests Stone may have the right approach. “Sheer weight of scientific data seems not to have gotten across the point about global warming,” McKibben said, “maybe a good old red-blooded American thriller can help do the trick!”

You can learn more about Stone and the book by visiting this website.

Poet of Conscience Veronica Golos to Read at SOMOS Feb. 18, Collected Works Mar. 6

2011-02-17T22:40:00.006-07:00

Taos poet Veronica Golos will read from her new book, Vocabulary of Silence (Red Hen Press, February 2011), for the SOMOS Winter Writers Series on Friday, February 18 (along with award-winning Santa Fe poet Dana Levin), at 7 pm at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House in downtown Taos. On Sunday, March 6, Golos and Levin will team up again at Collected Works in Santa Fe at 2 pm. Golos's book tour will also include readings at the renowned Cornelia Street Café and the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City, as well as a class she’ll be teaching for actors at Juilliard; readings in Northampton and Boston, Massachusetts; and appearances on the West Coast.

Vocabulary of Silence is a searing poetic and personal examination of the ongoing U.S. conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the occupation of Gaza. A Pushcart Prize nominee and a winner of the Nicholas Roerich Prize, Golos writes in the international tradition of poetry of conscience. Like such poets she admires as Mahmoud Darwish and Carolyn Forché, Brian Turner and Yusef Komunyakaa, she struggles to find words to carry the weight of her felt accountability. As the Middle Eastern writer and Pacifica Radio producer Dr. Barbara Nimri Aziz explains, “Golos takes the fragments, the bits and pieces that reach us from the battlefield, and weaves them, with a morality and a sorrow, to make us understand both our helplessness and our responsibility.”

At the book’s center is the horror of Abu Ghraib. “Those photographs, like the famous Nick Út photograph of the Vietnamese girl running down the road, are in me like a deep splinter,” says Golos, who is a self-taught poet from a working-class background, as well as a lifelong political activist who has also won awards for her work as a curator and teacher for Poets & Writers and 92nd Street Y/Makor in New York City. “My poems are about not forgetting, even as a witness from afar. I want to keep rubbing this stone against our skin so we can keep seeing what is being done in our name—and what that means.”

A veteran of the spoken word movement, Veronica has performed at New York’s Lincoln Center and the Nuyorican Poets Café, Claremont Theological Center in California, and venues throughout the Southwest. Red Hen Press is also reissuing her earlier book, A Bell Buried Deep, which Guggenheim Foundation President Edward Hirsch nominated for a 2004 Pushcart and which won the 16th annual Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize.

Summer Wood Launches New Novel with Weekend Readings in SF, Taos, ABQ

2011-02-17T21:58:00.006-07:00

Award-winning author Summer Wood will launch her Western book tour of her new novel Wrecker (Bloomsbury, February 2011) with readings at Collected Works in Santa Fe (Friday, February 18, 6-7 pm, with Rob Wilder), Moby Dickens Bookshop in Taos (Saturday, February 19, 2-4 pm) and Bookworks in Albuquerque (Sunday, February 20, 3-4 pm, with Greg Martin). Appearances in the Bay Area, Portland and Seattle will follow.

Wrecker, Wood's title character, is born in 1965, in the midst of the war raging in Vietnam and San Francisco tripping toward flower power. Lisa Fay, a young innocent from a family farm down south, is knocked nearly sideways by life as a single mother in a city she could barely navigate as just one. Three years later, she's alone again--because kids aren't allowed in prison. And Wrecker, scared silent, furious and hellbent on breaking every last thing that crosses his path, is shipped off to live with relatives in the wilds of Humboldt County. Wrecker is the story of a nearly broken boy whose presence turns a motley group of isolated eccentrics into a real family. Watch the video trailer here.

“Summer Wood's remarkable novel carves its way, sentence by gorgeous sentence, into the great complexity of love and family and community.” ~ Meredith Hall, author of Without a Map

“Wrecker is a love song to well-intentioned, wholly dedicated, and deeply flawed motherhood. It's a big-hearted, big-loving compassionate book.”~ Pam Houston, author of Cowboys Are My Weakness

Wood is also the author of the novel Arroyo (Chronicle Books) and teaches writing to adults at the University of New Mexico’s Taos Summer Writers’ Conference. In 2007 she was awarded the $50,000 Literary Gift of Freedom from A Room of Her Own Foundation. She lives in Taos and currently serves as executive editor at Voices from the American Land. Wood and her partner, Kathy Namba, have three grown sons and one spoiled mutt, and they have served as foster parents through New Mexico’s Child Protective Services. Please visit her website at http://www.summerwoodwrites.com and her blog on writing at http://www.allochthonous.com/.

Santa Fe’s Poet Laureate lives “la vida local”

2011-02-16T16:00:00.000-07:00

by Verona Winn

Joan Logghe, Santa Fe’s newest Poet Laureate, beamed as she talked about creating poetry events for children and adults, through readings accompanied by musician Jeremy Bleich. I met up with Logghe at the Zafarano’s Starbucks. I was planning to do an interview, to learn more about Logghe, but as I watched the obvious joy and pleasure on her face discussing her role as Santa Fe’s Poet Laureate, I forgot what I was going to ask.


Poet Logghe at December event

     It was obvious that Logghe loves to teach, that she loves poetry, and she truly enjoys her role as Santa Fe’s Poet Laureate. She was warm, inviting, and filled with passion for what she does. Logghe says she “tries to serve as artist-in-community” and calls what she does “Living la vida local.”
    I asked Logghe, what she loved best about the job of Poet Laureate, she replied, “The position allowed her to free lance, choose what projects she wanted to work on, which in turn allowed her to teach two classes adjunct at the Santa Fe Community College.”
   Logghe says she receives many invitations to various functions and since it’s only a two-year position, she accepts everyone. She enjoys meeting new people, listening to readings, and continuing to promote interest in poetry.
   As an aspiring poet myself, I asked her what words of advice did she for poets like
myself to learn more about the literary community and improve our skills.
    Logghe advised: Attend readings with poet buddy, open mikes, find other peers and groups, read other authors entire works.
   I asked her what she does in her free time? “Does a writer have any free time?
I don’t have any free time.” she laughed.   In between rare moments of time, Logghe hangs out at home, spends time with her girlfriends, and her grandchildren.
    Logghe teaches high school Students through “Poets in the School” and elementary children through “ArtsWorks.”   She has taught at Los Alamos, has been with The Ghost Ranch Conference Center as faculty since 1991. Project Director of Write Actions: Writing from the heart of AIDS.
   Logghe co-founded “Tres Chicas Books” with Renee’ Gregario and Miriam Sagan. “Tres Chicas Books” published Love and Death: Greatest Hits, an anthology of poetry by Logghe, Gregario, and Sagan. Logghe’s new book Singing Bowl, published by the University of New Mexico, will be released in April 2011. You can find out about future events and readings on her website.
   “The Poet Laureate program of the Santa Fe Arts Commission was established in 2005, to promote a meaningful poetic presence as part of the diverse cultural fabric of the city.” is the overview listed on the Santa Fe Poet Laureate Program website.

Part-Time Santa Fe Resident Tommy Lee Jones Short on Words

2011-02-16T06:49:00.001-07:00

Tommy Lee Jones, the actor who owns a house in Santa Fe, is the executive producer, director, and stars, with Samuel L. Jackson, in The Sunset Limited, a filmed production of Santa Fe writer Cormac McCarthy's play that debuted on HBO last weekend.

The Wall Street Journal made an attempt to interview Jones. The answers he provides reveal he wasn't that interested in talking about the film, giving new meaning to taciturn.

You can read the entire interview here.

Cady Wells Lecture Rescheduled for Tonight

2011-02-15T06:00:00.001-07:00

A lecture by Lois Rudnick on painter Cady Wells will take place tonight, February 15, at the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art. The event is at 5:30 p.m. at the museum, 750 Camino Lejo on Museum Hill.

Originally scheduled for last week, was postponed because of the weather. The lecture is free to museum members and open by museum admission to nonmembers. Reservations are required. Call 505-982-2226.

The modernist painter (1904-1954) was also a collector of New Mexican Hispanic art in the 1930s and '40s. An exhibit at the museum explores not only how his collecting influenced his own art, but how it changed our understanding of Hispanic art. Rudnick is the editor of Cady Wells and Southwestern Modernism (2009) and author of several books on New Mexico's Anglo writer and artist communities.

Santa Fe Writers Among Those Nominated for Edgar Awards

2011-02-14T06:00:00.001-07:00

Three Santa Fe writers are among those nominated for an Edgar Award, given each year by the Mystery Writes of America.

In the category of Best Fact Crime are: The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in Jim Crow South by Alex Heard (HarperCollins) and Hellhound on his Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr and the International Hunt for his Assassin by Hampton Sides (Doubleday). In short, Santa Fe writers scored 40% of the nominations in this category (there were five.)

Also earning a nomination for an Edgar in the Best Critical/Biographical category was Thrillers: 100 Must Reads edited by Santa Fean David Morrell and Hank Wagner (Oceanview Publishing.)

The Edgar Awards will be presented to the winners at the 65th Gala Banquet, April 28, 2011 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City.

Lovers of Books Celebrate Love in Books

2011-02-09T08:55:00.000-07:00

On Friday some of Santa Fe's most beloved writers will read love scenes from their novels. Promising to show up and warm our hearts, and perhaps make us blush, are Pamela Christie, Rick Collignon, Martha Egan, and Judith Ryan Hendricks.

The reading will take place from 4 to 6 PM in the Palace of Governors Gift Shop, corner of Washington and Palace streets, on Friday, February 11. In addition, free Todos Santos chocolates will be given with each book purchase.

What could be better to start the Valentine's Day weekend than a good book and chocolates. . .

Sand River in Bloom, a New Book's Arrival Heralded with Slide Show

2011-02-03T20:22:00.000-07:00

By Verona Winn

Sand River in Bloom, Arroyo de los Chamiso, was the title for Beverly Spears of Spears Architects, slide show she put on at Collected Works bookstore, on Thursday, January 27 to celebrate her book by the same name. Sand River a fifteen-year pictorial of a one-mile stretch of land, Spears walks almost every day.

The beautiful fauna inspired her to record the blooming periods of the various breathtakingly beautiful flowers, and inspired her to become the Arroyo’s unofficial caretaker. Spears noticed over time, the decrease in the population of Cotton Tail Rabbits, which worried her. Sand River Arroyo is the main drainage and watershed for another 2,000 acres through out Santa Fe.

Spears stressed that the Arroyos needs to be protected, because the ecology of this land is extremely sensitive and fragile. Spears ended her slide show with a question and answer period, during which, Santa Fe’s second District, City councilwoman, Rosemary Romero said she was part of the Santa Fe Arroyo protection group, and invited Spears to join. Spears agreed, and suggested all that all who live among the Arroyo should also join the group.

Beverly Spears’ Company has been major in building green buildings, sensitive to the local ecology. Her company has won numerous awards including the 2000 New Mexico Architects Medal, for the practice of architecture, outstanding professional achievement and sense of social responsibility and the 2010 Heritage Preservation Award for Compatible New Construction, for the design of the Camino Rancheros House. Spears also won the 2002 Business Woman of the year award.

Romero was awarded the Al Gore “Hammer Award” for her public involvement work in Northern New Mexico, and has continually been involved in conservation, including the creation of the Arroyo Protection Group. All the proceeds from the reading will be donated to the Santa Fe Botanical Garden.

Spears will be talking about the Native plants of New Mexico at 6:30 PM. March 24in the Community Room at REI, in the Railyard.

Local Author Offers Creative Writing Workshop

2011-02-01T04:33:00.000-07:00

Robert Mayer, a former New York and Santa Fe journalist and the author of nine novels and two works of non-fiction, is offering a series of creative writing workshops beginning March 2.

The workshops will consist of eight weekly three-hour sessions, one meeting on Wednesday from 2-5 PM, the other on Thursdays from 6:30-9:30 PM.

Six to eight people will participate in the workshops. Each week the participants will read aloud from their work followed by a group discusssion, according to Mayer.

The fees for the eight-week workshops are $300 for adults and $225 for students.

For more information or to reserve a space, call 438-0012 or email Mayer.

Weekend Happenings at Collected Works

2011-01-29T08:09:00.000-07:00

Saturday (1/29): Reid Rosenthal, a fourth generation rancher, will talk about Threads West: An American Saga, the first of a planned six-novel epic of the West, A multi-generational tale, the book portrays the lives and personalities of men and women who shaped the West.

4:00 PM

Sunday (1/30): In 1973, Georgia O’Keeffe employed C. S. Merrill to catalog her library for her estate. Merrill, a poet who was a graduate student at the University of New Mexico, was twenty-six years old and O’Keeffe was eighty-five, almost blind, but still painting. Over seven years, Merrill was called upon for secretarial assistance, cooking, and personal care for the artist. Merrill’s journals reveal details of the daily life of a genius. The author describes how O’Keeffe stretched the canvas for her twenty-six-foot cloud painting and reports on O’Keeffe’s favorite classical music and preferred performers. Merrill provided descriptions of nature when she and the artist went for walks; she read to O’Keeffe from her favorite books and helped keep her space in meticulous order.

Throughout the book there are sketches of O’Keeffe’s studio and an account of once assisting O’Keeffe at the easel. Jockeying for position among the helpers O’Keeffe relied upon was part of daily life at Abiquiu, where territorial chows guarded the property. Visitors came from far and wide, among them Eliot Porter and even Allen Ginsberg accompanied by Peter Orlovsky. All this is revealed in Merrill’s straightforward and deeply respectful notes.

Merrill will be joined in conversation with Margaret Wood, author of A Painter's Kitchen: Recipes from the Kitchen of Georgia O'Keeffe.

2 PM

Cady Wells Exhibit Curated by Santa Fe Author

2011-01-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

A four-month long exhibit of works by New Mexico artist Cady Wells opens today, January 28, at the University of New Mexico Art Museum, located on the campus in Albuquerque. The exhibit is curated by author Lois Rudnick who published Under the Skin of New Mexico: The Art of Cady Wells, 1933-1953 last year.

The exhibit runs until May 22. For more information consult the museum's website.

Slam Poetry Champion Wakefield Plays Albuquerque

2011-01-27T13:59:00.001-07:00

by Verona Winn
SFLN Special Correspondent

Santa Fe offers a number of venues for aspiring poets to but I recently checked out Albuquerque’s Factory Art Space, located at 1715 5th street, Monday night, January 24, as it was hosting the two-time individual world poetry slam champion, Buddy Wakefield. As a poet, I had heard of slam poetry, but I had never attended an event before now, and I have to admit, I had a blast.

Buddy Wakefield was charming, funny and a great performer. He regaled the packed house with anecdotes of his life interlaced with his poetry and self-deprecating jokes, accompanied by first a piano, then a ukulele. The theme was uniform throughout his performance: love, letting go of petty resentments, and live your life. He ended his spectacular performance by quoting the song “Christmas”, “Put your ear to the skies, my darling and listen / everything whispers I love you.”

Wakefield has been featured on NPR, BBC, HBO’s Def poetry jam and recently signed to Ani DiFranco’s righteous babe records. He announced that this year would be his last official tour, he was going home to Washington State to concentrate on other projects, but he said slam poetry would always be a part of his life.

The event was held in the Kosmos coffee house inside the Factory on 5th, a converted warehouse sparsely decorated with items from the 1950‘s, 1960‘s, and the 1970‘s. A small stage complete with stage lights and disco ball in the ceiling, a clear tube filled with water bubbling to the top as the tube changedcolors, and folding chairs lining the bare floors filling up the entire space of the warehouse. Kosmos serves espressos as well as regular coffee, sodas, teas, muffins and cookies. All in all, an eclectic combination that some how seems to come together to create a welcoming atmosphere for guests.

Kosmos is also home to “The Church of Beethoven” who perform weekly on Sundays at 10:30 AM, and the 5G Art Gallery.

SF Architect Shares Vision of Arroyo

2011-01-25T14:05:00.000-07:00

Beverley Spears, a Santa Fe architect and landscape architect, will talk about her new book Sand River in Bloom: Arroyo de los Chamisos, Santa Fe, New Mexico at 6 PM on Thursday, January 27, at Collected Works Bookstore, 202 Galiesto Street.

For the past twenty years, Spears has been walking along a one-mile section of the Arroyo de los Chamisos taking pictures, writing journal entries, and recording information about the blooming cycle of the plant species she spotted. The result is her new book, a portion of the proceeds of which will be donated to the Santa Fe Botanical Garden.

A Comedy of Letters Await You at Collected Works

2011-01-22T06:00:00.002-07:00

George Bernard Shaw

Alaina Zachary and Jonathan Richards will do a reading of Dear Liar at 4 PM on Sunday, January 23. Dear Liar is a comedy of letters drawn from the sometimes romantic, sometimes prickly, always entertaining and supremely literate correspondence between George Bernard Shaw and Mrs. Patrick Campbell, the actress for whom he wrote "Pygmalion."

Adapted by Jerome Kilty, the two-character play traces the relationship over 40 years, from the turn of the 20th century to the eve of WWII.

No admission charge. Dear Liar is the third offering in the Two Hander Series, created by Zachary for Collected Works. The store is located at 202 Galisteo Street in Santa Fe.

“What is your favorite New Mexico book?"

2011-01-21T11:04:00.000-07:00

In a diverting addendum to the recent list of 100 Best New Mexico Books, New Mexico magazine’s Wolf Schneider asked seven literary notables to name their favorite New Mexico book, along with an assortment of other bookish questions. Her interlocutors include Rudolf Anaya (favorite NM book: The Man Who Killed the Deer, by Frank Waters), Valerie Plame Wilson, and Stephen Bodio

Pulitzer Biographer James McGrath Morris, Winner of Two New Mexico Book Awards, to Read in Taos January 21

2011-01-20T22:25:00.012-07:00

The life and historical importance of media baron Joseph Pulitzer will be the subject of a reading on Friday, January 21, at 7 pm by James McGrath Morris, the author of a new and highly praised biography of the most famous figure in American journalism. Part of the popular SOMOS Winter Writers Series, the reading of Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print and Power (Harper) will take place at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House, 240 Morada Lane, Taos. Tickets are $8 general public, $6 SOMOS members, seniors and students, and children 18 and under free.

Like Alfred Nobel, Joseph Pulitzer is better known today for the prize that bears his name than for his contribution to history. Yet, in 19th-century industrial America, while Carnegie provided the steel, Rockefeller the oil, Morgan the money, and Vanderbilt the railroads, Pulitzer ushered in the modern mass media. In his definitive biography, which won both Best Biography and Best of Show at the 2010 New Mexico Book Awards in November, Morris details the epic rise and tragic decline of the American icon who transformed the press and created the modern mass media. Pulitzer won both Best Biography and Best of Show at the 2010 New Mexico Book Awards in November.

“This well-researched, exhaustive biography reads like a novel, with fleshed-out characters....It is the story of a man, but also of a time.” — New York Times Book Review

“A major biographical success . . . . A thrilling toboggan-ride tour of history. . . . In this cavalcade of American life and letters, the pages fly by.” — San Francisco Chronicle

A Jewish Hungarian immigrant, Joseph Pulitzer arrived penniless in America in 1864. Settling in St. Louis, Pulitzer started his career in journalism as a reporter for the local German paper. Soon, Pulitzer became active in Missouri state politics as a party delegate. At the same time, Pulitzer’s journalism career in St. Louis continued to grow, and eventually he assumed ownership of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Despite the Post-Dispatch’s continued success and Pulitzer’s position as a prominent figure in Missouri political circles, St. Louis soon grew small, and Pulitzer yearned to be at the hub of journalism and politics in America – New York City.

In New York, Pulitzer’s influence on the newspaper world continued to grow. As owner and publisher of the New York World, Pulitzer recognized the vast social changes of the industrial revolution. Harnessing the converging elements of entertainment, technology, business, and demographics, Pulitzer transformed the role of the newspaper, making it an essential feature of urban life. Employing innovative tactics during a period of great change in the nation, Pulitzer cemented his position as a baron of the media as the 19th century began to draw to a close.

Shortly after his relocation to New York, Pulitzer began to use his power and influence to advance a progressive political agenda. Emboldened by his authority, Pulitzer took on those individuals who opposed him. He battled President Theodore Roosevelt – who tried to send Pulitzer to prison – and his rapidly emerging rival in the newspaper world, young William Randolph Hearst. Fighting for freedom of the press and enduring grueling legal battles, Pulitzer’s efforts truly transformed the role of newspapers in American politics and life.

The wildly successful World thrived as circulation continued to rise, yet precisely when Pulitzer was at the height of his power, tragedy struck. Pulitzer’s eyesight began to deteriorate rapidly, eventually leaving him blind. Despite his commitment to overseeing all operations of the World, Pulitzer left New York and wandered the globe, seeking any possible remedies available and gradually retreating from the chaotic media world. Although he had accumulated tremendous wealth and power, Pulitzer lived out the end of his life in isolation – a lonely, tormented recluse.

Pulitzer’s impact on politics and the press nevertheless remained significant, and his legacy endured. Based on years of research and newly discovered documents, Morris’s work provides a thorough portrait of an American icon. As today’s media world anticipates changes ahead in the information age, Pulitzer offers valuable insights into the development of modern mass media and the ever-changing landscape of American journalism.

James McGrath Morris is the author of The Rose Man of Sing Sing: A True Tale of Life, Murder and Redemption, which was selected as a Washington Post Best Book of the Year for 2004. He is the editor of the monthly Biographer’s Craft, and his writing appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Observer and other newspapers and magazines.

100 Best New Mexico Books

2011-01-20T14:27:00.001-07:00

The New Mexico Book Co-op wanted to honor the 100 best books as part of the upcoming New Mexico Centennial. January 6, 2012 marks the Centennial for the State of New Mexico. The major criteria for nomination was that the books must have either been written about New Mexico, by a New Mexican author, or published by a New Mexico company. Starting in January 2009, libraries and bookstores were asked to distribute information to their patrons. Nominations came in from all across the state. Books were voted on by librarians, authors and the public.

After a year of voting, the New Mexico Book Co-op is pleased to announce the 100 Best New Mexico Books. Leading the list is “Bless Me, Ultima” by Rudolfo Anaya as the #1 Best New Mexico Book. “Bless Me, Ultima” is set in the small village of Guadalupe, New Mexico, during World War II. Through the story the questions about evil, justice, and the nature of God are asked. The book is part of a trilogy with “Heart of Azlan” and “Tortuga”. The book was published in 1972. Rudolfo Anaya lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. “Bless Me, Ultima” has been a stage play and was just filmed and set to be released as a movie in 2011. The book has been banned and challenged by schools and libraries. “Bless Me, Ultima” is credited as the first important book in Chicano literature.

The list of 100 Best Books is divided with the Best 10 Books followed by the other 90 Books. Rounding off the Best 10 Books are: “Milagro Beanfield War” by John Nichols, “A Thief of Time” by Tony Hillerman, “Death Comes for the Archbishop” by Willa Cather, “Red Sky At Morning” by Richard Bradford, “Lamy of Santa Fe” by Paul Horgan, “House Made of Dawn” by N. Scott Momaday, “Ben Hur” by Lew Wallace, “The Rounders” by Max Evans, and “First Blood” by David Morrell.

The list includes books by Native Americans, Hispanics, cowboys, scholars, historians, women, and men. There are books for children and adults. A former New Mexico Governor, Lew Wallace, wrote “Ben Hur”. Pulitzer Prize Winners in Literature from New Mexico are among the list: William duBoys, Alex Harris, N. Scott Momaday, Willa Cather, and Cormac McCarthy. Two priests wrote books on the list: Thomas J. Steele and Fray Angelico Chavez. A number of books were turned into films. There are classic books on the list as well as relatively new books.

100 BEST BOOKS IN NEW MEXICO
TOP TEN
Bless Me, Ultima — Rudolfo Anaya
A Thief of Time — Tony Hillerman
Ben Hur — Lew Wallace
Death Comes for the Archbishop — Willa Cather
First Blood — David Morrell
House Made of Dawn — N. Scott Momaday
Lamy of Santa Fe — Paul Horgan
Milagro Beanfield War — John Nichols
Red Sky at Morning — Richard Bradford
The Rounders — Max Evans

Alburquerque — Rudolfo Anaya
All the Pretty Horses — Cormac McCarthy
The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid — Pat Garrett
Black Mesa Poems — Jimmy Santiago Baca
Black Range Tales — James A. McKenna
The Blessing Way — Tony Hillerman
Blood and Thunder — Hampton Sides
Bloodville — Don Bullis
Bluefeather Fellini — Max Evans
Brothers of Light, Brothers of Blood — Marta Weigle
But Time and Chance — Fray Angelico Chávez
The Centuries of Santa Fe — Paul Horgan
Ceremony — Leslie Marmon Silko
Chaco Banyon: Sheriff of Lordsburg — Fred Schmidt
Chaco Canyon — Robert Hill Lister
Charlie Carrillio: Tradition & Soul — Barbe Awalt and Paul Rhetts
Coronado, Knight of Pueblos and Plains — Eugene Bolton
Cuentos — Rudolfo Anaya
Curse of the ChupaCabra — Rudolfo Anaya
Dance Hall of the Dead — Tony Hillerman
The Day It Snowed Tortillas — Joe Hayes
Delight Makers — Aldolph Bandelier
Ditch Rider — Judith Van Gieson
The Education of Little Tree — Forrest Carter
Eight Rattles and a Button — Merle Blinn Brown
El Gringo: New Mexico & Her People — William W. H. Davis
Face of an Angel — Denise Chavez
Fire on the Mountain — Edward Abbey
Forgotten People — George I. Sánchez
Great River — Paul Horgan
Hatchet — Gary Paulsen
Homesteading on Grasshopper Flats — Etta Rose Knox
The House at Otowi Bridge — Peggy Pond Church
I Fought with Geronimo — Jason Betzinez & Wilbur Sturtevant
An Illustrated History of New Mexico — Thomas Chavez
In the Days of Victorio — Eve Ball
Jemez Spring — Rudolfo Anaya
John Gaw Meem — Bainbridge Bunting
Journeys of Faith — Lee Priestley
Kiva, Cross, & Crown — John Kessell
History of La Mesilla & Her Mesilleros — Lionel Cajen Frietze
Land of Poco Tiempo — Charles Lummis
Las Cruces — Linda G. Harris
The Last Conquistador — Marc Simmons
The Leading Facts of New Mexican History — Ralph Emerson Twitchell
The Legend of La Llorona — Rudolfo Anaya
Lottie Deno — J. Marvin Hunter
Maria — Alice Marriott
Mayordomo — Stanley Crawford
Mimbres Painted Pottery — J.J. Brody
The Missions of New Mexico, 1776 — Fray Francisco Dominguez, edited by Adams & Chávez
My Penitente Land — Fray Angelico Chavez
New Mexico: A Pageant of Three Peoples — Erna Fergusson
New Mexico Biographical Dictionary, 1540-2000 — Don Bullis
New Mexico Style — Nancy Hunter Warren
New Mexico Tinwork — Lane Coulter
No Life for a Lady — Agnes Morley Cleaveland
Nobody’s Horses — Don Hoglund
Origins of New Mexico Families — Fray Angelico Chavez
People of the Valley — Frank Waters
The Place Names of New Mexico — Robert Julyan
Popular Arts of Spanish New Mexico — E Boyd
Pueblo Nations — Joe Sando
Riders to Cibola — Norman Zollinger
Rio Grande Fall — Rudolfo Anaya
River of Traps — William duBoys & Alex Harris
Roadside Geology of New Mexico — Halka Chronic
Sabino’s Map — Donald Usner
Saints of the Pueblos — Charles M. Carrillo
Santa Fe Design — Elmo Baca
Santa Fe on Foot — Elaine Pinkerton Coleman
Santa Fe Style — Christine Mather
Santos & Saints — Thomas J. Steele, S.J
Scavengers — Steven Havill
Shaman Winter — Rudolfo Anaya
Slash Ranch Hounds — Dub Evans
Stolen Gods — Jake Page
Tularosa — Michael McGarrity
Villages of Hispanic New Mexico — Nancy Hunter Warren
Visions Underground — Lois Manno
When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away — Ramon Gutierrez
The Whole Damned World — Martha Shipman Andrews
Wind Leaves No Shadow — Ruth Laughlin
Winter in Taos — Mabel Dodge Luhan
The Wolf Path — Judith Van Gieson
The Woman at Otowi Crossing — Frank Waters
Works on Paper — Georgia O’Keeffe & Barbara Haskell
Zia Summer — Rudolfo Anaya
Zuni Pottery — Marian Rodee

Mark Dunn's New Novel Arrives in Bookstores

2011-01-12T17:29:00.000-07:00

Mark Dunn's new novel. Under the Harrow, is in bookstore at long last! While an e-book version has been winning legions of fans, the hardback edition was delayed by the economic downturn that hit his publisher particularly hard.

Ever since Mark Dunn's debut novel Ella Minnow Pea won the Borders Original Voices Book of the Year and was a finalist for the BookSense Book of The Year, this New Mexico writer has developed a large and loyal cadre of fans. Mark lives in Albuquerque with his wife Mary, a noted tinsmith.

Buy the book online here.

Here are some early reviews

Booklist
Dickens lovers, rejoice! Dunn folds a nineteenth-century writing style into a delightfully original story spiced with wonderfully evocative names and personalities from the Dickens oeuvre. Every word in this leisurely paced treasure is meant to be savored. Every scene is a theatrical masterpiece, providing plentiful opportunity to bark with laughter, raise eyebrows in amazement, and sigh in despair. Dingley Dell, hidden in backcountry Pennsylvania, proceeds in its anachronistic Victorian style as an experiment begun decades ago, when Darwinian scientists wanted to know how a small society would evolve, given no new input from the outside world. Unaware of their true role in a larger scheme, people in the Dell are informed that a horrible plague has occurred, and they are to be quarantined for safety. Government corruption, greed, classism, and distrust are at the center of this story, told by Dell resident Frederick Trimmers, Esq., for the edification of Outlanders. Dingley Dell is truly "under the harrow"—that is, under fire—its residents the victims of a most dastardly deception. Similar to Orwell’s Animal Farm, with a hint of Jasper Fforde, this story will make you think and laugh at the same time.

Kirkus
Imagine Plato’s Republic as founded by the child of Diderot and Charles Dickens, without the fascism but with plenty of rules: That’s Dingley Dell, a place where life is "perpetually shrouded in impenetrable mystery."
Dunn plows fruitful land in this follow-up to his altogether more lighthearted but no less inventive Ella Minnow Pea (2001), positing a bookish place where cultural life is governed by old encyclopedias, Victorian novels and guild labor to do William Morris proud. No one knows where the Dell of Dingley, or Dingley Dell—fans of The Pickwick Papers, or of more obscure Monty Python bits, will remember the name—really lies: Some say Campania, others East Asia, though the coal seams and "conspicuous absence of the European Jay" suggest the Appalachians. Dingley Dell isn’t exactly paradise, but it’ll do, and its inhabitants are content to live in its shelter, speaking a language that is a little hobbity around the edges and remaining only dimly aware, via the "suppositive postulations," that a larger world exists out there but is not to be welcomed in or sought out. It’s not exactly M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village, but the fact remains that Dingley Dell exists for an odd reason, and that certain Outlanders harbor ill designs on it. When those designs are revealed, it’s up to the Dinglians to go to war for their own survival, having learned about guerrilla warfare from who knows where. Set logic aside; Dunn crafts a pleasing, smart entertainment that slyly comments on and draws from a whole swath of fantasy and dystopian standards, from Fahrenheit 451 to the assembled works of Tolkien. In writing of his lost tribe, his "little people from an orographically anomalous valley," he invents a believable world, one that, wicked beings that we Outlanders are, would not seem likely to last.
Does it last? Readers are left guessing to the very end. This is a lively, thoughtful and beautifully written flight of fancy.

Santa Fe's Keller Hits the Right Notes

2011-01-10T09:16:00.000-07:00

James M. Keller, a Pasatiempo staff writer who creates the popular "Listen Up" column will read from his new book Chamber Music: A Listener 's Guide, part of Oxford's series that have included The Symphony, The Concerto, and Choral Masterworks. The event will be at 6 pm tonight (Jan. 10) at Collected Works Bookstore, 202 Galisteo Street.

Keller's work is known far and wide. For example, he is the Program Annotator of the New York Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony and contributes regularly to the programs of other leading classical music organizations in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

New Novel Set, in part, in Tucumcari

2011-01-06T05:43:00.000-07:00

Brendan Yates, who works for the BBC in Manchester, England, took a trip on Route 66 a few years back and found himself in Tucumcari. “I noticed a lot of very welcoming motels that seem to go out of their way to be very friendly and tell people about the history of the town,” Yates said.

His short visit there inspired him to use the town as one of the setting in his new novel Devil's Dust, published by Empire Publications.

Yates offered the following description of the plot to the Quay County Sun in an e-mail on Monday:
"Four English friends in their mid twenties pick up a Native American hitchhiker in Arkansas and he tells them that he's originally from Tucumcari and is on the run from a rival family there," the e-mail reads. "They drop him off in Little Rock (Ark.) and when they arrive in Tucumcari they accidentally meet up with his family and learn that a long-running feud between them and another Tucumcari family is still bubbling under. The hitchhiker's family run a pottery store and the evil family a blacksmithing shed; they are both trying to raise money to secure the down payment to buy an adobe house in town. One of the English characters is kidnapped by the evil family in the Tucumcari Mountain and his colleagues, having since arrived in Las Vegas, Nevada, must play poker in an attempt to win the money to secure his release since he's been threatened with murder during a primeval Native American ceremony."

Unfortunately the American version of Amazon lists the book as currently unavailable. But the UK version of Amazon, is selling the book.

Another Cormac McCarthy Film on the Way

2011-01-05T16:02:00.000-07:00

Actor and author James Franco will direct a film version of Santa Fe author Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West in 2012. First he wants to wrap up work on the film adaption of William Faulkner's As I lay Dying.

Blood Meridian was published in 1985 and is based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s.

Call for Entries for Miriam's Well

2010-12-28T18:48:00.005-07:00

The literary/arts blog Miriam's Well is always looking to publish New Mexico writers. The brainchild of poet Miriam Sagan, who founded and runs the creative writing program at Santa Fe Community College, Miriam's Well is particularly looking for flash fiction, haiku and other Japanese forms, and short prose and poetry on special themes that include birds, glass, Baba Yaga, and women artists.

The Well is also open to guest bloggers who can cover a variety of themes, student work, announcements of events, calls for submissions, and art. Submissions can be sent directly to Sagan at msagan1035@aol.com.

Miriam Sagan is the cofounder (along with Renée Gregorio and Joan Logghe) of Tres Chicas Books. She is the author of more than twenty books; her most recent is Map of the Lost from University of New Mexico Press.

Photo courtesy of Miriam's Well.

SOMOS Winter Series 2011 Events Begin

2010-12-28T07:01:00.000-07:00

Bonnie Lee Black will read from her How to Cook a Crocodile: A Memoir with Recipes that chronicles her two-year sojourn as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching health and nutrition in Gabon as part of the SOMOS Winter Series.

The book includes recipes, modified from Gourmet magazine. You can sample her recipes a the this Peace Corps website.

Black's reading will be at 7 PM, January 7, in the Mabel Dodge Luhan House 240 Morada Lane, Taos

The fee for the reading is $8 for the general public, $6 for SOMOS members and seniors. Students may attend for free.

Taos-Based Author Allegra Huston Offers DailyOM "Forgiveness Through Writing" Online Course

2010-12-18T22:56:00.004-07:00

Allegra Huston, Taos-based author of the critically acclaimed memoir Love Child (Simon & Schuster, 2009) and codirector of The Imaginative Storm creativity workshops, is offering an eight-week online course through DailyOM called "Forgiveness Through Writing." After signing up on the website here, students will immediately be able to receive the first lesson, as well have access to upcoming lessons and guided audio meditations as they become available.

Having made a lifelong study of forgiveness, Huston developed this course, based on Imaginative Storm techniques, exclusively for DailyOM. Topics covered will include the true cost of unforgiving; how to access the power of your imagination; identifying your ultimate good; expectation and blame; being right; fear of forgiveness; forgiving yourself; forgiving family and friends; and forgiving fate.

Allegra Huston's Love Child: A Memoir of Family Lost and Found details her search for identity through a turbulent childhood, after losing her mother at age four and then being introduced to first one father, then another. Best-selling author and Rumi expert Andrew Harvey has called Love Child "a masterpiece of astute and unshrinking compassion, an encouragement to all of us to face the turmoil and complexities of our past with forgiveness, humble self-knowledge and openness to the mysterious and often paradoxical rhythms of healing." Huston is also a producer, screenwriter, magazine writer, and literary editor, and she teaches creative writing courses for the National University of Ireland, Oklahoma University, and the Arvon Foundation, UK.

Author photo by Jeff Rayner.

Come Celebrate New Mexico's New Young Authors TODAY

2010-12-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

Santa Feans are invited to celebrate the publication of a new anthology of writing, poetry, and art by young people who have lived in foster care or independent living programs with the NM Children, Youth and Families Department.

The collection, called Ask Me Who I Am: Writing and Art by CYFD Youth, features writing, poetry and art that explores and reflects their personal struggles, successes, and dreams. According to its editor, "This anthology celebrates these courageous young people and their beautiful and moving work."

The book launch and celebration will take place at 2:30 PM Saturday, December 18, at the San Miguel Mission, on the Santa Fe Trail. It is free of charge and open to the public. Signed books will be available following the reading.

Dos Vatos Locos y Poetica Invade Chupadero

2010-12-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

Chuck Calabreze, aka Jon Davis, and Israel Haros will be appearing at Paul White's Pot Luck and Open Mic event at 1 PM on Saturday, December 1. Directions are at the bottom of this posting.

Herein is the official biography of “Chuck Calabreze.” A clue to his other identity may be found toward the end:

When not committing grievous, career-damaging social blunders, Chuck Calabreze is performing. He has appeared on stages and stage-like configurations from Santa Fe to Nebraska to Nairobi to Sturges, South Dakota. In every case, he has left audiences thinking, WTF? The story of how Chuck came to poetry has already achieved legendary status. When he was ten years old, Chuck's family came upon a car wreck on a deserted desert highway. While staring at the carnage, the stunned boy suddenly felt the spirits of Professor Irwin Corey, Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, and Bob Kaufman simultaneously enter his admittedly porous body. (This caused some alarm in the Carlin camp, since George was still alive at the time, but it does explain several "dispirited" late-career performances by the comic legend.) At that moment in the desert, Chuck suddenly began writing and shouting poem-like assemblages of verbiage--a habit which 17 arrests for disorderly conduct have failed to break. Founder of the Tourettist School of Poetry, Chuck, after consulting several "branding experts," left that movement to become the leader of Chuckismo!, perhaps the only poetry movement that includes an exclamation point in its name. Chuck's poems are collected in an unpublished chapbook, Twenty Songs of Despair, and an unpublished full length book, How is this Fun. His poems have appeared in Exquisite Corpse,Left Facing Bird, New Hampshire Review, Ploughshares, turnrow, Countermeasures, and Indiana Review, occasionally under the pseudonym "Jon Davis." After failing in his 2004 bid to become U.S. Poet Laureate, Chuck has mounted a campaign to become, instead, the first U.S. Poete Maudit. Recently, Chuck has become involved, reluctantly, in the environmental movement. “As a poet,” he says, “I’m writing for the ages. It’d be good if we had some.”

Appearing with Calabreze, will be visual and performance artist Israel Francisco Haros Lopez.

Directions to Paul's from Santa Fe:

Take Highway 285 North. Get off at the first Tesuque exit #168 which says "Tesuque North CR73." Go (about 2 1/2 miles) through Tesuque past the Tesuque Village Market, El Nido and the Post Office.
Then turn right on Route 592 and go 3 1/2 miles to the stop sign at the top of the hill.
Turn left at the stop sign (this is still Route 592) and go down 1 mile into the Chupadero valley.
At the green street sign turn left on Camino Chupadero (CR78).
Go another .9 (nine tenths) of a mile. On the left you'll see an old plank wood fence (not a coyote fence), then four white mailboxes at end of fence marked 92 ABC.
Slow down, the driveway is hidden.
-Go left immediately after the mailboxes, down the paved driveway.
At the bottom, take a sharp right onto the dirt driveway. You have arrived!

Phone; 505-988-1082

"The Astonished Eye": Four Writers Celebrate New Books with El Rito Reading

2010-12-11T20:20:00.014-07:00

The El Rito Public Library will host readings by four seasoned northern New Mexico authors on Saturday, December 18, from 3 to 5 pm. "The Astonished Eye: Poems and Stories by Tom Ireland, Renée Gregorio, Anne Valley-Fox and John Brandi" is a celebration of new books of both poetry and prose.

Tom Ireland is an editor at the New Mexico Office of Archaeological Studies, where he’s worked since 1986. He has published four books of nonfiction, including an essay collection, The Man Who Gave His Wife Away (Tres Chicas Books, 2010). He has received a National Endowment of the Arts literary grant and a Jeffrey E. Smith Prize in nonfiction.

Renée Gregorio’s poetry collections include Drenched (2010), Road to the Cloud’s House (2009, with John Brandi), Water Shed: Aikido Tanka (2004), The Storm That Tames Us (1999) and The Skins of Possible Lives (1996). She has been writer-in-residence at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos and the Millay Colony for the Arts in New York State. She was one of the founding editors of the Taos Review and was a cofounder, with poets Miriam Sagan and Joan Logghe, of Tres Chicas Books. She lives and works in El Rito and Santa Fe, where she is a master somatic coach and writing coach who helps people deepen their sense of purpose and expression and write remarkably.

Anne Valley-Fox has been living and writing in New Mexico since 1977. Her most recent poetry collections are How Shadows Are Bundled (UNM Press, 2009), Point of No Return (La Alameda Press, 2004) and Fish Drum Vol. 15 (Fish Drum Press, 1999). She is also the coauthor, with Sam Keen, ofYour Mythic Journey (Tarcher/Putnam) and the coeditor, with Ann Lacy, of two books on the New Mexico Federal Writers Project: Outlaws and Desperadoes (Sunstone Press, 2008) and Frontier Stories (Sunstone Press, 2010).

John Brandi, a 40-year New Mexico resident, recently completed a speaking tour in India to celebrate a trilingual haiku book released in New Delhi. An avid world traveler and El Rito homemaker, he has a new book from La Alameda Press, Seeding the Cosmos. He is currently working on haiga paintings, as well as a book of mountain poems selected from journeys, local and abroad. San Francisco Poet Laureate has said of Brandi: “He has been an open roader for much of his life and like his two great forebears, Whitman and Neruda, has named the minute particulars, the details of his sojournings…infusing them with a whole gamut of feelings—compassionate, mischievous, loving and righteous. It’s what’s made his poetry one of the solid bodies of work that’s emerged from the North American West since the '60s.”

Santa Fe Poet Laureate to Read at Opening of Alternative Gift Market

2010-12-10T11:27:00.000-07:00

The Santa Fe Alternative Gift Market, featured in the New Mexican, Santa Fe Reporter, and on KSFR, will open its doors at 9 AM Saturday in the Coronado Room of the Santa Fe Community Convention Center.
    There will be door prizes of books donated by Santa Fe authors such as Deborah Madison, Hampton Sides, Lucy Moore, and Revell Carr as well as food, Java Joe’s coffee, and hot apple cider.
     Mayor Coss and Poet Laureate Joan Logghe will preside over a ribbon cutting at 10 AM.
    The ceremony will mark the formal opening of a unique market that offers a nontraditional way of giving and honoring family and friends by permitting attendees to select a life-sustaining and tax-deductible gift to help end global poverty, renew our planet's environment, increase literacy, provide urgently needed medical help, and more.
    The items you can purchase range from one day of counseling and life-skills training for rescued girls from prostitution in Southeast Asia to buying mosquito nets to ward off malaria in India from buying a solar cooker to help purify water in villages in Tanzania to planting trees in Haiti. Gift givers can choose from 41 different donations of varying cost. Each purchaser will receive a beautiful gift card explaining the donation that they can send to a friend or relative.
     Alternative Gifts International (http://www.altgifts.org/) is a non-profit organization that inspires support for humanitarian and environmental causes. It offers donors the option to designate charitable gifts through carefully selected agencies in the name of their relatives, friends and associates.

SOMOS Workshop Looks at Challenges of Publishing

2010-12-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

Authors Bonnie Lee Black, Cherie Burns, David Perez and editor Barbara Scott will discuss how publishing has changed in recent years. They will present the latest  information on imprints, ebooks, myriad forms of self publishing, as well as publishing with traditional big and small press publishing companies. The discussion will be moderated by Jan Smith, curator for the Winter 2011 SOMOS Series.

Bonnie Lee Black, author of Somewhere Child, Viking, 1981 and How to Cook a Crocodile: A Memoir with Recipes, Peace Corps Writers Book, 2010 and professor of Creative Writing, UNM-Taos.
Cherie Burns, author of The Great Hurricane: 1938, Grove Press, 2006; How to be a Step Motherhood - How to Survive Without Feeling Frustrated, Left Out or Wicked, Three Rivers Press, 2001; and the forthcoming biography of Standard Oil Heiress, Millicent Rogers, due in September, 2011
David Perez, author of Wow, a memoirito; former staff writer for the Taos News TEMPO, actor, journalist and editor
Barbara Scott, editor and designer, owner of "Final Eyes" - a layout and design company for writers located in Taos.

The event will be held in the Taos Public Library, 1:00-3:30 PM, Saturday, January 8. One can register by mail or phone. A deposit of half the $35 fee for the worskshop is required to hold your place. Call 505-758-0081 or email.somos@somostaos.org

Santa Fe's Famed Thriller Writer Edits Essay Collection

2010-12-08T08:17:00.000-07:00

Santa Fe's David Morrell, along with Hank Wagner, has edited a collection of essays called Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads. "It's essential for any mystery and thriller fan, and contains some surprises along with what one would expect (The Eight, The Firm, The Tears of Autumn)," says Shelf Awareness.
It includes works by Lee Child, Andrew Klavan, and David Liss, Ross Thomas, and others.

Santa Fe University Poetry Students to Read

2010-12-07T16:57:00.000-07:00

Student poets in the Creative Writing Department of Santa Fe University of Art and Design will put on a reading at 8 PM on Wednesday, December 8, in the O'Shaunessy Hall on campus. The readers are Colby Gates, Becca Jones, Ronald Metellus, Christina Chavannes, and Beckie Hammer, all students from the advanced and intermediate poetry course offered at the university.

Winner of Tony Hillerman Award Revealed at Santa Fe Writers Conference

2010-12-06T20:50:00.000-07:00

Indiana writer Tricia Fields' novel The Territory has won the fourth annual Tony Hillerman Prize for best first mystery. The recipient of the $10,000 prize was made public during the recent, and successful, Tony Hillerman Writers Weekend that brought about 60 writers from around the US and Canada to Santa Fe. Peter Joseph of St. Martin’s Press, which cosponsors the prize, introduced the winner.

New Mexico Magazine editor, Tricia Ware, was on hand to announce that the magazine will partner with WordHarvest on the Tony Hillerman Short Story Prize

Sponsored by WordHarvest, the conference was held for the first time in Santa Fe at the Inn & Spa at Loretto. Organizers Anne Hillerman and Jean Schaumberg are considering bring the conference back to Santa Fe in November 2011.

This year's faculty included mystery Colorado author Margaret Coel; Santa Fe author and motivational speaker Bill O’Hanlon; Albuquerque mystery author and publisher Judith Van Gieson and former Santa Fean Christine Barber, winner of the first Tony Hillerman Prize for her mystery The Replacement Child. Special presentations were made by Santa Fe’s Anne Hillerman, Don Strel, and Valerie Plame Wilson.

Three Distinguished Poets at Collected Works Tonight

2010-12-06T05:33:00.000-07:00

Robert E. Rhodes, Consuelo Luz, and Victor di Suvero will gather tonight, December 6, at Collected Works for a poetic reading and discussion. Orlando Romero, a poet and critic, will act as master of ceremony for the reading that will begin at 6 PM at Collected Works, 202 Galisteo Street.

Rhodes is the author of Walking to China, Lion Dreaming and Smoking the Bees. He lives in Santa Fe and is a member of the Live Poets Society.
Luz is a singer, songwriter, and novelist and has performed her Sephardic Judeo Hispanic music internationally and her recordings are heard around the world.
Suvero, is the publisher of Pennywhistle Press and has been writing and presenting his poetry for years with appearances and readings in New York, San Francisco, Austin and Seattle in addition to Santa Fe for the past 20 years.

Tickets for Friday's Reading by Famed Cuban Poet Fernandez Are Now Free

2010-12-01T08:15:00.000-07:00

Fernandez with Laurence Ferlinghetti

The Lannan Foundation is underwriting the reading by Cuban poet Pablo Armando Fernandez at 6 PM, Friday, December 3, at the New Mexico Museum of History. The tickets, which used to be $20, are now free of charge.

"Fernandez has an enormous reputation and a distinguished career as a poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, editor and diplomat," according to Joan Logghe, Santa Fe Poet Laureate. "His works have been translated into French, Italian, Polish and English. In Cuba today Pablo Armando Fernandez is simply known as 'El Poeta'."

You can hear a radio story about Fernandez here.
Details on getting your free tickets may be found here.

Photos of an Era Gone By

2010-11-30T15:01:00.000-07:00

This event is both a literary and visual delight. In 1969—41 years ago, yes, 41—Roberta Price came to New Mexico and Colorado, camera in hand, to check out what was happening on the communes popping up here. In the course of nine years she snapped more than 3,000 photos. The best ones are now contained in Across the Great Divide: A Photo Chronicle of the Counterculture.

Price will present a slide show and talk about her work at 6 PM on Thursday, December 1, at Collected Works, 202 Galisteo Street. She will, of course, also sign books. If you can't make it, check out her website.

Mozambique Trilogy: Three Discussions About Africa with Novelist

2010-11-25T06:00:00.003-07:00

Santa Feans will have three opportunities to participate in informal discussions with Taos author Jonna-Lynn Mandelbaum about her experiences as a missionary nurse in the southeast African nation of Mozambique in the early 1970s.
Maudelbaum lived for extended periods in Lisbon, Portugal, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Prague in the Czech Republic and Manila, The Philippines. Working with Harriet Sage Bennett's diaries and papers, which documented the daily lives of pioneer missionaries to Mozambique in the late 1880's, prompted her to write her first novel Malarial Fevers.

In 1969 Maudelbaum became a missionary nurse for the United Methodist Church and was assigned to Mozambique. The experience of living in countries with extensive secret police networks gave rise to the novel Unspoken Farewell.
A third novel, Unpredictable Crossing, came to be as Maudelbaum made a transatlantic voyage with her husband and pondered the scenario of a lone survivor encountering the soldier who ordered the massacre of her entire family and village during Mozambique's war for independence.

Next week, she will be in Santa Fe to meet with readers and others interested in learning about Africa and her works. She will be at:

Tribe’s Coffeehouse & Gallery
Thursday, 12/2 6 - 8 pm
3470-A Zafarano Drive (San Isidro Plaza, behind the Regal Stadium 14
Cinema) Malarial Fevers portrays nineteenth-century developments in
Mozambique prior to its independence from Portugal.

Jambo Café
Thursday, 12/9 3 - 5 pm
2010 Cerrillos Road (Near Hobby Lobby) Unspoken Farewell depitcts the
US on the wrong side of Mozambique’s war for independence, daily
life in a police state, and the author’s relationships with informers to
reformers, including the “Mother of Mozambique,” Graca Mandela.

Place & Time to be arranged
Thursday, 12/16
Unpredictable Crossing explores the unknown horrors of the only
survivor of genocide, a young girl who finds herself trapped on a
transatlantic ship with the man who ordered the massacre of her village.

Books signed by the author will be available for purchase.
For more information, please call Mary Neighbour at Blessingway Authors’ Services (505) 474-6309.

2010 New Mexico Book Awards Announced

2010-11-23T14:35:00.015-07:00

James McGrath Morris, one of the founders of the Santa Fe Literary News blog, was among the winners of the 2010 New Mexico Book Awards, it was announced at the book awards banquet over the weekend.

The New Mexico Book Awards honor "great books from New Mexico and the Southwest. The best of Southwestern literary [is] judged by a distinguished panel of judges and librarians," according to the awards website. Morris's biography of Joseph Pulitzer, Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print and Power (HarperCollins), won for Best Biography and Best of Show (all categories).

Several other titles won multiple prizes, including Dave DeWitt and Paul Bosland's The Complete Chile Pepper Book: A Gardener's Guide to Choosing, Growing, Preserving and Cooking (Best Gardening Book and Best New Mexico Book) and Don James and Karyth Becenti's One Nation One Year: A Navajo Photographer's 365-Day Journey into a World of Discovery, Life and Hope (Best Multicultural Subject and Best New Mexico Book).

Here is a complete list of the winners. Congratulations to all!

Children’s Picture Book
Nelson, Vaunda Micheaux, & R. Gregory Christie, Bad News for Outlaws, Carolrhoda Books
Steinsiek, Sabra Brown, & Noel Chilton, The Tale of the Pronghorned Cantaloupe, Rio Grande Books

Children’s Activity Book (workbook/craft book/coloring book)
Habiger, Geoff, Dinosaur Learning Activity Book, Artemesia Publishing

Young Readers Book (to grade 3)
Church, Peggy Pond, & Charlie Carrillo, Shoes for Santo Niño, Rio Grande Books
McKerley, Jennifer, Amazing Armadillos, Random House

Juvenile Book (grade school to junior high school)
Eboch, Chris, The Knight in the Shadows, Aladdin

Anthropology/Archaeology/Science
Lekson, Stephen, A History of the Ancient Southwest, SAR Press
Price, L. Greer, Geology of Northern New Mexico’s Parks, NM Bureau of Geology

Anthology (individual or collection)
Anaya, Rudolfo, The Essays, University of Oklahoma Press

Arts Book (includes art, music, or photography)
Booker, Margaret Moore, The Santa Fe House, Rizzoli New York

Biography (includes memoirs and autobiographies)
Morris, James McGrath, Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print & Power, HarperCollins

Business Book (includes career)
Rivera, Roxanne, There’s No Crying in Business: How to Succeed in Male-Dominated Industries, Palgrave

Cookbook
Casey, Clyde, New Mexico Cuisine, Clear Light

Crafts/Hobby/How-to Book
Olmstead, Carol, Feng Shui Quick Guide for Home & Office, Feng Shui Multimedia

Gardening Book
DeWitt, Dave,& Paul Bosland, The Complete Chile Pepper Book, Timber Press

Gay/Lesbian (GLBT) Book
Bjorkman, Lauren, My Invented Life Henry, Holt and Co.

Health Book (includes wellness, nutrition, beauty)
Hirschl, Meta Chaya, Vital Yoga: A Sourcebook for Students & Teachers, Prajna Publishing

History Book – New Mexico subject
Pat Lange, Lou Hieb, and Thomas Steele, The Indians of Arizona & New Mexico, Rio Grande Books

Multi-cultural Subject (Hispanic, Native American, etc.)
James, Don, & Karyth Becenti, One Nation One Year, Rio Grande Books

New Age Book
Lightwater, Rheanni, Gifts from the Rainforest, Soul Resources

Nonfiction, Other
Bryan, Howard, Santa Fe Tales & More, Clear Light Publishers

Novel – adventure or drama
Sumner, Melanie, The Ghost of Milagro Creek, Algonquin Books

Novel – historical fiction
Norton, Hana Samek, The Sixth Surrender, Plume-Penguin
Weinberg, Florence Byham, Sonora Wind Twilight, Times Books

Novel – mystery/suspense
Orenduff, J. Michael, The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras, Oak Tree Press

Novel - romance
Steinsiek, Sabra Brown, Timing Is Everything, Whiskey Creek Press

Science Fiction & Fantasy
Hickman, Kirt, Venus Rain, Quillrunner Publishing

Fiction, Other
Egan, Martha, La Ranfla & Other New Mexico Stories, Papalote Press

Poetry Book (individual or collection)
Gatuskin, Zelda Leah, But Who’s Counting?, Worldwind Books
Johnson, Michael, Sky Land: A Southwestern Cycle, Woodley Press
Stablein, Marilyn, Splitting Hard Ground, La Alameda Press

Political Book (includes social/current events)
Janowski, Martin, Not Just New Mexico’s Senator, Rio Grande Books

Reference Book
Longa, Ernesto, Anarchist Periodicals in English, Scarecrow Press

Religious Book
Shaia, Alexander, The Hidden Power of the Gospels, HarperOne

Self-help Book (includes spirituality/inspirational)
Hickman, Kirt, Revising Fiction: Making Sense of the Madness, Quillrunner Publishing

Travel Book (includes guides)
Parhad, Elisa, New Mexico: A Guide for the Eyes, Eyemuse Books

First Book (first book published by author)
Aragon, Carla, & Kathy Dee Saville, Dance of the Eggshells, UNM Press
Coggeshall, Nancy, Gila Country Legend: Life & Times of Quentin Hulse, UNM Press
Green, Cinny, & Maureen Burdock, Trail Writer’s Guide, Western Edge Press

Best New Mexico Book
DeWitt, Dave, & Paul Bosland, The Complete Chile Pepper Book, Timber Press
James, Don, & Karyth Becenti, One Nation One Year, Rio Grande Books

Best of Show
Morris, James McGrath, Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print & Power, HarperCollins

UNM Book Selected for Ten Best List

2010-11-23T06:00:00.001-07:00

Shelf Unbound Indie Book Review has published its list of the ten best books of the year and Tengo Sed by James Fleming from University of New Mexico Press is on the list.

"Our review," writes Margaret Brown, publisher of Shelf Unbound, "I read straight through all 130 pages then started over again with page 1. It is the best piece of medical literature I have read since Atul Gawande’s Complications and one of the most insightful and strikingly original books I’ve read in years."

Taos Big Read 2.0 Plans Brainstorming Meeting for December 2

2010-11-22T14:34:00.015-07:00

More than one thousand Taoseños enjoyed Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima last November in the National Endowment for the Arts-funded Taos Big Read, an initiative to promote literacy through the widespread reading and discussion of a chosen classic novel. Next year, SOMOS (the Society of the Muse of the Southwest) and the Taos Public Library would like to repeat the month-long festival of reading. To this end the two organizations are seeking public input at an open meeting to be held Thursday, December 2, at the library’s Community Room. Planned as a brown-bag lunch event, the meeting will be held from noon until 1 pm.

“We’ve chosen Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine as the book at the center of Taos Big Read 2.0,” said Taos-based novelist Summer Wood, the program coordinator. “It’s a terrific novel that we think will appeal to readers here for its compelling story and focus on family and place.”

The NEA Big Read website describes the book as “a novel-in-stories about passion, family and the importance of cultural identity. Love Medicine examines the struggle to balance Native American tradition with the modern world.” The 1984 novel won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Erdrich is the author of twelve other novels as well as volumes of poetry, short stories, children's books and a memoir of early motherhood. Her most recent book, The Plague of Doves, won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Erdrich's mother is of the Turtle Mountain Chippewas, a Native American tribe in North Dakota, and her father is of German descent. Her maternal grandfather was a tribal chief, and her ancestral homeland (which she is currently restoring) is one of the oldest extant structures on the Turtle Mountain Reservation.

Studies show that reading for “pleasure and enlightenment” has been in serious decline in this country during the last several decades. In 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts decided to do something about this alarming trend. The result was The Big Read, a program held in hundreds of communities around the nation.

“Our Taos Big Read 2009 was funded by the NEA and dozens of generous local donors, and sponsored here in Taos by SOMOS and the Taos Public Library,” Wood said. “Federal funding has been severely cut, so we’ll have to do some creative fundraising to make this happen. We’re asking everybody who enjoyed the first Big Read to come to the meeting and help brainstorm programming and fundraising ideas.”

More than 700 free copies of Bless Me, Ultima were distributed in Taos in November 2009, Wood said, and many more Taoseños participated with their own copies of the locally beloved book. Nearly thirty events, including lectures, readings, demonstrations and musical performances related to the book, were held throughout Taos County during Big Read month. Wood emphasized that nearly all the events associated with the program are free and open to all.

For more information about the December 2 meeting or about Taos Big Read, please call SOMOS at (575) 758-0081.

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest. To learn more about the national program, visit www.neabigread.org.

Music and Poetry Come Together Saturday Night

2010-11-19T14:49:00.000-07:00

Two dollars will get you two poets and two bands Saturday night at 9 at the Aztec Cafe, 317 Aztec Street.
Katsu (formerly known as Knifemal) and The Proxemics will supply the music and Tommy Archuleta and Phil Geronimo will deliver the poetry.
The evening is presented by Agitant.

Leslie Marmon Silko Celebrates First Book in a Decade Friday

2010-11-18T07:08:00.000-07:00

Leslie Marmon Silko, author of the 1977 novel Ceremony, one of the most popular Native American novels on college campuses, will be in Santa Fe Friday, November 19, to promote her new book The Turquoise Ledge, a work of nonfiction.

The book weaves together tales from her family's past, using turquoise stones Silko finds on her daily walks through arroyos and ledges of the Sonora Desert in Arizona

Silko's visit here is cosponsored by the Southwestern Association for Indian Art and Collected Works Bookstore. Her talk will be at 6 PM, November 19, at the bookstore, 202 Galisteo Street.

Santa Fe University Students to Read from their Works

2010-11-16T07:02:00.000-07:00

By Verona Winn

Freshmen students of Santa Fe University of Art and Design will read their poetry, fiction, and non-fiction stories tonight at 7 PM in O'Shaunessy Hall on the campus off St. Michael's Drive. The event is open to the public and is free of charge. The students are all in the university's creative writing program.

Valerie Martínez to Read from Much-Nominated New Book on Juárez Murders

2010-11-12T14:45:00.017-07:00

Beginning in 1993 and continuing through today in the Mexican bordertown of Ciudad Juárez, poor or working-class women from the ages of 12 to their early 20s have been abducted, murdered and dumped in empty lots or in the desert outside of the town or have disappeared altogether. They have been killed in a variety of ways: stabbed or shot, bludgeoned or strangled. In most cases there were signs of sexual violence, abuse, torture and/or mutilation. Often they have been raped, including gang raped. They are students or young workers, many of them from the maquiladoras, many of them young mothers. Because the Mexican authorities routinely underreport the numbers, the estimates vary, but 600 is a figure often cited. Most of these crimes remain unsolved.

These lost women of Juárez form the tragic subject of Each and Her (University of Arizona Press), the latest book from Valerie Martínez, Santa Fe's Poet Laureate for 2008-2010. Written as a book-length poem, Each and Her has been nominated for many awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the PEN Open Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Poet Joy Harjo has praised the work:

They were roses, those tender girls broken against the edge of the border between Mexico and the U.S. They were our sisters, our daughters, our nieces, granddaughters; they are us. Each word in Valerie Martínez's elegant lament is planted with urgent purpose. Each word is watered with grief. Each flower of a girl is absolutely particular in the field of flowers and blood. There can be no more silence. These poems make an opening in the pathway for justice.

And in the El Paso Times, Rigoberto González wrote:

Each and Her represents an incredible poetic feat: piecing together the complexity of an overwhelming social ill without erasing the dignity of each woman lost or generalizing the gravity of her individual, interrupted path.

Martínez will read from Each and Her on Sunday, November 14, at 3 pm at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House on Morada Lane in Taos. The reading is sponsored by SOMOS (the Society of the Muse of the Southwest) and is free to the public; call (575) 751-1102 for information. Taos' Parks Gallery, 127 Bent Street, has a simultaneous exhibition, "Daughters of Juárez/Hijas de Juárez," featuring artists whose work is dedicated to the murdered women.

Valerie Martínez is the author of several books, including World to World (University of Arizona Press). Her poems, essays and translations have also appeared in The Best American Poetry, American Poetry Review, Puerta del Sol and The Latino Poetry Review.

Busy Sunday for Santa Fe Poetry and Art Fans

2010-11-12T06:00:00.004-07:00

Teatro Paraguas will be the site of a poetry reading by Michelle Holland and Debbi Brody with Jim Harlan on guitar. Brody frequently conducts poetry workshops and readings throughout the Southwest and has published in regional and national literary journals. Holland, who lives in Chimayo and teaches in Los Alamos, has published several collections of her works.

The event is open to the public, free of charge. It will begin at 7 PM Sunday, November 14, at the Teatro Paraguas, 3221 Richards Lane in Santa Fe

The Museum of International Folk Art and Aurelia Gomez have invited Joan Logghe, Santa Fe's Poet Laureate, to do a two hour workshop on The Material World exhibit of fabric and clothing from around the world. "We'll write in the museum, make a sampler of our words, and enjoy the museum as creators, not just lookers," said Logghe.

This event, free to New Mexicans, will run from 2-4 PM at the Museum on Museum Hill.

Also on Sunday, artist Judy Chicago will give a PowerPoint presentation on her new book Frida Kahlo: Face to Face, at 3:30 at the Inn and Spa at Loretto 211 Old Santa Fe Trail Santa Fe, as part of a series of author talks sponsored by Garcia Street Books. Chicago, whose best-known work, The Dinner Party, has been seen by more than a million viewers has written a book intended to be a reconsideration of the life and work of one of the world’s most revered female painters. Garcia Street Books will donate a portion of the proceeds to the non-profit Feminist art organization, Through the Flower.

NM Poetry Review Is Looking for, well, Poems

2010-11-10T14:18:00.002-07:00

The New Mexico Poetry Review (see its website) will publish a special New Mexico Centennial edition in the spring of 2012 devoted entirely to New Mexico-themed poetry.

Kathleen Johnson, the editor, writes, "There is plenty of lead time for this project, so please consider submitting your finest poem about New Mexico anytime between now and January 1 of 2012." If readers have ideas for the issue, Johnson also asks that you contact her.

Santa Fe's David Morrell Reports on Visit with Troops

2010-11-09T06:49:00.000-07:00

Writers David Morrell, a full-time Santa Fe resident, and Douglas Preston, a part-time resident, are participating in USO's "Operation Thriller." The military organization is sending five members of the International Thriller Writers to visit military personnel in combat zones. The others include Steve Berry, Andy Harp, and James Rollins. For the next week, the writers will post a daily report on their travels.

The reports, published in the Huffington Post, began with an entry by Morrell about the group's visit to military hospitals in the Washington, DC, area. Morrell, best known for his book First Blood, was quite moved by what he saw.

"In an emotional six hours we visited with more than thirty of the wounded," he wrote. "Most were injured by IED explosions. Many were amputees, some with both legs missing. Almost all wanted to tell their vivid stories, as if they couldn't believe what had happened, fulfilling a need to chase away the nightmare."

After Winning Famed Writing Prize, Santa Fe Author Turns to Building new Writing Graduate Program

2010-11-06T23:11:00.002-06:00

By Verona Winn

You would think winning a $50,000 prize is enough excitement for any one person. But not for Matt Donovan. When I caught up with him this past week, all he wanted to talk about is the Creative Writing Master’s program he hopes to launch at the University of Santa Fe for Art and Design.
         Donovan, chair of the Creative Writing and Literature Department, was among a select group of writers who received the 2010 Whiting Writers' Award on October 27. The awards, which come with a $50,000 check, have been given annually since 1985 and past recipients include Michael Cunningham, Tobias Wolff, and Mary Karr—all winners before they were acclaimed, best-selling authors.
         While Donovan said he was incredulous and thrilled at the honor, he was even more excited about the upcoming Creative Writing Master’s program. He stressed this was only the beginning of graduate programs at the university and eventually there would be a master’s program in all the arts.
         With a low student to teacher ratio residency at the University of Santa Fe, there would be greater opportunity for interaction between students and professors. Additionally new internships and future literary symposiums could enhance the student’s experience.
         It is Donovan’s dream that Santa Fe University become a literary arts hub with a faculty comprising stellar writers with national reputations, winners of the Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and National Book Awards. Laureate International Universities has been very supportive in the endeavor.
           The Giles Whiting foundation which was established in 1963 by Flora E. Whiting, awards ten writers of exceptional talent and promise in their early careers, $50,000 dollars. Donovan, graduate of New York University’s Creative Writing Program was awarded $50,000, for his poetry collection, “Vellum”, published by Mariner/Houghton Mifflin. The Whiting selection committee noted Donovan’s “Gorgeousness of detail. Subtle, intelligent, beautifully crafted, these poems are like tapestries in a museum, remarkable as much for the rich artistic life they represent as for the skill with which they were have been woven.”
         Donovan will be reading today (Sunday) at the Collected Works Bookstore, located downtown Santa Fe at 202 Galisteo Street, at 4 PM.

Warn and Donovan Featured in Muse Times Two Reading Sunday

2010-11-05T06:32:00.000-06:00

Poets Emily Warn, from Seattle, and Matt Donovan, from University of Santa Fe for Art and Design, will be featured in Muse Times Two's third reading at 4 PM on Sunday, November 7, at Collected Works Bookstore, 202 Galisteo Street.

The poetry reading series is curated by poets Dana Levin and Tommy Archuleta.

A Visit to the Poet's Corner at Tribes Coffee House

2010-11-04T06:00:00.000-06:00

Santa Fe offers a number of venues for aspiring poets to share their work. Poet Verona Winn has been checking some of them out for SFLN. Here is her most recent report.

By Verona Winn
I had been reading every week at El Farol's, so I wasn't too nervous when I decided to read at Tribes Coffee House poetry night on Monday night. It was a smaller and more intimate audience than that of El Farol’s. About eighteen of us gathered in one the side rooms of the coffee house in Southwest Santa Fe. Everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming, as curious about me as I was of them.

Hosts Jim and Elizabeth Raby have held poetry night every month for three years at Tribes, developing a regular following. Elizabeth read a beautiful poem from her book of poetry titled Ink on Snow, published by Virtual Artists Collective. Even Jim, who admits he's not a poet, read a humorous piece he wrote on the spot. It was a very nice friendly and warm night.

Tribes Coffee House is located at 3470-A Zafarano Drive, in the same shopping center as Lowe’s and is behind the movie theater. Poetry readings are held the first Monday of every month at 7 PM. Signups are at 6:30 PM and everyone is welcome.

A Taste of Africa: Taos Author Bonnie Lee Black Signs New Memoir-with-Recipes

2010-11-03T15:51:00.009-06:00

Taos-based author Bonnie Lee Black will sign copies of her new memoir-with-recipes, the intriguingly titled How to Cook a Crocodile (Peace Corps Writers, 2010), at Moby Dickens Books in downtown Taos on Saturday, November 6, from 2 to 4 pm. Like M.F.K. Fisher's classic World War II-era book How to Cook a Wolf, Black's memoir comprises a lively present-day survival guide. "I'd like to get the word out because I think it has the potential to do good," says Black. "I like to think of it as an antidote, however small, to racism in this country."

Casting caution to the wind, Black was a 50-year-old New York City caterer, food writer and editor in the late 1990s when she decided to close her catering business and join the Peace Corps. She was posted to the tiny town of Lastoursville in the thickly rainforested interior of French-speaking Gabon, Central Africa. There she learned to speak French so that she could teach health, nutrition and cooking, primarily to local African women and children. In the two years she served in Gabon, Bonnie developed her own healthy recipe for a purposeful life, made in equal measures of good food, safe shelter, meaningful work and unexpected love. The book interweaves her personal story with recipes she taught the women of Gabon.

Bonnie Lee Black is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir Somewhere Child (Viking Press, 1981), which recounts her search as a young mother for her kidnapped daughter, who was found living in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in the 1970s. In addition to How to Cook a Crocodile, she has written a second memoir about her return to Africa in the 1990s, Patchwork: A Memoir of Mali. An honors graduate of Columbia University in New York, Black also holds an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University in Los Angeles. She teaches English and creative nonfiction writing at the University of New Mexico in Taos. She also contributes the blog "Cooking Crocodiles & Other Food Musings" on the Peace Corps Worldwide volunteers' website.

Poetry and Memory: Book of Spanish Poetry from the Alzheimer's Poetry Project

2010-11-03T06:00:00.001-06:00

Gary Glazner, Anacelie Verde Claro, Cari Griffo, and Willa Jay Edwards will read from and discuss the new Spanish anthology Nutreme Hoy (Nurture me Today) at 6 PM Thursday, November 4, at Collected Works, 202 Galisteo Street.

The book, containing 50 poems and dichos in Spanish and English, is the newest work of the Alzheimer's Poetry Project. The group works with people with Alzheimer's disease and related dementia in creating and performing poetry. According to the project's website, "Data indicates that a significant number of people in mid to late stage dementia remember words and lines from poems they learned in childhood. Moreover, the participants show a high level of positive facial expressions, laughter, verbalizing memories, and robust social interactions."

The organization's mission is "to facilitate the creativity of people living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementia. We strive to advocate for cultural change in the healthcare industry and for the daily inclusion of arts in assisted living and adult day care."

You can learn more about project at its website and its new blog

The Tenth Parallel, Where Islam and Christianity Meet, Topic of Talk

2010-11-01T09:50:00.000-06:00

Eliza Griswold has spent much of the past seven years traveling a geography in latitudes where Islam and Christianity meet. What she has witnessed and what she thought about is contained in a new book The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam. Griswold will be in Santa Fe on Tuesday to talk about her book offering people an exciting program while awaiting election results. You will find her at 6 PM at Collected Works Bookstore, 202 Galisteo Street.

Through a series of unforgettable characters and their lives of deep faith, Griswold tells the fifteen-hundred year story of how these two great faiths have come to intersect—and interact. She concludes that the most important forces shaping the future of the world’s religions are those contests unfolding inside of Christianity and Islam, not between them. She shows us that religion, like the weather, links us to each other whether we like it or not.

"Eliza Griswold’s talent runs through this book like a blinding light," says Steve Coll, author of The Bin Ladens. "Through her daring travel, quiet observation, empathy and gift for language, she humanizes and clarifies conflicts in Africa and Asia that are often neglected or misunderstood. The Tenth Parallel is both vitally important and beautifully written."

2010 Tony Hillerman Writers Weekend Slated for November 11-13

2010-10-27T06:00:00.002-06:00

Writers of fiction and non-fiction, both beginners and veterans, are invited to attend the workshops at the 2010 Tony Hillerman Writers Weekend at the Inn and Spa at Loretto on November 11-13. Among the workshops planned for the conference are:

Creating Compelling Characters and Dynamic Dialog, with award winning Colorado author Margaret Coel
Show Me the Energy! Find the Fuel to Start, Complete, and Sell Your Writing Projects, with Santa Fe author and motivational speaker Bill O’Hanlon
A class on writing the perfect first chapter with Albuquerque author, publisher, and editor Judith Van Gieson
Join Anne Hillerman and Don Strel for their tribute to an American legend – “Tony Hillerman’s Landscape: On the Road with Chee and Leaphorn.”
Award of the 2010 Tony Hillerman Prize for best first mystery, co-sponsored by WORDHARVEST and St. Martin’s Press – $10,000 advance and publication by the Thomas Dunne imprint of St. Martin’s Press
Special presentation by inaugural Tony Hillerman Prize winner, former Santa Fe New Mexican editor, and Albuquerque author, Christine Barber
Dinner keynote address by special guest speaker, Santa Fe resident and former United States CIA Operational Officer Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband Joe Wilson.

For more information, consult the Word Harvest website. Registration, including most meals, is $425.

A.L. Kennedy Captures The Lensic Audience in her Lannan Appareance

2010-10-23T07:06:00.000-06:00

By Verona Winn

Joking that “she looked like a small man with breasts,” A. L. Kennedy strode on the stage of the Lensic Theater Wednesday night, October 20 as one of the author in the Lannan Readings & Conversation series. The author of six novels, five short story collections, and two works of non-fiction, Kennedy published her first book when was only twenty-years old.

For the evening, Kennedy selected a reading from Day, a novel about a Royal Air Force tail gunner reliving his experiences in a World War II German prison camp. Her words transported the audience to a barroom bar scene. Her voice took on the speech patterns of the characters from her book. I was so caught up in the magic of her story telling, the humor, the camaraderie, chuckling at the bar humor, that when she switched from light-hearted to deadly serious, I missed it. A soldier was telling Alfred Day why they were served up pork. “Bacon, laddie," he said. "They feed us up on bacon, because bacon is our meat. Wait till you catch it, or some bugger lands with a burning boy on board, wait and you’ll understand. We’re all just pork.

I felt guilty for laughing at the earlier humor, she had captured these men's thoughts, they didn't expect to survive the war, and they didn't even expect to make it back after each mission they flew. When they did, they grabbed life by the throat, savoring and milking each moment, believing it to be their last.

Kennedy has the rare gift of combining humor with realism, capturing the true personalities of real people and incorporating them into her fictional characters, telling their stories so well that readers connect with them.

Gill Dennis, who has written several screenplays, including "Walk the Line" based on the life of Johnny Cash, introduced Kennedy. After citing Kennedy’s many publications and literary awards, he turned to the curtain where the author was waiting and quipped, “What did you do in your down time, A. L?"

McPhee at the Lensic

2010-10-22T20:40:00.002-06:00

There are still a few tickets left for John McPhee’s appearance at the Lensic on November 10, as part of the 2010-2011 Lannan Readings & Conversations series. The longtime staff writer at The New Yorker will appear with journalist Peter Hessler, also a regular New Yorker contributor. The Lensic Performing Arts Center is at 211 West San Francisco Street in Santa Fe, and the box office telephone is (505) 988-1234.

McPhee’s 28th book is Silk Parachute, a collection of personal essays that was published in March. He’s a rigorous, incredibly skilled practitioner of reporting so lapidary, so crafted to incredibly precise tolerances, so focussed and distilled, that it elevates fact, observation, explanation, and sculpted expository prose into true literary journalism.

It should be a fascinating evening, but this probable sell-out is a good occasion to point readers again to the Lannan Foundation’s website, a fantastic resource for exploring past readings and conversations via a rich audio archive and video/audio podcasts. From David Foster Wallace and Toni Morrison to Czeslaw Milosz and Joyce Carol Oates, a staggering array of significant voices are on offer—all for free. (The audio archive also features a growing audio-streaming catalog of radio interviews with literary luminaries from KCRW’s Bookworm, the venerable show hosted by Michael Silverblatt and generously supported by Lannan.)

So even if you can’t attend the John McPhee evening in person, you’ll be able to listen to it on the Lannan site shortly after the event. Way cool.

A Night at El Farol's

2010-10-20T06:00:00.001-06:00

By Verona Winn

When I read my poetry this week at the Poética at the El Farol restaurant, I was extremely nervous. I could say, I was as nervous as I was on my wedding, but that wouldn’t be true. I knew most of the people staring at me in the church. Here at El Farol, on the other hand, I only knew the host, Nick Trimbell. Everyone else was a stranger.

Readers of memoirs, poetry and fiction, they were also my peers. That thought made my mouth dry. It’s one thing to read your work in a classroom, it’s another to read in front of an audience made up of fellow writers. Forget nervous, I was scared to death.

I drew the fourth spot, so I enjoyed the work of the three before me, building up my courage. Then I was on the podium, feeling the eyes on me, feeling myself turn beet red, trying to ignore them and just read. It seemed like an eternity to me, but it was ten minutes later, amidst applause and congratulations, that I stepped off the podium. I did it. I was now a reader.

El Farol, on Canyon Road, claims to be Santa Fe’s oldest cantina and restaurant and has a rich cultural history in art and literature. The murals in the bar were painted by Santa Fe artist, Alfred Morang, who is less known for his fiction writing published in the 1930’s. Trimbell read from one of his books last night. He said Morang was his inspiration for the creation of Poética.

With the help of Santa Fe’s Marisa Del Rio, Poetica’s opening night was September 9, 2010, coinciding with Del Rio’s birthday. Since then, every Monday night at 8 PM, writers come to read at El Farol, some new like me, others returning, for socializing, eating great food, or the fantastic environment, but mostly for the love of the arts.

Starting the 25th of October, accounting for the winter, Poética will move its start time to 7 PM instead of the usual 8 PM.

Food Rebels and Smart-Cookin's Mamas on Deck for Friday Author Talk

2010-10-19T08:15:00.001-06:00

Mark Winne, Santa Fe food activist and writer, will unveil his new book Food Rebels, Guerrilla Gardeners, and Smart-Cookin' Mamas: Fighting Back in an Age of Industrial Agriculture at 6 PM this Friday, October 22, at Collected Works Bookstore, 202 Galisteo Street.

Aside from having one the best book titles of the year, this is one tome you'll want to gobble up if you worry about the pernicious effects of the industrial food system on our health, democracy, and souls. The book forecasts a possible terrifying future where we will be forced to sacrifice our democracy and freedom in return for the industrial food system’s promise to feed us.

“This book is a lively, personal journey through one man’s efforts to make sustainably grown food available and affordable to regular folks,” reports an early reader Meryl Streep, who is also an Academy Award winning actress.

Winne will be joined in conversation by Santa Fe Councilwoman Rosemary Romero.

Introducing SFLN Intern Verona Winn

2010-10-18T08:48:00.002-06:00

Verona Winn will be writing about the poetry and literary scene

Santa Fe Literary News will expand its coverage of poetry and fiction this fall with the addition of an intern from Santa Fe University of Art and Design.

Verona Winn is new to the world of Santa Fe but not to writing. She had published one book of poetry, Elemental Soul, and is at work on another. Winn is majoring in poetry and fiction at the university and is a member of SouthWest Writers in Albuquerque.

Santa Fe poet Miriam Sagan Among Mayor's 2010 Awards

2010-10-15T06:00:00.000-06:00

Poet Miriam Sagan will be among the six persons and groups receiving the 2010 Santa Fe Mayor's Awards for Excellence in the Arts. The ceremony is today, October 15, from 6:30-9:30 PM at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center.

Sagan is the founder and Director of the Creative Writing Program at Santa Fe Community College and has taught in various museums in Santa Fe including the Palace of the Governors, Museum of International Folk Art, and the Children’s Museum. A poet, writer and artist herself, her works include a collection from UNM Press – “Map of the Lost” and “Roadtrips to the Moon” both collaborations with photographer Teresa Neptune.

Taos Poet Veronica Golos Presents Second Installment of Popular "Reading Deeply/Writing Deeply" Workshop

2010-10-14T14:59:00.011-06:00

Award-winning Taos poet Veronica Golos will present the second installment of her popular writing workshop "Reading Deeply/Writing Deeply" starting Tuesday, October 19, for six weeks. "Reading Deeply/Writing Deeply" is based "on my belief that the two acts are intimately connected," says Golos. "Using short stories, essays, articles, speeches, poetry, and a novel, we will continue to delve deeply into Latin American literature--especially now that Mario Vargas Llosa has won the Nobel Prize in Literature. He's an amazing writer from Peru."

For this second session, the class will concentrate on One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Workshop participants will also read Garcia Marquez's Nobel Prize acceptance speech and discuss essays about Magical Realism, its provocations and problems. Golos will include Carlos Fuentes’ much-quoted essay on Garcia Marquez, "Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the Invention of America," and a slew of poems by a series of Mexican women poets, as well as visual art.

Classes run for six Tuesdays, October 19 to November 23, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Taos Public Library Conference Room. Each class will be 3 hours (or more!). As with the previous installment of the workshop, freewrites (memoir, fiction, essays, poetry) will continue, as will discussion of participants' writing. Fee is $150 for the six weeks plus a $15 materials fee. "I will be handing out a great deal of material, to cut the costs for the participants," explains Golos. "If you can, do order One Hundred Years of Solitude and From Where We Dream by Robert Olen Butler--it is a fabulous fount of exercises and inspiration."

Veronica Golos won the 16th annual Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize for her book A Bell Buried Deep (Story Line Press, to be reissued by Red Hen Press). She is an award-winning curator and teacher for Poets & Writers, Poet's House, and 92nd Street Y/Makor in New York City, and her work has been published and anthologized nationally and internationally, as well as adapted for theatrical productions in New York City's Theatre Row and the Claremont Theological Seminary in California. Her second collection of poetry, Vocabulary of Silence, will be published in February 2011 by Red Hen Press, Golos lives in Taos with her husband, writer David Pérez.

Learn about Santa Fe's Early Days

2010-10-14T06:00:00.006-06:00

City Historian Jose Garcia will present a lecture at the Main Library Community Room 7 PM today, October 14.“Santa Fe: From the Beginning” is the topic and the event is open free-of-charge to the public. Garcia was recently named the official city historian.

Jose Garcia is a specialist in Northern New Mexico history as well as being a genealogist. He has published a series of articles on the New Mexico colonial governors of the 1600’s including an article on the founding governor of Santa Fe, Pedro de Peralta. He is currently on the 400th Anniversary Committee and has served on the Santa Fe Fiesta Council.

For more information, contact Sabrina Pratt, Arts Commission Director, at 955-6918.

Santa Fe Authors Invade Texas this Weekend

2010-10-13T05:53:00.004-06:00

The Texas Book Festival in Austin will feature three Santa Fe authors this weekend. Martha Egan, James McGrath Morris, and Hampton Sides will be among those selected to present at the gathering, one of the largest and most prestigious book festival in the nation. Both Morris and Sides’s talks will be carried live by CSPAN.
Hampton Side is the author of Hellhound On His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin.
Morris is the author of Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power.
Eagan short stories are collected in La Ranfla and Other New Mexico Stories, transcends the limits of regionalism. She also owns Pachamama, a folk art gallery in Santa Fe.

Kennedy’s Dark Turns

2010-10-12T13:42:00.000-06:00

Tickets are still available for a Lannan Readings & Conversations event next Wednesday featuring the prolific Scottish author A. L. Kennedy. Her interlocutor will be screenwriter and director Gill Dennis, who wrote the screenplay for the Johnny Cash biopic "Walk the Line," and the event will take place on October 20 at the Lensic, 211 W. San Francisco St., Santa Fe (box office telephone: 505-988-1234).

Kennedy's appearance may be a first time a Lannan literary eminence is not only a writer of novels, short stories, screenplays, an non-fiction, but also an acclaimed stand-up comedian. (The Glasgow-based writer's website is as funny and self-mocking as it is informative, highlighting her special delight in mocking the many newspaper profiles and interviews that have focused on her life and work. And her site’s half-sincere, half-hilarious FAQ is not to be missed.)

Kennedy's latest book is a short-story collection, What Becomes. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly says the tales "are polished to perfection, full of very dark turns and exemplary of Kennedy's inventiveness.” “Her stand-up is startlingly good,” according to the Guardian. "She works the audience and makes the most of her cleverness with words, her knack for seeing things freshly.... I learn that her father was from Birmingham and her mother from North Wales, that they went to Australia but then came back to Dundee before she was born and that they split up when she was quite small, which is more information than she ever appears to have divulged in an interview.”

[This is an updated version of a SFLN post that originally appeared on August 31.)

A Real-Life Thriller Topic of Discussion

2010-10-12T13:31:00.000-06:00

Steve Hendricks will talk about his newest book A Kidnapping in Milan: The CIA on Trial at 5 PM today, October 12, at Garcia Street Books, 376 Garcia Street. The Chicago Tribune calls it, “[A] real-life thriller [with] many well-drawn characters . . . skillfully crafted, highly disturbing.”

The book was just published on October 11.

Stepping Into the Past

2010-10-08T17:13:00.008-06:00

The SFLN blog is generally devoted to the contemporary scene, but the present-day landscape of our 400-year-old city is merely a palimpsest superimposed on a multilayered history of language, storytelling, and writing that goes back many centuries. From the oral and arts traditions of the Pueblo, Navaho, Apache, and other native cultures that surround us to the Spanish and Anglo literature that later helped to shape this place, Santa Fe is truly comprehensible only as a dialogue between the voices of the past and of today.

For residents and visitors alike, one of the most enlightening ways to enter into that dialogue is by embracing the work and enthusiastic guidance of Santa Fe writer Barbara Harrelson. Her splendid 2007 book, Walks in Literary Santa Fe: A Guide to Landmarks, Legends, and Lore, is an essential book-lover’s tool for exploring this town and discovering the dramatis personae of our literary home ground and cultural lore. Equally splendid are her walking tours of the downtown area and of the environs of Santa Fe’s historic Canyon Road and Old Santa Fe Trail neighborhoods. Whether you simply keep her guidebook at hand or join one of her walks, it’s like having an extraordinarily knowledgeable friend who can explicate and dish the drama and doings that lurk around every corner. Santa Fe will never be the same after you’ve seen it through Barbara Harrelson’s eyes and lively scholarship.

Ms. Harrelson’s New Mexico roots are deep. She grew up in Deming, lived and worked in Washington, D.C. for two and a half decades, and then came back to Santa Fe for good. Her wide reading and research into the literary and artistic history of the state are matched by a prodigious memory and a gift for just the right revealing anecdote.

We joined her one recent afternoon as she led a group from the plaza, up Palace Avenue, across Cathedral Place, through the lobby of the La Fonda Hotel, and down San Francisco Street to Burro Alley. Her running commentary and unfailingly diverting answers to the group’s questions took us from Spanish colonial days to the exploits of Billy the Kid, from subtleties of architecture to the story of various downtown monuments, from Ben Hur (completed in the Palace of the Governors) to Willa Cather and D.H. Lawrence, from tales of the atomic espionage of World War II to the 19th-century courtesan Gertrudis Barcelo.

We’re looking forward to joining Ms. Harrelson’s East Side tour sometime soon; among the most revelatory pages of Walks in Literary Santa Fe are those devoted to the poet, translator, and bon vivant Witter Bynner, who lived in Santa Fe from 1922 until his death in 1968, and whose East Buena Vista Street home (now the Inn of the Turquoise Bear) had an astounding array of famous guests, including Stravinsky, Robert Frost, W.H. Auden, Errol Flynn, Georgia O’Keeffe, Ansel Adams, and Robert Oppenheimer.

Walks in Literary Santa Fe is available at Collected Works bookstore, at museum bookshops (including the Palace of the Governors), and from Amazon.com. For information about her walking tours, email Barbara Harrelson at barbarah@newmexico.com or phone 505-989-4561.

Comics, They Are Not Just for Kids

2010-10-08T06:00:00.001-06:00

On Saturday, October 9, members of 656 Comics, a comic book artists and writers collective from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, will be holding a workshop at the Georgia O'Keefe Museum 217 Johnson Street. The workshop is for children 4-12 years old. The members of the collective will teach how to develop characters and how to design comic books.

The work of the collective is fascinating. Visit its website and, if you have a few bucks to spare, help support their fund-raising efforts to attend 2011 Comic Festival in France.

Santa Fe Kid Lit Critique Group Formed

2010-10-06T06:00:00.001-06:00

Anji Estrellas, a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and a volunteer for its NM chapter, along with Haley Curtin have launched a critique group for kid lit here in Santa Fe. They promise a safe and positive atmosphere to receive a critique of your children's literature manuscript. You should bring 5-6 copies for reading. The time will be equally divided among participants.

The first meeting will be from 3 to 5 PM, Sunday October 10 at the Flying Star Cafe, 500 Market Street, in the railyard. The meeting will then continue at the same time and location every second Sunday of the month. There is no cost and the meetings are open to the public.

For more information write to the group.

Poetry Series Pairs National Poets with Local Poets

2010-10-05T06:00:00.000-06:00

Tommy Archuleta, local poet and musician, and Dana Levin, poet and teacher, are hosting seven poetry series featuring nationally recognized authors from across the United States paired with local poets at Collected Works Bookstore

The first one occurred on September 10. You can catch the next one in the series when Albuquerque comes to Santa Fe, via the Duke City’s own Lisa Chavez with Santa Fean Joanne Dwyer, at 6 PM on Thursday, October 14 at the bookstore, 202 Galisteo Street.

“Santa Fe is now, more than ever, conscious that poetry does indeed matter,” Archuleta said. “American contemporary poetry is so insanely rich that we owe it to both ourselves and to poetry—with a capital ‘p’—to stay abreast of what and how our present voices are singing.”

For more information on Muse Times Two, please contact Tommy Archuleta or Dana Levin.

Cormac McCarthy a Nobel Laureate?

2010-10-04T14:25:00.000-06:00

Galleycat, a book publishing blog, is reporting today that Santa Fe's Cormac McCarthy received a huge boost from the betting site Ladbrokes over the weekend. He was given 8/1 odds to win the Nobel Prize in Literature as UK gamblers are hard at work trying to predict a winner of the world’s most prestigious literary prize.

According to the Los Angeles Times, "That makes him the highest-ranked American, unless you count Ngugi wa Thiong'o, who as I was typing moved from second place to first; wa Thiong'o has been a resident of the United States since his exile from Kenya in the late 1970s."

You can check the betting site here. The winner will be announced on Thursday.

Calling all Poets and all Fans of Poetry

2010-10-04T06:00:00.003-06:00

Start your week off right by reading or listening to a poem at two Santa Fe hot spots. Monday night, October 4, Tribes Coffee House, 4370-A Zafrano Drive, will host its monthly open-poetry reading. Sign up is at 6:30 PM and the reading begins at 7 PM. El Farol, 808 Canyon Road, will host its weekly night-beat poetry slam. They say that musical accompaniment is welcome.

Santa Fe Authors to Headline Antiquarian Book Show

2010-09-30T06:00:00.000-06:00

Hampton Sides, Jack Loeffler, Martha Egan, Will Wroth, Robin Gavin, and Marsha Keegan will be signing books at the fourth annual Santa Fe Antiquarian Book Show. It will run Friday October 1, from 4 to 9 pm, and Saturday October 2, from 9 am to 5 pm, in El Museo Cultural, 1615 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe.
Admission is $10 for both days, $6 for Saturday only.
For more information, visit the show's website.

New Mexico Women Authors' Book Festival This Weekend

2010-09-29T10:52:00.000-06:00

The third and final New Mexico Women Authors' Book Festival will be held this weekend at the New Mexico History Museum.

More than 110 New Mexican female authors were selected for the festival. They will discuss their current work and craft in 30-minute segments Saturday and Sunday in six different venues throughout the New Mexico History Museum (NMHM) campus. Authors will be grouped by Fiction, History/Biography, Poetry, Food/Cooking, Creative Arts, Spirit/Health, Children and Special Topics.

On Friday, October 1, many of the authors will participate in workshops.

Information on the workshops, as well as the festival, may be found at the New Mexico Creates website.

Today is Publication Day for a Distinguished New Mexico Author

2010-09-28T06:00:00.003-06:00

Ever since Mark Dunn's debut novel Ella Minnow Pea won the Borders Original Voices Book of the Year and was a finalist for the BookSense Book of The Year, this New Mexico writer has developed a large and loyal cadre of fans.

They will be excited to learn that today is publication day for his newest and perhaps most ambitious work yet. Called Under the Harrow, the book will transport readers to Dingley Dell where a clandestine anthropological experiment is underway with a group of orphans. Given only the Encyclopedia Britannica (Ninth Edition), a King James Bible, a world atlas, and a complete set of the novels of Charles Dickens the children develop their own society, steeped in Victorian tradition and the values of a Dickensian world. For over a century Dinglians live out this semi-idyllic and anachronistic existence until, well, I don't want to give away any more of the plot.

Mark lives in Albuquerque with his wife Mary, a noted tinsmith. He will be doing readings later this fall and winter around the state. We'll keep you posted as to when he comes to Northern New Mexico.

Tuesday You Get Phil and More at Collected Work

2010-09-27T06:00:00.000-06:00

At 6 PM, on Tuesday, September 28, three terrific poets will gather to read from their works at Collected Works Bookstore, 202 Galisto.
Their biographies are below. But one of them has another fame. To learn what it is, put the following in Google and see what comes up: "You Get Phil"

Tommy Archuleta lives in Santa Fe but still makes his way to Albuquerque three times a week to attend graduate classes at UNM and teach creative writing at an Albuquerque high school, Amy Biehl Charter High School. Archuleta, 44, began writing in 2002 after several years as a musician in the bands 27 Devils Joking, 23 More Minutes and Facedown. Now he plays with the bands Angola Farms, Beautiful Stupid Radio and Disasterman.
A native Santa Fean, Phil Geronimo discovered at the age of 37 his love for reading and writing poetry. Discovered by Collected Works serving coffee and espresso at a famous coffee house chain, he also discovered a love for book selling. When not matching customers to the right book Phil can be found in restaurants and coffee shops working on his poems. A former track & field coach at Santa Fe High School has impressed on him the need for balance with body and mind. Come in to the bookstore and become a Friend of Phil.
When not writing poetry, Christopher Johnson can be found creating caffeinated masterpieces at Downtown Subscription.

Can Writers Change the World?

2010-09-25T04:14:00.000-06:00

From the Washington Post:

With the National Book Festival fast approaching (Sept. 25 on the National Mall), we have asked participating authors to ponder the power of their pen. In this age of maximum distraction when reading -- and the influence of books -- often lose out to texting, tweeting and other semi-literary activities, we posed the question: Can writers change the world? All this week, we've provided answers from a range of Festival contributors -- historians, novelists, childrens writers. Today, in the last installment of our series, Gurcharan Das, James McGrath Morris and Judith Viorst offer their perspectives. . .

James McGrath Morris took his time to produce his latest book. "Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power" was five years in the making and the result has won wide praise. In The Washington Post, Jonathan Yardley said, "There have been other biographies of Pulitzer, most notably W.A. Swanberg's published in 1967, but James McGrath Morris's is the best."
Here's Morris's response:
   Writers have sparked revolutions, remade politics, culture and economics, caused us to rethink our place in the cosmos, inspired mass migrations, shaped our love lives, altered our waistlines, and kept us up at night. History rarely proves anything, but on this point the verdict is rather clear. Writers change the world.
    From his desk in the British Museum, using a pen as his only weapon, Karl Marx inspired a worldwide wave of revolutions. And, even though the Iron Curtain is down, his writings are still the touchstone of politics and economics for the world’s most populous nation.
    Look anywhere and you can see the handiwork of writers. Behind every change lies a great book. Where would the Reagan years have taken us if it had not been for Ayn Rand’s "Atlas Shrugged" or George Gilder's "Wealth and Poverty"? Where would women be today without Betty Friedan’s "The Feminine Mystique"? The environmental movement without Rachel Carson’s "Silent Spring"? The civil rights movement without Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" and Richard Wright’s "Native Son"? The fight against AIDS without Randy Shilts’ "And the Band Played on"? Would Americans be serving Boeuf à la Bourguignonne without Julia Childs’ "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" as a hopeful prelude to taking a page from Alex Comfort’s "Joy of Sex"?
    Even those who don’t read know the power of the word. Sarah Palin, who is at a loss to name anything she has read, immediately wrote a book in her quest for presidency.
   Books -- that is those things printed on paper -- may disappear but reading won’t. Writers will shape tomorrow’s world, as they have in the past. They perform a timeless bit of magic. They put into words the thoughts, ideas, notions, and emotions that make and remake our world.

New Mexico Book Awards Finalists are Announced

2010-09-23T06:00:00.000-06:00

The finalists for the 2010 New Mexico Book Awards have been revealed. You can see them at the New Mexico Book Co-op website.

"The purpose of the New Mexico Book Awards is to honor great books from New Mexico and the Southwest," according to the organization's website. "The best of Southwestern literature judged by a distinguished panel of scholars and librarians."

The New Mexico Book Awards are sponsored by the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Library System and the Friends of the Albuquerque Public Library, Albuquerque The Magazine, Around 505 Magazine, Borders, Camera Arts Magazine, Hastings-Juan Tabo, Hastings-Wyoming, Ironic Horse Studios, Laboratory of Anthropology Library, Land of Enchantment Romance Authors, New Mexico Book Association, New Mexico Coalition for Literacy, New Mexico Humanities Council, New Mexico Kids Magazine, New Mexico Library Foundation, New Mexico State Library, PageOne Books, Pen New Mexico, Portales Public Library, ReadWest, Rio Rancho Public Library, Santa Fe Public Library, SouthWest Writers, Sunbelt Shows/Fiery Foods, WalMart at Zuni, and WordHarvest Writers Workshop.

Santa Fe Poet Laureate and Guest Will Read on Thursday

2010-09-21T06:00:00.002-06:00

Santa Fe's third poet laureate, Joan Logghe will join Alvaro Cardona-Hine, of Truchas, to read from their recent works at 6 PM Thursday September 23 at Collected Works Bookstore, 202 Galisteo in Santa Fe. The reading will be Logghe's first as Poet Laureate and she announced that she wanted to do so in a manner that celebrates the great friendships between writers in this generous literary community.

Santa Fe Author James McGrath Morris Selected for Nat'l Book Festival, C-SPAN Coverage

2010-09-20T22:23:00.009-06:00

Santa Fe author James McGrath Morris is among the select authors invited to participate in the 10th Annual National Book Festival Saturday, September 25, on the Mall in Washington, DC. His 2:40 (EST) talk will be covered live by C-SPAN. Morris' latest book, Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power (Harper), was named one of the ten best biographies of the year by the American Library Association's Booklist. The Wall Street Journal selected it as one of the five best biographies of an American mogul.

The lineup for the 10th annual National Book Festival, organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress, will include international best-selling author Ken Follett; Rae Armantrout, winner of this year’s Pulitzer Prize for poetry; National Book Award winner Julia Glass; Pat Mora, one of the nation’s most beloved writers for children; and Elizabeth Kostova, author of the worldwide sensations The Historian and The Swan Thieves. They will be among more than 70 authors now slated to appear at the event on September 25. The event, free and open to the public, will run from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. between 3rd and 7th streets on the National Mall.

President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, the First Lady, will be honorary chairs of the book festival.

Taos Author Mirabai Starr and Icon Painter William Hart McNichols Celebrate New Book

2010-09-20T21:44:00.018-06:00

Taos author Mirabai Starr, best known for her respected modern translations of St. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila's writings, will appear at three upcoming events to celebrate the publication of her latest book, Mother of God, Similar to Fire (Orbis Books), a collaboration with priest and iconographer William Hart McNichols (known affectionately as Father Bill), also of Taos.

On Friday, September 24, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, the pair will sign copies of Mother of God, Similar to Fire at Starr Interiors, 117 Paseo del Pueblo Norte (two doors south of the Taos Inn), in Taos. Starr will also appear at the New Mexico Women Authors' Book Festival on Sunday, October 3, at 1:20 pm in Tent 1, New Mexico History Museum, 113 Lincoln Avenue, Santa Fe. And on October 9 from 2 to 4 pm Starr will do a reading and book signing at Ark Books, 133 Romero Street, Santa Fe.

In times of mingled hope and despair, of longing for the sacred combined with disillusionment, the image of the Virgin Mary continues to hold tremendous appeal. Not only the mother of Jesus, but the quintessential Mother, the feminine face of the divine, fierce protector and gentle consoler, she serves as a source of inspiration, wisdom, vital essence of compassion and forgiveness. Mother of God, Similar to Fire features Father Bill's icons of Mary (embracing such diverse expressions as the Black Madonna, Latina, Bosnian, Greek, Italian, and native depictions of Mother Mary) accompanied by Starr's lyrical prose-poems. In these images of Mary we are reminded of what matters most, of what endures when all else seems lost, of what grace may yet be available when we meet fear with love.

William Hart McNichols, a priest and icon painter, has been described by Time as being “among the most famous creators of Christian iconic images in the world.” His work has been featured in several books, including You Will Be My Witnesses; The Bride; Christ, All Merciful; and Mary, Mother of All Nations.

Mirabai Starr speaks and leads retreats on the connections between teachings of the mystics, contemplative practice, and social action. She has translated and written introductions for works by St. John of the Cross and St.Teresa of Avila, and has edited writings of St. Francis and Hildegard of Bingen. She is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the SAGE Institute for the Environment, Creativity & Consciousness.

Photo of authors by Jeff Little.

Sam Shepard Will Meet Readers and Fans in Santa Fe and Taos

2010-09-20T05:50:00.000-06:00

Former Santa Fe resident, Sam Shepard, playwright, actor and fiction writer, will read from his new short story collection, Day Out Of Days, at the Meet the Author Series sponsored by Garcia Street Books on Thursday, September 23, from 5:00-6:30 pm. The event will be held at the Inn and Spa at Loretto. Reservations are not required but seating is limited, so it will be a first-come, first-serve basis. There will be no fee.

Shepard will also be making an appearance in support of the Taos literary arts organization, SOMOS, on September 26 from 6 to 9 pm at the Taos Community Auditorium where he will read and sign copies of his new book. Tickets to the “Evening with Sam Shepard” are $20 in advance or $30 at the door. They can be purchased at the Taos Center for the Arts, 133 Paseo del Pueblo Norte; FX-18 Gifts and Jewelry, 103 Bent St.; or the SOMOS office, 233 Paseo del Pueblo Sur. Proceeds from the fundraiser will benefit SOMOS’ Youth Mentorship Program, which provides opportunities for middle and high school students to develop the craft of writing in a non-institutional format, with the guidance of adult mentors.

Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Make their Awards Picks

2010-09-14T06:00:00.001-06:00

Three Santa Fe authors and photographers are among the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association 2010 Regional Book Award winners, for books published in 2009, that will be presented on September 24 in Denver.
The winners (Santa Fe authors in red) are:

Adult Fiction: BELOW ZERO: A Joe Pickett Novel by C.J. Box, Putnam.
Adult Nonfiction: THE BIG BURN: Teddy Roosevelt & the Fire That Saved America by Timothy Egan, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
The Arts: TONY HILLERMAN’S LANDSCAPE: On the Road with Chee and Leaphorn by Anne Hillerman, photographs by Don Strel
Poetry: GINKGO LIGHT by Arthur Sze, Copper Canyon Press
Children’s Chapter Book: ARTSY-FARTSY written by Karla Oceanak, illustrated by Kendra Spanjer, Bailiwick Press

For more information, consult the MPIBA website.

Stanley to Read from New Novel

2010-09-13T09:21:00.000-06:00

Diane Stanley, a noted Santa Fe author and illustrator of more than fifty books for children, will read from her newest work at 6 PM on Tuesday, September 14, at Collected Works, 202 Galisteo.

Her novel Saving Sky is set in New Mexico is intended for young readers. "In this provocative title, award-winning author Stanley asks young readers to consider what courage might look like in an America under psychological and physical siege," said Booklist in a starred review. "To categorize this novel as science fiction would be wishful thinking, and parallels to our contemporary times appear on every page . . . Readers will have much to discuss after finishing this beautifully written, disturbing book."

Watch an interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPJps0I2ohU

Not to Be Surpassed

2010-09-10T12:30:00.008-06:00

As the last wisps of Zozobra drift away, on the verge of diving into another eventful Santa Fe autumn ahead, it might be a fit moment to briefly take note of our city’s paramount 21st-century literary non-event: the presence among us of our neighbor somewhere out toward Tesuque, the great Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist Cormac McCarthy.

You’re not likely ever to see McCarthy onstage at the Lannan Readings & Conversations series, or signing a new novel at Collected Works or Garcia Street Books. Apart from rare interviews (and the gigantic exception that proved the rule of an Oprah appearance, shot at the Santa Fe Institute, where he likes to hang his hat and punch the clock), he eschews entirely the literary self-marketing and schmoozing that is the lot of every author this side of Salinger and Pynchon. Sightings provide occasional fodder en el mitote, both printed and word-of-mouth. How cool is it to live where you might catch a glimpse of this credible contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature—a guy who sat down in front at the Oscars with his young son, John, when No Country for Old Men won Best Picture in 2008—ambling down the aisle at Albertson’s or Home Depot? Meanwhile, it seems a modest point of pride for us that Santa Fe is a place that respects the privacy of McCarthy and his family, respects his choice to sidestep the flak a public figure often faces. If he doesn’t want to be a big deal in our midst, Santa Fe doesn’t have a problem with that. Yet I suspect I’m not alone in thinking that mere proximity, and knowing that literary history, reportedly a new novel set in New Orleans around 1980, is taking shape up the road, shines a glint of reflected glory on the least of us.

Outside the circle of a quiet life in Santa Fe, Cormac McCarthy’s reputation and influence grow. Tommy Lee Jones has directed and stars (with Samuel L. Jackson) in a film of McCarthy’s 2006 play, Sunset Limited, airing on HBO in February. (The West Coast stage premiere of the play is opening now in San Francisco.) Movie versions of both Blood Meridian and Cities of the Plain are being planned. Over in Texas, not far from where McCarthy lived before moving to New Mexico, Texas State University in San Marcos is opening its inaugural exhibit of selections from McCarthy’s papers in the Witliff Collections at Alkek Library.

But McCarthy himself, like many other Santa Fe artists and writers, is probably not very far away right now, working. As he recently told the Wall Street Journal, "I hear people talking about going on a vacation or something and I think, what is that about? I have no desire to go on a trip. My perfect day is sitting in a room with some blank paper. That's heaven. That's gold and anything else is just a waste of time."

Illustration by David Levine via the New York Review of Books
The title of this post is from a Harold Bloom essay on Blood Meridian.

Taos Art, Poets, and Performers Commemorate 9/11

2010-09-10T06:00:00.000-06:00

As part of a series of events about 9/11 and the War on Terrorism, an evening of poetry, music, and ceremony will be held at 7 PM at the RANE Gallery, 214 Ledoux Street in Taos, on Saturday, September 11.

The evening is one part of three events relating to the anniversary of the attack and the ensuing wars that will include, on September 16, an inter-faith discussion. On exhibit at the RANE Gallery are large charcoal drawings about 9/11 and the aftermath by Taos artist Ellie Behrstock of Open Health Arts. The poets and performers that will participate in the evening of Spetember 11 include Diana Rico, Veronica Golos, Ariana Kramer, Ellie Behrstock, Windwalker of Wind Spirit Drum, Silke Markowski, and others.

A suggested donation of $10 will be collected at the door. Proceeds to benefit Taos non-profit Open Hearth Arts.

Dyckman & Robinson to Read from their Works Friday

2010-09-09T06:00:00.000-06:00

Poets Elizabeth Robinson and Suzanne Dyckman will read from their works on Friday September 10 at an evening put on by 222 Shelby Street Gallery and Fact-Simile Editions. Those who would like to attend are invited to arrive at 333 Montezuma Annex at 5:30 PM. The reading will begin at 6 PM and a reception will follow.

Elizabeth Robison

Suzanne Dyckman

Hampton Sides Questions Gov. Richardson's Potential Pardon for Billy the Kid

2010-09-07T09:44:00.001-06:00

Author Hampton Sides

In an op-ed piece in the Sept. 7 New York Times, Santa Fe author Hampton Sides takes issue with NM Gov. Bill Richardson's consideration of a pardon for Billy the Kid:

"BILL RICHARDSON, New Mexico’s departing governor, is known for his studied sense of theater. But when he recently declared that he would hold a hearing to consider a posthumous pardon for the state’s most notorious resident — William Bonney, a k a Henry McCarty, a k a Billy the Kid — a lot of us wondered if he had lost his mind.

What’s to be gained by dredging up stories from a tired old shoot’em-up? Why should we care about a trigger-happy sociopath who’s been moldering in his grave for almost 130 years? New Mexico has a rich history, but some episodes from the past are best left there."

[read more]

Learn about Fiesta History and How the Celebration Has Changed Over the Years

2010-09-06T13:19:00.000-06:00

Andrew Leo Lovato will give a talk entitled "The Santa Fe Fiesta: Reflecting the Changing Face of Santa Fe Culture" at 6:30 PM on Wednesday, September 8, in the New Mexico History Museum Auditoriam, 113 Lincoln Avenue. Admission is $5

Lovato, a native Santa Fean, received his Ph.D. in Communication with an emphasis in intercultural communication from the University of New Mexico in 2000. He is an associate professor of Speech Communication at Santa Fe Community College. His book Santa Fe Hispanic Culture: Preserving Identity in a Tourist Town was published in 2004 by the University of New Mexico Press.

Santa Fe Poet Laureate Busy Fall Schedule

2010-09-03T15:38:00.003-06:00

Joan Logghe is Santa Fe's official poet laureate

You'll have plenty of opportunities to catch Joan Logghe, Santa Fe's Poet Laureate, this fall. Here are just a few of the upcoming sightings in this month alone:

Sept. 6 12-3 PM, she will be reading a Labor Day poem at the Railyard Park
Sept. 23 6 PM, She will read with Alvaro Cardona-Hine at Collected Works Bookstore
Sept. 26 2-4 PM, it will be Joan and the Giant Pencil at the NM Museum of Art in a special program for young children and their parents. (As similar program will be offered in four schools this year.)

SF Translator and Poet Wins Major Award

2010-09-02T06:38:00.000-06:00

Ann Hunkins is receiving the the 2010 Devkota Century Award in recognition of her contribution to the literature of Nepal.
Hunkins, who has a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant to support her work, has translated many Nepalese works into English. She also has a collection of stories about women in Nepal that will be published by Vajra Books
She has worked as an interpreter for the UN in Nepal and is an accomplished photographers and poet in addition to being a translator. You can hear Hunkins read her poetry at 3 PM on September11 at Teatro Paraguas, 221 Richard Lane. Suite B. Poet Lauren Camp will also be doing a reading then.

Buy Books at Borders and Help Santa Fe's Public Library

2010-09-01T06:00:00.001-06:00

The Friends of the Santa Fe Public Library will be working with Borders Bookstore to raise money for the Library at a Benefit Days event at both the Montezuma St. and Zafarano St. stores during Fiesta Weekend, September 11 and 12.
     To make sure your purchases benefit the library, print out and use the coupon below.
     "Your support goes a long way," said Alana McGrattan, Co-President of the Friends "Please share this attached voucher with as many people as you can, in as many ways as you can. The more supporters shop, the more our organization earns."
      The Library will earn 10% on sales up to $1,500, 15% on sales over $1,500 up to $5,000; 20% on sales over $5,000 up to $20,000 and 25% on sales over $20,000

A. L. Kennedy Frequently Answers Questions

2010-08-31T13:51:00.007-06:00

Tickets go on sale this Saturday, September 4, for an upcoming Lannan Readings & Conversations event featuring the prolific Scottish author A. L. Kennedy. Her interlocutor will be screenwriter and director Gill Dennis, who wrote the screenplay for the Johnny Cash biopic "Walk the Line," and the event will take place on October 20 at the Lensic, 211 W. San Francisco St., Santa Fe (box office telephone: 505-988-1234).

Poet Veronica Golos to Offer "Reading Deeply/Writing Deeply" Workshop

2010-08-31T11:59:00.007-06:00

Award-winning Taos poet and writing teacher Veronica Golos will teach a workshop titled "Reading Deeply/Writing Deeply" beginning September 14 and running for five weeks. The first of a projected series, "Reading Deeply/Writing Deeply" will offer participants the opportunity for an in-depth investigation and dialogue with another writer's work that, Golos states, "can only enrich our own writing and aid our exploration of technique, craft and content. Moreover, the combination makes for great conversation among those of us in the workshop."

The classes will delve into Latin American literature, beginning with Gabriel Garcia Marquez's short story “Monologue of Isabel." It will include, among other works, Garcia Marquez's Nobel Prize acceptance speech and stimulating essays about magical realism. It will be held on five Tuesdays, starting September 14, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Taos Public Library's Conference Room. All levels and genres of writers are welcome. The cost is $125, plus a $25 materials fee. (Golos provides an abundance of handouts.) For more information and to register, please email vgdp@aol.com.

Veronica Golos won the 16th annual Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize (Story Line Press) for her book A Bell Buried Deep (to be reissued by Red Hen Press). She is an award-winning curator and teacher for Poets & Writers, Poet’s House and 92nd St Y/Makor in New York City, and her work has been published and anthologized nationally and internationally and adapted for theatrical productions in New York City’s Theatre Row and the Claremont Theological Seminary in California. Her second book of poetry, Vocabulary of Silence (Red Hen Press), will be published in February 2011 by Red Hen Press. Golos lives in Taos with her husband, writer David Pérez.

Photo of Veronica Golos by Lenny Foster.

Santa Fe Magazine Seeking Writers

2010-08-31T08:53:00.000-06:00

Green Fire Times, a Santa Fe-based publication, is asking local writers to donate articles for an upcoming special edition entitled "Building a Local Living Economy."
Green Fire Times has been publishing for seventeen months and features articles on green jobs, businesses, products, services, entrepreneurship, building, energy and investing – as well as sustainable agriculture, regional food, water, healthy ecosystems, native cultural perspectives and much more. 20,000 copies are distributed each month throughout central and northern New Mexico.
The October special edition will be published in collaboration with the Santa Fe Alliance. The issue will feature six sections on:

Regional Food & Farming, Farm to Restaurant Project Renewable Energy
Locally Owned Business: (Green Business, Worker-owned Cooperative Business, Triple Bottom Line, B Corporations, American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA), Innovative Entrepreneurship)
Sustainable Communities: (Neighborhood networks/business districts, Neighborhood Planning/Revitalization, Sustainable Santa Fe Plan, Santa Fe County Land Development Plan)
Advocacy: ( Corporate tax loopholes, Move your Money, Green Investing, Slow Money, Food and Finance, Health care reform, Affordable Housing)
BALLE: (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) (Communities; Regional Hubs, National network)

If you are interested in contributing an article, contact GFT Editor Seth Roffman