Countdown to the 8th Annual Taos Writers Conference!
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Miguel Santistevan
Poet Laureate
Beginning 1/1/24 through 12/31/25
Miguel Santistevan has a Bachelors of Science in biology from the University of New Mexico and a Masters of Science in Ecology from the University of California, Davis. His research interests are food systems of the upper Rio Grande and Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Santistevan is certified in permaculture and xeriscape design and has directed youth in agriculture programs. He has dozens of publications in local papers like Green Fire Times and has delivered professional presentations to meetings of the Bioneers, the Green Festival, and the International Ethno-Biology Congress. He produced a public radio program called "Que vivan las acequias!" with the NM Acequia Association and KCEI-FM Radio, Taos County. He is a parciante and has served both as a mayordomo and president. Santistevan is a teacher, storyteller, musician and an amazing poet. For the 2024-25 theme of "Poetry with Youth," he will use his position as a guest lecturer in the public schools and other venues to recruit young people to submit poetry, artwork, and photographs for a project called "Home: the Good, the Bad, the Ugly." This project will result in a DIY publication of a zine that will be something that can be shared in print or digitally. When the zine is completed, there will be a reception with reading and projection of the featured poems, art, and photos of the young people who are willing to perform their pieces.
Laura Jacobs
Writers Showcase
Sunday, June 9th, 4pm - SOMOS Salon
She is a psychotherapist, activist, public speaker, and author devoted to the exploration of identity and the relationship between individual and society, the diversity of gender identity and sexual expression, and the search for meaning. Jacobs is the editor of Surviving Transphobia: Transgender and Nonbinary Experts on Endurance
An anthology of transgender and gender nonbinary leaders and role models writing on their own experiences of transphobia, their suffering, and strategies for endurance so that members of the community can grow from understanding the private lives and struggles of those in the public eye. These authors also share their reflections on the current climate of politicized, weaponized transphobia.
Recent years have been agonizing, most especially for those of us who might be role models. After each new assault on trans lives, we model confidence when we are equally traumatized ourselves, we assert our community’s ability to thrive when we are sometimes just as uncertain as our audiences. How do we balance our internal distresses with our visibility to the public eye? How do we demonstrate strength each time there is a new anti-trans proclamation? How do we persevere in our own lives? And how can we use our stories to teach endurance to others trans and gender nonbinary themselves?
Martín Espada
Writers Showcase
A reading on 4/12/24 at 5:30pm and a workshop “The Craft of Poetry” on 4/13/24 from 9-noon. Both events are virtual. Zoom credentials will be shared upon registration.
Martín Espada has published more than twenty books as a poet, editor, essayist and translator. His new book of poems from Norton is called Floaters, winner of the 2021 National Book Award. Other books of poems include Vivas to Those Who Have Failed (2016), The Trouble Ball (2011), The Republic of Poetry (2006) and Alabanza (2003). He is the editor of What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump(2019). He has received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Shelley Memorial Award, the Robert Creeley Award, an Academy of American Poets Fellowship, the PEN/Revson Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship. The Republic of Poetry was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The title poem of his collection Alabanza, about 9/11, has been widely anthologized and performed. His book of essays and poems, Zapata’s Disciple (1998), was banned in Tucson as part of the Mexican-American Studies Program outlawed by the state of Arizona, and reissued by Northwestern. A former tenant lawyer in Greater Boston, Espada is a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Allison Adelle Hedge Coke
Taos Writer’s Conference Keynote Speaker & Instructor
Upcoming Events
Open Tues-Sat 12pm-4pm 575.758.0081 108 Civic Plaza Drive
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 3225, Taos, NM 87571
THANK YOU TO OUR FUNDERS
SOMOS programs are made possible in part by these organizations: New Mexico Arts, a Division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts • Taos Community Foundation • The McCune Foundation • The National Endowment For The Arts • The Virginia Wellington Cabot Foundation • Taos County Lodgers Tax • TaosNetLLC for high speed internet service • LANL (Los Alamos National Labs) • New Mexico Humanities Council • Nusenda Foundation • Witter Bynner Foundation • Amazon Literary Partnership • Literary Emergency Fund